A Snowy Day to Say Goodbye to 2008

It's the final day of 2008, and outside it is snowing hard. I love it when it's like this, although as I business owner I realize it's not very good for business. But it's soooo cozy inside the cafe, with people reading the paper, hunched over their laptops, and outside the cars struggle to get traction on the white pavement.

Today's a day to tell people you'll 'see 'em next year' and to think about New Years resolutions, and what lies ahead for 2009. I've already declared a firm resistance to pessimism and doubt, and refuse to knuckle under to letting all of the bad news make us feel depressed. Hey we just hired a new cafe employee! So somebody in this town is building up their business.

I wait eagerly today for news about the Valley Advocate Iran article and to see a story that's coming out in the Recorder. I met with Chase Sheinbaum over the weekend and told him about my experience in Iran. I hope that it passes muster with their editors...we've been told before that they have written too much about us already.

Here's to a Great Great Year!

This week in between the holidays is a notoriously slow time for anyone who sells things for a living. I remember so well those many years, no, decades, anticipating January. Oh January. At the Valley Advocate when the office was in Amherst, we would have to take the first one or two weeks off unpaid. The paper was small, we just rolled with it.

Now if we are to beleive the onslaught of bad news, this 2009 will be the worst. But will it? I think we should become a unified force of good news. Of optimism and brightness towards the coming year. That we won't bend to pressure to be depressed, but will fight for the light.

I am pushing to have a great year in 2009, and I hope that you also prosper.

Do You Think This Will Get Us Some Good Staff?

Here is a help wanted ad I just posted on Craig's list. More on Craig later.

Despite the terrible recession and panic across the nation...the GoNOMAD Cafe is a beacon of stability...full of customers and busy as hell. We need someone to join our staff immediately and bake, make sandwiches, clean up and still be as cheerful as our bottom line. We need part time help, food experience is great but mostly we want reliable fun people who live nearby and want to be a part of the coolest cafe in town.

I was talking with a friend the other night and I mentioned Craig's list. He said he had never heard of it. I told him it was the two words that newspaper publishers hate more than anything else. I am always amazed when I think of what Craig Newmark did by making up this easy site. I often quote him when he was asked about why they don't have ads on the site. "Because our users have never asked for them,"was his most elegant reply.

They're Visiting Saudi Arabia and Have No Fear

Elbert and Bernice live just above Cindy's house in Holyoke. Their dwelling, which they designed themselves, is one-of-a-kind; an octagon with a round ceiling and lots of odd-shaped windows. We joined them in this house for dinner last night.

The couple embody the idea that keeping your mind busy keeps you young, since they are both retirement age yet are more involved in their community and in their own interesting projects than people half their age. Elbert loves to take college courses...he takes two a year and lately has been studying literature and video production. "I've started a company that makes videos for nonprofit agencies, who have small budgets and can't afford to hire a big production company," he explained. Bernice has many gardening projects and is building a stone wall outside their wooded home. They are both starting a neighborhood watch to keep residents in touch to combat crime here in Holyoke.

Over salad, they said they were going on another trip soon, and that perked up my ears. "Where are you going?" I asked, thinking they'd answer Sanibel or perhaps the Virgin Islands. "Saudi Arabia, Israel, Sinai and Jordan," they replied brightly. Wow! They explained that they love to travel with a company called Overseas Adventure Travel, and that they take trips like this because they can learn about the people, experience the cuisine, and hike and bike through exotic places that are out of the mainstream. They've joined this same company on trips to Peru, Turkey and France.

I told them how much I admired them for planning a trip to the Middle East in late 2008. Even as I write this, Gaza is being bombed by Israeli planes and things are getting even tenser than ever there. Still, visiting Americans who are eager to learn about the culture, break bread with locals, and aren't carrying attitudes are what the world needs more of right now.

Elbert popped in a DVD he shot on their last trip to Turkey, including a scene where they hiked up a hill to have tea with a shepard family in a remote island. On the video, their guide said that people needed to see Turkey because many people around the world have bad feelings toward the Turks. When Elbert and Bernice take their short excursion to Duba, Saudi Arabia while on board the OAT ship, I'm sure they'll meet locals who will tell them the same thing.

There couldn't be two ambassadors for America who will better represent us than this lovely pair. It was refreshing to hear their stories and to learn about their busy and fun lives.

In 1527, Cabeza de Vaca Stopped Wearing Shoes

After reading about George Bush's voracious reading habit, I felt like I had to increase the amount of pages I consume yearly. So I picked up a book I've been reading for too long called American Nomads, where the author loosley follows the trail of the conquistador Cabeza de Vaca, who roamed the southwest and nearly became an indian between 1527 and 1541.

He started out as a Spanish nobleman, but as he and his men fought the harsh conditions in the New World he eventually found a new life for himself as a trader. He stopped wearing shoes and clothes and roamed Indian trails, bringing cones, conches and pieces of sea-snail to warring tribes who used them to cut hides. He was a neutral merchant among warring tribes, so his customers were eager to barter with him. He wrote a journal with many details of his journey that was published as a book

After living this life of a wandering Indian, Cabeza de Vaca began to be repulsed by life in Spain, he hated wearing shoes and clothes felt itchy on his skin. He had survived in the harsh new world while most of his shipmates had died of disease or were killed and enslaved by the Indians.

He went back to Spain but only stayed a little while. Soon he was back on a ship headed for Asuncion, Paraguay where the Spanish outpost needed saving. He took off his shoes and led his men on another thousand-mile walk overland. He wanted to keep going through the dense jungles but his men threatened to mutiny. He was sent back to Spain in chains, he had too much sympathy for the Paraguayan Indians for the colonists to put up with.

Welcome to the World Valerie Sofia Cosme!

We had big news in a teeny tiny package last night, as Valerie Sofia Cosme came into the world. What a little joy she is! My second grandchild emerged healthy and happy at just under eight pounds at Franklin Medical, where Kate works...the ultimate busman's holiday, on December 26.

We went up with Nathan and Francisco to see baby sister, and it was hard for the little guy not to paw away at Sofia's tiny face and adorable two-hours-old fingers. He's quite proud to have her in the family and of course we are all pleased that Kate's pregnancy has ended with such a splendid result!

There will be photos...oh yes there will be plenty of photos of the tiny cherub in this space shortly. For now, I'm glad to be finished with grandpa babysitting and for the family to return home to Deerfield soon.

The Surprising Tale of the Reader in Chief

Karl Rove is hated by many Democrats, and I share in some of their hatred, since he helped elect George W. Bush twice. But as I've regularly read a column that Rove writes in the WSJ, my feelings for him have softened. Rpve in turn tries to soften the impression that we have about the president he served, providing glimpses into a Presidential life that most of us know nothing about.

Did you know that George Bush read more than 40 books in 2008? And that he challenged his aide Rove to a contest over the past three years where they competed to see who could read the most? As someone who collects books that he rarely gets to read, let alone finish, I am inspired that Bush the busy president has time to consume all of these pages. He still doesn't hold a candle to my pal Kent, the Reader's Reader, but hey...he's got a day job.

The books cited in Rove's column today weren't just Michael Crichton thrillers either. Biographies of Lincoln, civil war books, and the Bible cover to cover were among his bedside accompaniments. Rove said that instead of watching TV, Bush reads books on Air Force One.

Rove recounts the years of competition, when in 2006 he beat Bush 110 books to 95. Then in 2007, the score was 76 to 51, with Rove again winning. While Bush may have read a little less in 2008, now that he's heading for Dallas, I'm sure he'll manage to up the score for next year's competition.

Kate Will Have Her Girl Today, Thinking About Phones as Web Browsers

Up very early today, delivering Sam to the Northampton bus station so he can make it back to work today. This is a big day in our household: Kate is having her daughter today at Franklin Medical. I'll spend the day with Nathan, a daunting task to an old guy who usually only has his grandson in small, controlled doses. We may hit that playground I took him to yesterday, I loved watching him run from slide to swing, delighted by each as if he'd never seen them before. I can't wait to hear what the little baby girl's name will be.

More and more I am feeling like mobile phones are where websites are going to be viewed in the coming months and years. With this in mind, I have created a mobile site that shows all of my posts here on Readuponit. I know this may be a bit ahead for many of us who are not even close to using our phones to view websites...but believe me, it's going to hit a big milestone soon, so we want to be ready. I bet that there are thousands of iphones and itouches that were unwrapped yesterday, and they'll want to visit travel websites along with YouTube and Facebook.

I keep looking for great travel websites who have created compelling mobile sites...so far I don't know where they are. I hope that GoNOMAD becomes one of the first to do that really well. I know this concept is big because at the big online travel show I attended in November, a company that creates ads for phones won the prize as the best idea for travel innovation.

Merry Christmas 2008

It's time for the post Christmas layabout. Time to look at the gadgets and toys and to charge the new devices and digest from the big breakfast by the daytime fire. Outside there is still snow and it's cold, nice to have a white Christmas once in a while.

I think this year was a model of restraint compared with previous years, reflecting the current tone of moderation, thrift and the possibility of abject poverty. Not really.

Ho ho ho....I hope all of you had fun today too.

The Shooter's Off to Tunisia, Iranian Story Coming Out in the Advocate

It's a rainy, horrible day, ironically, one in which many people will be traveling up and down the roads and over the snowy railroads to get together with family and friends. I remember before I was a grandfather, I used to make similar treks down to New Jersey. Now though, I'd rather gather with the little guy and my own extended family.

Our intrepid shooter Paul Shoul is off to Tunisia, he should be landing just about now. I can't wait to read and see his images from this North African land, which few people I know have seen. I am hoping to go myself in May, preferring this to going now over Christmas.

I just got an email that my story about life in Iran for Iranians should be coming out in the Valley Advocate in January. It's still funny to me how important that can be, how much of a thrill I still get to see that printed newspaper with my story inside.

I took a little time to go back and read my blogs that I wrote in December '04, '05, '06 and '07. I focused then more on snips from articles I had read back then and less on the goings on in my life. I hope that everyone who reads this blog enjoys the current mix of topics....your attention is among my most valuable possessions!

Irritated During the "Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

I'm irritated today as I sit at my desk. Ugh...things going wrong and I am being annoyed by many things that grate at me. Let me recite a few of them.

There was a fire in the apartment above the cafe this morning. Old wires connected to about six extension cords, all sucking from one little outlet. The firemen came, smelled smoke and proceeded to rip the hell out of the wall and ceiling trying to find the fire's source. So we had to close the cafe for about three hours, then start it all up again and make all new coffee. Just turning off the espresso maker is a pain since it takes 30 minutes to warm back up.

Then I get invited to dinner: at FIVE PM! What am I, a blue hair? Who can eat at 5 pm? Ugh. But our friends have an appointment and it works for them, so hey, suck it up and get with the program. Smile, it's the friggin' holidays.

I go to get blood drawn first thing in the morning for my physical next week. DOH! I had coffee with milk, so can't take the blood, gotta go there again tomorrow. Then I run into a vendor who reminds me of an old bill that I have to pay, which pisses me off because he should have been paid by the guy I hired. Ugh.

Then I run over and look at the sales for the cafe...dismal since we missed the whole morning rush. Need I say more? ugggh. Annoyed...and Happy Holidays to you too!

The Mystery is Solved, But the Results Still Suck

We've solved the riddle of who violated Cindy's house by breaking in and stealing my TV, her jewelry, laptop and camera. The sad thing is, he's a guy who I hired to renovate my bathroom on Mountain Road! He has been to Cindy's house before so he knew the layout and saw some of the stuff he would steal a month back.

I got the details after hearing about a visit to the Northampton Police. There, artifacts were displayed from this man's stash of stolen goods. After a few pieces of jewelry didn't match, the young detective continued...and when he showed the foreign money in plastic and a specific piece of jewelry that was missing, the whole story became clear. This is the guy who broke in and walked around the house looking for things to steal...the cops say it's to pay for a drug habit.

It seems my handyman has been at this quite a long while. The cops said he broke into four houses in Holyoke and Leeds and obviously spent some time in Holyoke doing daytime break-ins there too. They actually caught him during one of the daytime breaks...now he's in jail awaiting trial. Despite this obvious evidence, nobody can convict him yet of breaking and entering at Cindy's....just receiving stolen property. Ughh this pisses me off.

I still have his cellphone number. Do you think there's any point in leaving him a nasty message asking him to bring my big Sony TV and Cindy's ring back? Sad thing is I'm sure it's been hocked for much less than its worth...since a person's need for crack significantly lowers anything's value.

More Flights from Logan Bring Joy to Travelers

The snow is piling up outside the cafe window, there is a mountain right in front of the tiny town common with the fountain that never turns off. The snow has kicked up again, it's now blowing big flakes. Having a four-wheel drive truck is a minor thrill in this weather, it's absolutely able to navigate even our foot-deep driveway snow, and barrel down Sugarloaf St. with the greatest of ease.

I read in today's Gazette an AP story about new flights being added to Logan airport. There are now more direct flights to Florida by JetBlue, and both American and Spirit Airlines have added service. "You're not going to throw metal into a market that's starting to shrink," said Massport CEO Tom Kinton. That means these added flights are harbingers of better times to come. American has also brought back the daily nonstop to San Diego, which they had dropped earlier this year. Jetblue is also winning New Englander's hearts by their new "official airline of the Red Sox" affiliation.

All of this good travel news is being sparked by an upshot, Virgin America, which in February will begin its own service from LA and SF from Boston. This airline is losing gobs of money but they do have the best in-flight meals set up. You order really good food from your seatback computer screen, using your credit card.

Chris Bilodeau's New Job in the State Department

I love it when cops come into the cafe. I love having them as our regular customers, and getting to know the men behind the badge. I wish the chief would come in for coffe...I've been tempted to give him gift certificates to come, but then thought better of it. But among the officers who do come in one just got a really cool new job.

Christopher R. Bilodeau, a former SDPD officer, is now a Special Agent for the US Dept of State's Diplomatic Security Service. He will be working out of Boston, but will likely take assignments far afield. "One of my friends is living in Peshawar," he said brightly today, at the cafe. He usually has his daughter in tow and his wife is also a regular with her laptop and chai.

He said he's going to be working with US diplomats all over the world. He had that spark in his step of a man who's excited about a new job. He'll join a re-invigorated State Department with Hillary at the helm next month.

I wish him all the best.

We Wanted to Go Back to Our Fantasy Hotel Room

Johnny Jet cracks me up. This is a snip of a recent report of a trip to the South Pacific on Frommers.com


Black Pearl Farm

When we stopped at our guide's small, company-owned pearl farm and he took a leak in front of the truck on the side of the road, I was then pretty certain he'd been drinking. Their pearl farm wasn't a working one so it was a joke compared to the one I'd seen in Fiji and other ones on the island.

He began explaining the long, boring process and all I could think about was how to end the tour and go back to our fantasy hotel room. After about 15 minutes (that was 14 minutes too long), I finally interrupted him and said we'd seen enough. I'd cut the tour a few hours short, which meant we'd be skipping the motu picnic. He was cool about it and didn't give us any high-pressure sales pitch to buy black pearls, which I thought he would have done. He drove us carefully and safely back to the wharf, which only took 15 minutes since cut through the middle of the island.

Making the Plan for the "Mancation" to Amsterdam

Winter in New York City: it's only about 36 degrees outside and a winter storm is set to strike on Friday. That should be fun; cozy and snowed in on Green Lane. Today we will pay a visit to Brigitta Koon at the Netherlands Tourism Board here in the city to discuss a trip being planned for early 2009.

This will be our "Man-cation" when I will accompany my old pal Bill to Amsterdam for a little buddy time in this great old city. We are thinking of the things that two men might do on vacation...sports, clubs, biking, maybe even cooking, in this fun city. I was pleased to blog on my TravelNewsNotes blog that flights are being restored between Bradley in CT and Amsterdam.

The flights had been full five times a week but were still discontinued by KLM when jet fuel prices spiked. Good news and this flight makes Amsterdam an even more compelling destination for New Englanders.

The Naked

The play was a hilarious send up of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. There were four actors here, four who handled at least 20 parts. One continuous site gag was a guy shaking hands with himself, flipping between sides, one with a tan coat then one with a black coat. It was slapstick very British wild humor, and it worked.

They worked gags with props, like imitating a train with bouncing lights, sound effects, and just the actors supplying the motions to fill in the blanks of the set. They grinned and grimaced in a peculiarly British manner. The whole show was full of quick witted references and funny asides, with lots of references to old Hitchcock films, the shower scene, the vertigo, you get it.

It always feels good to be in the city. Nat asked me which was my favorite city of all. NYC I had to say. Medellin is also right up there in fun cities I have visited recently. It has to do with how fun it feels to be in the city, and there is just nothing like NY in December. We walked past the Naked Cowboy, singing in the slush in his skivvies. His big day was when he got in that Chevy commercial a few years ago.

The Readers Sound Off on Our Trip to Iran

An article about our recent trip to Iran appeared yesterday in Salt Lake City's Deseret News. So far more than 20 readers have weighed in with a fascinating array of points of view.

Reader comments: 8-day Iran tour delighted Y. student

ravash 12:48 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
Bravo. God bless your open mind.

Joseph 4:12 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
My hope is that the Obama will be able to improve relations with Iran.
I have met some Iranians and I find them to be very friendly.

Max Hartshorne 6:42 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
Anthon did a great job capturing the details of this amazing trip. Check out the link to his blog where he talks about going behind the scenes to a private party and gets in trouble with the police for photographing the embassy. Funny stuff!

Eli Tesecular PhD 8:13 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
I would love to visit Iran! When is the next official "Death to America Day" anyhow?

EastCoaster 8:32 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
Read Jackson's feature article. Makes me sad that We The People allow our governments to decide who we hate--wholesale. A tiny group of weak-minded policymakers in Washington and a tiny group of weak-minded policymakers in Iran, both of whom hardly represent the people they rule, are the ones who have decided that America is Satan and that Iran is part of an Axis of Evil. The truth is that regular Americans and regular Iranians should naturally be friends--and would be, if the politicians and the media allowed it. Iran is NOT the Iranian government. America is NOT the American government. Don't let a bunch of idiots in power decide who you should hate and kill for. Mark my words: a war with Iran is coming--and it will be driven by policymakers, not the mind and will of either regular Iranians or regular Americans. Anthon's trip is evidence that us regular folks, American and Iranian, are naturally hospitable, welcoming, generous, and kind one to another.

Sarah 8:39 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
I've also found people from Iran to be incredibly friendly. Would love to visit Iran. Read Anthon's blog on the Adventure Journey website - he's a great blogger!

I hope 8:49 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
This guy never wants to go to Israel! He'll never get in with that Iran stamp on his passport.

This is odd 9:20 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
Why is it newsworthy that an American visited Iran? The article itself states this is not uncommon. Nor did the gentleman in question do or see anything out of the ordinary. Did I miss a submerged point?

AJ Reader 9:30 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
Thanks Deseret News for running this. As an Adventure Journey reader, I'd like to answer "This is odd"'s question about why this was news--Anthon was among the first Americans in almost 30 years to receive a diplomatic visa by the Iranian government. This hasn't happened since before the hostage crisis. That's news, friend!

RS 10:07 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
I'm glad he had a good trip, and that people are trying to improve international relations. But, of course they had a pleasant time, the trip was sponsored by the Iranian ministry of tourism.
You can bet that if he had tried to practice his religion there, he would have been hung or stoned. It's good to have an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.

While we certainly want to avoid war with anyone, and to love our fellow humans, we also must not forget that there is an element of violent hatred in the hearts of some of them, and we must be careful. Sorry, but......

This is not news.

DonnyB 10:39 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
This story is connected to the International Tour Operators Convention which was the first of its kind. Of course, that some guy went to Iran isn't the newsworthy part - the point is Iran's interest and efforts towards promoting tourism. I read the full story and it sounds like the convention itself was kind of a big deal for Iran.

Anonymous 10:43 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
IT WAS A SLOW NEWS DAY. BUT A NICE ARTICLE.

Fred Vader 10:56 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
How is this guy getting away with wearing a beard as a BYU student? Isn't that against the code?

checking 11:59 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008
BYU has a code against beards?

Thus the early leaders of the Mormon Church would not be allowed to enroll at BYU?

Seriously, is this for real? What is going on?
Why 12:33 p.m. Dec. 15, 2008

do things that President Bush says about some Iranian leader (or vice-versa) count as news and is fed to the people of America by the media, but not the impressions that regular people from here get when mixing with regular people from there? Aren't both needed to gain some sort of proper perspective? I applaud the DN for providing a little balance. If it weren't for articles like this, far less people would know how we relate--as people--to those in foreign lands, short of going there. Without articles like this, we might be less apt to think of Iran as being filled generally with nice people who by and large like Americans, which happens to be the truth.

Guayaco 12:39 p.m. Dec. 15, 2008
About the beard... Growing one for a trip to Iran is cheap accident insurance, especially if not with a tour group. Watch your steps, barefoot Pilgrims.

Iraqis are different than Persians, but are very friendly as well (but remember the beard and carry extra clips).

I hope the ruling Iranian mullahs disappear before they overplay their hand and send themselves and millions of their friendly countrymen prematurely into the great hereafter.

samhill 3:12 p.m. Dec. 15, 2008
"'Iranians are famous for hospitality,' Jackson said."

Yes, how well I remember their famous hospitality during the year they were "hosting" the hostages back in the early 80's. They even provided the blindfolds.

I know, that's a bit a bit sarcastic. I'm pleased that he had a good trip and enjoyed himself. I'm hoping it is some indication that relations between the countries is better than all the other information (continued disregard for international rules against nuclear proliferation, etc.) seems to indicate.
Hmmmm...... 3:29 p.m. Dec. 15, 2008

A non newsworthy story accompanied by a boring, literal portrait. How is this journalism?

feagle 4:59 p.m. Dec. 15, 2008
if someone came into my country, ousted my elected president, installed a dictator, stole all my country's natural resources while training a puppet regime to torture and kill thousands of my fellow countrymen (all supposedly in the name of democracy)...I might be a tad upset as well.
Yeah, that was us in Iran - but that's not the end of it: we then backed Saddam in his bloody campaign with money and weapons (including gas), enforced sanctions that have crippled their economic viability and served to hurt everyday Iranians just like you and me, and more recently threatened to drop bombs on their cities.
As for "disregard for international rules," maybe America should try abiding by them before invading another country.

Thank You 11:43 a.m. Dec. 16, 2008
Thank you for revealing this vacation jewel name Iran. I have traveled there 3 times in the last 10 years and each year has been better than the other. Not only people are extremly friendly, we have purchased many handcrafted souveniers (picture frames (khatam), carpets and other stuff) for a bargain. Iranians invite you to their houses and will not take your money if they know you are American. We have been extremly delighted to see you write this article and shared your feelings. There are always clueless people here who have no idea what is going on and they revert back to goverment lines of Axis of Evil and other nonsense. The fact is that Iranian people are very hospitable and they love Americans.

Xereshk 12:32 p.m. Dec. 16, 2008
Thanks for covering Anthon's trip despite pressure from "NEOCONS" who put interest of israel ahead of United States and will do what they can to prevent normalizing relations between US and Iran. Btw, Christianity is one of the oldest religions in Iran and there are several Christian members of the parliament in Iran. As an Iranian living here, I have known many LDS members and have enormous respect for them.

In 1993, He Predicted Newspaper Classifieds Would Die

I'm reading early morning reports about the death of newspapers. First I popped onto a column by Jeff Jarvis, who is known for savaging former employers like the now bankrupt Tribune company. Jarvis was a founding editor of the fattest magazine on the newsrack: Entertainment Weekly, which itself is struggling and might well end up as a big fat website.

He states what many know now is the obvious....that the death of many newspapers is inevitable and well earned. Then he links to a post I'd read earlier on BoingBoing by Clay Shirky, with many of the same conclusions...but he wrote this back in 1993!

Yes before there was Google, Facebook or even eBay, there was a guy who predicted that newspapers would prove to be unable to make it in 2008. Classifieds, he predicted, were to be the first to go. Since it's all local, all about how close those baby clothes or that car is, that really predicts people's interest.

Shirky suggested in 1993 that a national website (read: Craig's List) would post the ads and that sorting them geographically would be the decider to their relevance. Reading all of these dire pundits makes me think about my own local newspapers. The reporters are great and give us lots of free coverage; I submit articles and hope fervantly that they'll show up in print, and in the cafe each one is gobbled up multiple times by eager readers.

But their sales reps have never ever sold us anything online. And they have really good websites! None of them have even bothered to try to sell the more relevant and interesting parts of the newspaper--their websites--they only try to sell us the same tired group or theme ads. So do they deserve to die? Well, no of course not. But if they do die, people like Jarvis won't be shaking his head over the mystery of it all.

The Routines Are Familiar, Just Like the Rituals

I am heading down to the city this week. On Wednesday I'll board a Peter Pan coach and head into Manhattan. As I have done for the past 25 years or more, I'll meet my mother Valerie Hartshorne at a fancy restaurant and afterwords we will proceed to a theater.

Like in years past I'll have no idea of what the show is. But as we head under the marquee, I'll either smile or groan with Vally by my side. I have a tradition of traditions....things I do year after year, places I visit and people I see regularly, like clockwork, at the same time each year.

My dad once told me that the secret to being happy is having something to look forward to. Something looming up on the calendar, something you're eager to do and can't wait til it arrives. That's the secret. Because if there is something up on that calendar, then you have a great reason to soldier on, despite how you feel.

When I'm in NY, I'll meet up with Bruce, my travel writer friend. Bruce said he was going to be busy the night we were going to meet. He drives a Hansom cab, ferrying tourists around in a horse carriage. I imagine that for wearing that tuxedo and big grin, he's raking in a lot in tips.

Bruce is a funny fellow, so brutally honest, so go for the jugular, that you sometimes are surprised by what you tell him. Unsettling at first, like hearing too much about somebody's sex life, yet after a while strangely appealing. Bruce has won some top awards and is a fine writer as well, so it will fun to see him and find out about what he's been up to.

December Sunday, Time to Prepare

I think a good alarm system would send you a text message if anything bad was going on at your house. Cindy is shopping for such a system, and it occurs to me that this would be a very quick way of reaching almost anybody. I have read about systems where they track rare rhinosceroses using a device that sends an SMS message to alert a game warden about the animal's whereabouts.

The important thing is getting the message right away to somebody who can do something about it. Maybe they can send an SMS to the police too, instead of the alarm.

Today we had to upgrade the infrastructure of the house. So we bought a new wireless router and also a battery back up. This hefty battery runs everything that's plugged into it while the power is out. And for some reason, this house is in the middle of a place where we lose power very often!

Played poker tonight and lost big time. Still, hanging with pals and playing cards is hard to beat. It was fun to treat everyone to an espresso at my espresso bar after we'd finished. I had a drive down to Holyoke to get fortified for so a little late night caffeine was in order.

The Hapless Leafs Decide to Get Tough

I never realized that the Toronto Maple Leafs were Canada's most storied and richest sports team. I learned this while I read the WSJ at Cindy's last night, after a night at Spoleto with the lovely pair of Cindy and Stephanie Jones. It's funny because despite having the most fans, being featured on Canada's Hockey Night 24 out of 37 times a year, and charging the NHL's highest ticket prices, the team stinks.

No matter how much this team is adored by Canadians, this team that's majority owned by the Ontario teacher's union is going nowhere. Forty-one long years have passed since the Leafs have won a championship. Now they've decided to bring a tough Bostonian named Brian Burke in to kick a little Canuck ass.

"Mr Burke has a Harvard Law degree and the broad face and meaty chin of a bouncer at the corner pub," writes Matthew Futterman. He told the interviewer that it was time for more hitting and less loving. When the Calgary Flames opened up their new Canadian stadium in 1980, eighty percent of the fans in the arena were cheering 'let's go Leafs!!' Despite the problems with overpaid, underachieving veterans, the Leafs traded away their top draft picks seven times, giving them no chance to rebuild under the league's salary cap.

But Burke said he's determined to make a winner out of the hapless team. "We're the beneficiaries of unbelievable fan support. At some point we've got to reward them with success on the ice."

The Young Paste-up Artist and His New Daughter: 1981

One of the fun things about owning a cafe is the people who come in, popping back into your life after long absences. One such fellow is photographer Robert Tobey, with whom I worked in my callow youth as a paste up artist at the Valley Advocate in Amherst.

Tobey was the roving editor...his job was to come in on the weekends and trim stories or write headlines for the Connecticut Advocates we produced. In those days we pasted film onto paper using wax, and wielded X-acto knives to trim the articles down if they didn't fit.

I spent a lot of energy in those days wishing that I was the editor, and was jealous that I could not write the headlines or cut the copy. All I got to do was paste up endless galleys, and apply tape borders to the photos. I knew that I could be a great editor, but in those days I was a lowly paste-up guy, working weekends and watching my ambitions come up against brick walls.

This photo shows my daughter Kate as she slept on the old Advocate's paste up floor. Now Kate's expecting her own little girl, any day now...thanks so much to Tobey for sharing this photographic memory with me.

Violated in the Middle of the Day in Holyoke

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Last night I got a call from a distressed Cindy. Her house was broken into and thieves stole jewelry, her laptop, her camera and the new HDTV that I brought there just about a month ago. The worst part was seeing that hole...they punched their way in through a bedroom window and then traipsed through each room, looking for booty.

Thinking about that really burns me. Thinking about a total stranger walking through the house when we were not there, contemplating what he can steal for himself. We called the Holyoke PD and the friendly officer showed up quickly. He told us that many break-ins happen to houses next to the woods like Cindy's. He said that there hadn't been many break-ins in the Highlands recently...or at least since 4 pm when he came on duty.

Then a detective, a big friendly guy wearing a nylon jacket came over holding a kit. His jacket said Crime Scene Investigator, and his business card said detective. But he warned us that dusting for prints makes a big mess. "Don't worry,"we both said, eager for him to solve the crime. "Those TV shows like CSI give criminals ideas for crimes," he said. "And most crimes aren't solved in 45 minutes...it's more like two months." He said the state police lab takes months to analyze prints, if he is lucky enough to get one from the surfaces where the criminal had been. So many towns in Western Mass all send prints to one overworked crime lab.

The criminals even righted a plant that the overturned taking the TV out of the house, so we hoped he could find a fingerprint from it. No luck.

While we're not that optimistic that this crime will be solved, it heartened us to know that to the Holyoke PD, this is a crime worth sending two men over for. My hope is that the thiefs will be caught trying to fence my Sony Bravia TV, or are stupid enough to list it on Craig's list.

Now It's Time for a Cheese Maker's Bailout in Italy

On this icy, slippery day, I think about a story I read last night in the WSJ. It was about another bailout, but this time, it's for Italy's makers of fine aged Parmesan cheese. Yes, that's right. Another story of a product that costs more than it sells for, and so, the government is adding the cheesemakers to the list including Alitalia, banks and others who need a helping hand.

You think making cheese is easy? Not this kind. It has to age for one full year, and the 77-pound wheels have to be turned every week....that's 52 turns per wheel. According to the makers, who all live on small farms outside the Northern Italian city of Parma, it costs 8 euros to make a kilo of cheese and it sells for 7.4 kilos. The farmers have an enemy in another type of cheese that's similar, called Grana Padano, which when push comes to shove, Italian consumers buy for much less. It's almost as good when grated on pasta.

But here comes the slippery slope--now the buffalo mozzarella cheese makers are feeling emboldened and asking for government help. After all, their cheese has been threatened by Naple's famous garbage problem, making consumers afraid that bad water will affect the watery cheese. Sales are down 18% over the past year.

Talking on the Radio, Tomorrow at 7:30

Tomorrow I'll be on WHYN-AM 560 radio at 7:35 am to talk with Brad and Bo about Iran. I can just hear them groaning as we begin, amazed that anyone would want to go there, and how scary it must have been. I expect them to ask me sincerely..."why would you go there?"

But I now have compelling reasons why it's an excellent place to travel. And am glad that I came back with that thought, instead of reinforcing the notion that it's off limits to Americans because our governments argue and threaten eachother quite a bit.

I brought back a book that shows large color photographs of the highlights of the lovely city of Esfahan, and another that shows Iran's vast mountain ranges and the nature sites that they are famous for. I have a friend who wants very much to see them, since he wished that he saw more of the country when he traveled there 30 years ago.

A Visit from GoNOMAD's Founder at the Cafe

Yesterday we had a visit from the f0under of GoNOMAD, Lauryn Axelrod. She just got back from a trip to Argentina's Patagonia, where she rode horses and wrote an excellent story for GoNOMAD. I had been chiding her that she needed to see the cafe, the website's namesake community gathering place, so she took a ride down from Londonderry and showed up at our door. Lauryn started the site at her home in E. Arlington back in 1999, it launched in 2000 and I bought it back in 2002, when it was still young but had great potential.

At first I didn't recognize her but then I did and I was very pleased to be able to serve her a GoNOMAD Cafe latte and sit for a while to catch up on her interesting life. She runs a theater company up in VT and now is getting interesting in cow roping and riding, since she had so much fun down in South America.

We have had a little snowfall here, so it's time to start up the truck and head over to the dump, and make sure there's no snow on the sidewalk to trip up our beloved customers.

"You Mean You Can Smoke There? Let's Go!"

According to the NY Post, smoking is back in a big way in the city's hippest restaurants and nightclubs. The story described Smoking Speakeasies, where if you're rich or famous enough, you can puff away with impunity. Shannen Dougherty, for example, was seen puffing away, ("ashing" is the new verb to describe illicet cigarette smoking, it seems) in a famous restaurant just last week.

The article logically states that the mere $200 NYC fine is outweighed by being able to sell three figure bottles and expensive cocktails, justs for the joy of letting people light up. It's prohibited, so it must be more fun, they reckon.

"Admittedly, it's not the easiest thing in the world to police your patrons, particularly when they're celebrities seeking to take the very decadence you're promoting one step further. Former MisShapes doorman turned publicist Thomas Onorato is sympathetic to bar owners and argues the ban has created a "no-win" situation for many of them. "Certain exclusive venues could turn a blind eye to it within reason, especially if they are dealing with famous or influential people," he explains. "Taking into account the current economy and [the fact] that most venues are set up to primarily do bottle-service business, anything to keep the cash flowing and keep important customers happy makes sense to some business owners."

Brian Miches, of Circa Tabac, where smoking is ok, says "It's the Depression-era kind of thing, sure," Brian says. "When things get bad in the world, liquor and tobacco sales go up. The economy goes down, bankers rob the country and people get frustrated and resort to…vices." Indeed, a 2002 University of Michigan study estimates that cigarette consumption goes up by nearly 10 percent in stressful times, such as after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001."

The First Snow Puts a Nice White Cover on the World

We woke up in Holyoke with a lovely white covering to all that we saw out the window. Two giant woodpeckers were gnawing at the suet feeder, and I had to go downstairs to the basement to catch up on email and blog, due to wireless problems.

I got a chance to catch up with my fellow travelers....Poor Kent and his gang over in Ireland have gotten sick, laid down with food poisoning...ouch! Not a good report, hopefully it will pass so that none of them will include it in their stories. Then I read about Sony's trip to Germany and Austria...she loves that part of the world and at one point she describes being out in a lake cruise boat and hearing the sound of a trumpet being played bouncing off the rocks...lovely images.

More People Want to Work for the Gov't...for Now

June Kronholz wrote in Thursday's WSJ about how the country's big problems have created a new cool place to work....the US Government. Could it be true that today's brightest stars will be flocking to work for the Obama-led federal government? Well, so far more than 300,000 of the people on Obama's email list from the change.gov website have sent in applications.

The CIA too, said that more than 130,000 people have applied for jobs there this year...a record. One Yale professor compares it to the 1930s when the New Deal attracted talented people who all wanted to work for the exciting Roosevelt administration.

But the jaded experts (who already work for the federal government) say it's not getting people in, it's keeping them there that is the real challenge. A woman who worked on Bill Clinton's Reinventing Government program said "They get their feet wet and they're out." Here are the stark numbers to back it up: 2007 hires: 264,000. Departures? 251,000. After two or three years, these young 'eager beavers' throw up their hands in despair. It seems that the biggest complaint is the sluggishness of an employer with 2.7 million civilian workers.

Listening to Me Is Just As Fun As Reading...Isn't It?

Here is a link to a radio show I did yesterday talking about Iran.

For God's Sake Man, That's Not a Post, It's a Book!

Up early today, my favorite time of the day. It's still dark and I sat downstairs, and got a chance to read Jim Neill's "Under the Noho Dome," blog where he said he was losing his blog mojo. Well, no wonder! He writes pages and pages for each update, and so I promptly left him a comment suggesting that he forgot the most important blog rule--BREVITY!

I mean, how can you write such a long blog and expect your loyal readers to follow through the whole thing? We have lives you know, we can' t be reading the magnum opus of Friday's post. I think that without blogging, my life wouldn't be as much fun. Because every time I read or see something, I want to share it. Not just with people who are around me now, but with those in the bigger unseen universe. The people 'out there.' How can I not share these things I find?

Despite the excitement of worldwide travel, I am more than glad that there are no trips coming up until 2009. To know that I don't have anywhere to pack for or to fly off to for the whole month is strangely satisfying. I am watching the Google News alerts today for the Salt Lake City's Deseret News. I got a call and did an interview with a guy named Tad who had a lot of questions about the Iran trip. Columnist Phyllis Lehrer, who I worked with eons ago at the Amherst Bulletin, published a little notice about the trip. I wonder if she got the postcard I sent her (by request) from Tehran.

In my absence it is clear that the cafe did very well. It's very nice to leave my baby in such competant, caring hands.

Put This On Son

This guy was dressing up his son for some sort of parade. Or maybe they just work as a team as a way of collecting pesos.

Medellin, Colombia

A Section of a new article on GoNOMAD

I like these two paragraphs from a new article I wrote.

After a break for tea and cakes, we made our way back to the town square of Aran, where in the shadow of a giant mosque, lit up in bright lime green, we switched back to the comfortable modern coach. After we set out, the red curtains were drawn, and our guides selected the funkiest Iranian dance beats on the coach’s stereo.

To the blasting beat, one by one men and woman got up to dance, swaying seductively and smiling, defying the rules against such ungodly pleasures. No one could stop us as we rolled along in the desert, no one could see what fun we were having as we let the music move us.

They Give Out Free Soccer Balls, Spread Joy in Africa

I love this idea. A man named Mike Mitchell has come up with a perfect way to make thousands of people's lives better. He's bringing 2000 soccer balls to give out to kids in Togo. Here's how he explained it in a story in the SF Bay Area San Mateo Times:

"And why not? You have a soccer ball underneath your arm, and they come around you like a magnet of good energy, not terror, fear or violence. Mitchell, who is now 51 and lives outside San Paulo Brazil, understands that soccer is the universal language."

He found a common ground among the people who live in the impoverished village of the Republic of Niger in Western Africa. In February, Mitchell and his team went back to deliver 2,016 soccer balls in about 20 villages while implementing Project Play Niger.

"The kids were in disbelief when we showed up out of nowhere and gave them a ball, said Dave Stahl, of Project Play. Ït gave them hope, said the 53-year old Stahl. They got the idea from a meeting with then Nigerian president Seyni Koutche. It took the group years to raise the $35,000, much collected from Project Play benefits around San Mateo County.

Getting the balls into the country was hard, because trucks don't go where they wanted to distribute them. Next they plan a similar campaign to the nation of Togo, bordering Ghana.

Hold Your Horn Up, Hold It Like a Man!

When I was in the Amsterdam airport yesterday, I bought a copy of the WSJ and read a review of a new book about learning to play one of the most difficult instruments in the orchestra. The book is called "A Devil to Play," by British journalist Jasper Rees.

Writer Eric Felton, a favorite of mine who makes me jealous with his ability to describe and evoke, cites the author's 40th birthday disillusionment with pop music and a life change that pushed him instead toward orchestral music featuring the French horn. He had tried learning it in high school, and suddenly found himself dragging his old horn out of the attic to give it another shot.

Rees describes his growing enthusiasm for the hard-to-play horn, and how he enrolls in a summer music camp in the US to learn at the hands of a tough German taskmaster with no mercy named Hermann Baumann.

Baumann yells at Rees, "Hold the horn up, hold it like a man!" Rees revels in the Marine-like tough love, and tries hard to learn a difficult passage, Mozart's Third Horn Concerto, or K. 447. He recalls the trauma of a subpar high school performance as 'public disembowling,' so embarassing as it was to botch it so badly.

Felton compares the memoirs of late that dwell on addiction and affliction, to this bright and uplifting tale of musical redemption. "and turning an old foe into an old friend. Mr. Rees can finally hold his head, and his horn, high."

Iranians on the Plane Talk About Life in the US

I had a lot of fun sharing my trip to Iran with you, my devoted and beloved blog readers. I can't think of anything that's more fun than having good stories to share with friends and readers who will become friends some day. Hi Peter!

On the plane I sat next to two Iranians who live in the US, and got a chance to query them about the country from an expat's point of view.

One man said he moved to the US in 1996, and now he lived in Toledo. "What do you do there," I asked. "I worked in a plastic packaging plant, but they closed it down," he answered. His reaction was to travel in July back to Iran and help with his father's vegetable and chicken farm. He said the business was doing well, and that it might just be a new career. A few months over in Iran, and then months in the US.

He asked me about which sites I saw, and I recited Shiraz, Esfahan and Kish Island. "But I didn't see the citadel at Bam, or Moushad. "Well Bam was destroyed in the 2004 earthquake. Totally flattened, the ancient part was just wrecked," he told me. So I guess that destination won't be on the next trip's intinerary.

I asked him about what my friend Orchid had told me about how harsh it was with the morality police chasing down women for showing too much hair or other social rules. "It's getting better," he said, "much better than it used to be. But people do still get in trouble, and they do confiscate satellite dishes and even the TV if they find you watching foreign broadcasts. It happened to my mother, and she got a fine of $2000!"

Just past this friendly man was a woman with a black headscarf who had been glancing over at us while we talked. "Where are you going?" I asked her. she smiled and said she lived in San Francisco, and that she was hairdresser. She had just come back to Iran for a short visit. "Were people a little jealous of you since you can go back to the US and they can't get a visa to come over?" I asked. "Yes, they were she said, adding that she loves being in Iran, and someday she may return there to live when she's older.

The Sounds of Tehran and Sites Unseen

On my last day in Iran, I listened to the sounds emanating up from the street. The wail over loudspeakers of the call to prayer, a man singing in Farsi about Mohammed and about Allah. Even though the mosque where the speakers are is far way and I'm way up on the seventh floor, it comes through as a gentle reminder of where I am in the world.

The other sound that mixes with CNN on the television is the sound of the police yelling at motorists over their car loudspeakers. I am not sure what they are saying but you hear again again the crack of that speaker, as if they are admonishing someone for not moving along, or some other infraction.

I was a little nervous about who was coming to get me, but was assured after I called my friend Cyrus, a robust 68-year-old who runs a tour company called Caravan Sahra in Tehran. He climbs up mountains, skis and was proud to show us around his four-story office building in central Tehran. He counts many Italians, Brits and even some Americans as his clients. He goes to World Travel Market in London and ITB, the biggest travel show in the world in Berlin, where he serves tea and talks up Iran as a great destination.

I've really only scratched the surface here....there are incredible places like the Citadel at Bam, the ancient city with amazing buildings at Yazd and the natural wonders of far flung places like Kashan with its Fin Garden. This is a vast country and needs far more exploring by the writers of GoNOMAD, and I'm sure we will be back soon.

Dinner for One at the Esteghal Hotel, Tehran

My final day here in Tehran, another day without real responsibilities, just waiting for my 5 am flight. It's funny being someone who is so busy and who usually on trips is following a very set itinerary, bags in the lobby at 7, city tour at 9, dinner at 8 etc. But for the past four days, I've been set loose in this sprawling city, and only had my little laptop to report to.

Of course, I am privy to the ups and downs at the cafe, such as the news I got yesterday that our bread supplier, Old School Bakery, has shut down, leaving us without a supplier for a major ingredient at the cafe. Events like this bring the recession closer to home, I feel bad for Beth and her crew, they did a great job and made fantastic bread. It must have been terrible for her to have to make that call and shut their operation. Makes me realize that there remains a thin line between being profitable and calling it quits.

I did the Steve Martin 'dinner for one' routine last night, dining at the Italian joint here in the hotel. I brough a book and read a chapter from Tony Wheeler's book Bad Lands where he goes to Saudi Arabia. Contrasting the way women are treated there to here in Iran makes this country look enlightened....60 percent of university students and faculty are women, women drive and vote and run for office, and besides making them wear headscarves and manteaus, they are equals with rights here in Iran.

I can't believe I ever thought I wanted to visit Saudi Arabia....between the public mutilations and beheadings, the people who refuse to be photographed, the religious police who wack you with a stick if you're showing hair, and the obtuse bureaucracy and layabout locals, it sounds horrible. Wheeler really let them have it, declaring that if the country were divided into blacks and whites rather than women and men, there would be international trade sanctions and worldwide outrage.

The one thing I am sad about as I make plans to depart tomorrow morning is that I never got to visit an Iranian home. Everyone says that when you close the curtains the headscarves come off, the miniskirts come out and the party begins. Sad to say, I never experienced Iranian home life, but maybe next time I will. I'd most definitely like to return!