Travel Blog
I Want My Book TV: Sunday, July 16, 2006
by Jim Benning | 07.14.06 | 3:49 PM ET
I know that conservatives often bash Book TV for its racy reality programming. And I understand that hit Book TV shows like “Pimp My Writing Desk” could, in fact, inspire our nation’s youth to buy expensive oak desks or invest dozens of dollars in fly pen holders tricked out with bling. But I stand by my support of the network. I like it. Which is why I point out that at 5 p.m. Eastern time Sunday it will air Peter Hessler discussing his new book about China, “Oracle Bones.” Hessler’s terrific River Town made our top 30 travel books list recently, and not long ago, the New Yorker correspondent shared his thoughts about the list with us.
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Yahoo! BuzzHappy Bastille Day!
by Michael Yessis | 07.14.06 | 3:33 PM ET
I’ll be commemorating the beginning of the French Revolution tonight at a French restaurant here in D.C. with a three-course prix fixe meal that’s an excellent price for so many reasons. That price? $17.89.
Vanuatu Tops “Happy Planet Index”
by Michael Yessis | 07.14.06 | 11:42 AM ET
And the nations with the world’s largest economies finished down the 178-nation list. Way down. Germany ranked 81st, Japan 95th and the United States 150th. The New Economics Foundation, which bills itself as a “think-and-do tank,” says its inaugural Happy Planet Index “moves beyond crude ratings of nations according to national income, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP).” The new index, they say, produces “a more accurate picture of the progress of nations based on the amount of the Earth’s resources they use, and the length and happiness of people’s lives.” A BBC News story quotes Richard Layard, director of the Well-Being Programme at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance, as saying that the index “was an interesting way to tackle the issue of modern life’s environmental impact.” Layard continues: “Over the last 50 years, living standards in the West have improved enormously but we have become no happier.” So which countries besides the island nation of Vanuatu are happiest? Colombia and Costa Rica round out the top three. Burundi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe finished at the bottom.
Montélimar, France
by Ben Keene | 07.14.06 | 11:25 AM ET
Thomas Swick
by Jim Benning | 07.14.06 | 1:53 AM ET
Suzanne Schlosberg
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:58 PM ET
Maura Weber
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:58 PM ET
Joel Deutsch
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:58 PM ET
“Not too much money in the poetry field, is there, son?” was all Joel Deutsch’s businessman father had to say when Joel proudly handed him a copy of the off-campus lit mag containing his first published poems. Since then, Deutsch has spent time in nearly every small town along the serpentine two-lane blacktop of the writing life road trip, from the insecure freedom of freelance journalism, to the cubicle asphyxiation of corporate communications and P.R, to an ill-fated, exasperating gig as a Hollywood screen writer for hire. Now he concentrates on crafting personal essays in which he tries to tees the meaning out of the places and situations he finds himself in, and serves as poetry editor for the online literary quarterly R-KV-R-Y.
Dispatches:
* Exits and Entrances: An Independence Day Pastoral
Cara O’Flynn
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:57 PM ET
Jeff Spurrier
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:57 PM ET
Newley Purnell
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:56 PM ET
Leigh Webber
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:56 PM ET
Chris Dickson
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:56 PM ET
Chuck Newman
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:55 PM ET
Stephen Hunt
by Jim Benning | 07.13.06 | 10:55 PM ET
