A Gaggle of Waiters Serve Just a Few Customers

Despite our life of luxury and relaxation here in Puerto Morelos, we're not that far from all of the bad news that keeps piling up in the US. We read the Miami Herald's Cancun edition and except for the few pages that promote "The Amazing Whale Shark," or "How Xcaret Park Helps Save Animals," it's story after story about contraction, layoffs and sagging indexes.

Last night at dinner we arrived at the normal time to dine here, about 8:35 pm. There were only three other tables occupied, and yet an army of staff awaited us, looking resplendent in their tan uniforms, with very little to do. That's one of the things we've noticed here in Mexico. There are usually far, far too many staff for the amount of work to be done.

In the open air restaurant, we saw a woman sitting at a computer, she was there to ring up the handful of tickets produced for the night. A gaggle of waiters stood around outside smoking and joking, waiting for the slightest wave of the hand to come running. We visited a sunglasses store, a tiny kiosk about 15 feet wide in the La Isla shopping mall. Inside there were six staff, and one customer, all piled into this small space. In boutiques like Colombian Emeralds there were a total of six well-dressed salesman, leaning on the counters serving a total of...two customers.

Is it the unions, a powerful force that demand outsize staffing, in spite of a clear paucity of customers? It made me pause because at our cafe we try to work lean, and I know that the biggest outlay is paying these people leaning on the counters.

We thought about nightmare scenarios, last night on the eve of our departure from this absolute paradise. What do we do if banks call in our loans, if the cafe business dries up to the levels we've seen here, or if our advertising schemes wither on the web? It gives me a chill, and I shrug, hoping that it will go away. I'll fight like hell to keep that from happening, next week when I'm back in my own little salt mine.

Lazy Day in Puerto Morelos, Mexico

Just 6,000 people live here in Puerto Morelos, and though there are plenty of American and Canadian tourists, it is full of Mexicans going to school, going out fishing and running bustling restaurants and cafes. We visited a bookstore with lots of used books in English, and met a woman named Amanda Pierce who since 1999 has lived here and run a vacation rental business. She said she loves it, great location, interesting visitors and of course, this easy-to-live with weather. Plus she likes that this is still a real Mexican village.

Beside her office men were using bulldozers to tear up the pavement. "That used to be a parking lot," she said, pointing to the beachfront parcel. "It's going to be turned into a park."

Now that's progress!

My Feet & This Water Started Out Clean...Really!

What comes out of your feet if you soak them in a bath with negative and positive ions? I am still not sure what it was, but tonight, under the instruction of Gloria Guerrero, I placed my feet in a bath and watched as it filled up ten minutes later with ochre and black crud. She's the spa manager here at Ceiba del Mar, and for 12 years she's studied and practiced aromatherapy and this new science of body cleansing.

First she hooks up a sensor to my third finger, and reads some numbers on a small white box. Then I bathe my clean feet in salty water and she puts the ionizer in with my feet. The results, she says, depend on the level of heavy metals, pesticides, and other bad things that are floating around in my system.

The proof came in the swirl of ugly looking water, stuff that was removed from my body via my feet. "I had a man come in and after we did this, there were ashes floating around in the tank. I didn't know it but he was a firefighter. Another woman, a heavy smoker, said that after six of these treatments she could finally smell her car and her apartment, and she said they stunk, and that she couldn't smell them before the treatments"

The other element of Guerrero's therapy is a bio meridian vantage machine, that uses a computerized library of 42 different homeopathic remedies and provides the patient with a custom made diagnosis. Even medical docs have become believers in this method of finding out what ails you, she said.

After cleaning off the gunk from my feet, I sauntered into the massage area, and got a 55- minute rubdown from Reyna, my very professional Mayan masseuse. The spa includes the requisite post massage hot pack, soothing tea, and a sauna and steam to complete the package. All in all, it felt pretty damn good.

The Coffee Basket Wakes Us in the Morning

Imagine: a press trip with a whole day of absolutely nothing. Today's such a day, the equivalent of a leisurely Sunday morning. We've covered the attractions, met some of the interesting people, filed a slew of blogs and photos and now...well it's time to kick back.

The day begins with a wonderful little treat. In a little hatchway at precisely 7 am, they bring us coffee, pastries, juice and the Miami Herald, and we retreat to our balcony where the sun is just becoming bright. After this pleasant wake up, it's time for some email and I can do this right out there on sunny balcony. If you haven't bought an Apple iTouch yet, you're missing something wonderful. This little handheld is so easy to use it makes an email junkie like me very happy. It makes a darling little chirp when a new email comes in, and with my Pogo stylus, it is easy to type out even long emails. (This endorsement is truly real, I love this little stick).

We follow the smooth path up the main restaurant, that is right next to a pool with a bubbling fountain. I order avena, which is what they call oatmeal here. Cindy gets some bruscetta and we both load up on more strong joe.

Later we'll walk the 15 minutes up the beach to the still-tiny village of Puerto Morelos, pop. 6000. It's touristy, yeah, but there is a town square and a bookstore with used books in English. I do have one thing I have to do today...interview and take part in the spa where they offer treatments and all sorts of massage procedures. This doesn't sound like a tough job at all.

Swimming, Hiking and Marvelling at Rio Secreto

About two years ago, an amazing network of watery underground chambers were discovered beneath the vast Yucatan jungle. They were just a few of the thousands of cenotes, sinkholes formed over millions of years partly as a result of the catastrophic meteor hit that took place in the sea just off this peninsula.

Rio Secreto is the name for this place. Today we donned miner's helmets, wetsuits, lifejackets and water shoes and walked for about 90 minutes in the watery underground chambers.
We swam quite a bit too, sometimes it was up to our necks, and the lifejackets helped keep us buoyant as we bobbed with stalagtites dripping down on top of us. Our guide was a lovely young woman from Finland, with pure blond hair who easily spoke four languages.

The more than one meter of yearly rainfall is filtered down through the ground to form these calcium chloride stalagtites, and there is life in the cave...tiny fish and a few bats. The experience of swimming along and then hiking was a thrill and the beauty of this subterreanean world was stunning. This is another attraction that brings nature up close and is renewable and creates good jobs here.

This with the other ecotourism attractions we've experienced is enough to call Cancun an excellent destination for a lot more than just lounging by a pool...not that there's anything wrong with that too!

Zipping Down the Zip-line, Plunging into the Cenote

Sustainable tourism is a robust business and employs many people in places like the Yucatan. This afternoon I learned how one company has brought jobs and a lot of revenue by a simple formula. Selvatica offers American and Canadian tourists some adrenaline, a plunge in a natural pool, a simple meal, plus transportation from far flung hotels up and down the Riviera Maya coast.

Selvatica got its start doing zip-lines in Costa Rica. Today I experienced their six-month old zip-line operation here just down the highway from Puerto Moreles. Manager Alex Fuentes, 25, said that on a busy day, they'll see up to 250 people come through their doors to take advantage of their packaged experiences. One includes a 12-stage treetops zip-line, a short bike ride through the jungle, and then a plunge into a cenote, or a deep sinkhole. Fuentes told me that between 60 and 80 local people have jobs taking tourists up the towers, driving, or cooking meals.

The road was just being finished when we visited today, with piles of yellow dirt being smoothed over. The company is about four years old, and most visitors are not Mexican. "They're not an adventure type of culture, and the costs are sometimes too high," he said. It costs $80 for the whole four-hour experience. They also offer a ropes course combined with dune buggy jaunts, and a trip to a plunge into another cenote.

What I like about this kind of business is that after they've paid to put up the zip-line, and bought a fleet of bikes and other equipment, they have an unlimited audience of new travelers who will eagerly pony up the $80 for this much fun. Plus, the participants buy photos and videos of themselves being wild and crazy.

Mexico, Where Have You Been All My Life!?

When I called my dad to tell him I was heading to Mexico, he groaned. "Oh Cap, do you know they're having a civil war down there?" He groaned too, upon my announcement of trips to Iran and Colombia.

But as with those trips, fear hasn't been on the agenda here in the vast Yucatan peninsula. Mostly it's been marveling at why it's taken me so long to visit this fantastic, charming, beautiful country just 4 1/2 hours away!

I asked my friends Erika and Prof. Pedro about the "civil war", and the turmoil that is being created by drug lords killing other drug lords and the battles on the border. They said that in Cuidad Juarez, the dirt poor city next to El Paso, there have been killings of hundreds of prostitutes and other young women that have been unsolved for fifteen years. A customer in the GoNOMAD cafe told me about a carjacking in the quaint ex-pat filled town of San Miguel de Allende.

But the geography is kind to us...we are thousands of miles away, on a big peninsula that faces Cuba. The economy here has been robust, though the peso, at 13.5 to one dollar, is definitely tilted in our favor. "It's been around 7-8 for many, many years," said Erika. "This is the worst it's been for a long time."

Last night we ventured out to one of the two restaurants here at Ceiba del Mar. At the first, devoid of customers, we were given a menu by mistake from the second place that's nearer the ocean. We realized we wanted to leave, to pick from the menu we liked. but we were sort of trapped. We tried to politely excuse ourselves, and get by with just a drink as the persistent waiter jumped through hoops to make us stay. But we escaped after much protestation and were welcomed to the much busier Arrecife where hogfish and sea bass were served up grilled with five sauces and lots of vegetables. The elegant dinner for two, with a bottle of wine we were able to bring home with us, was under $85.

Today I head out to a place in the jungle called Selvatica. Cindy will do nothing but sit, read, nap and maybe drink a glass of wine here at Ceiba del Mar. Sounds perfect!

The Title Says a lot: Prof of Sustainable Tourism

One of the hallmarks of my press trips is meeting 'interesting locals' wherever I am. To do this I ask my hosts to find people I can interview and get a feel for the local zietgeist. It never fails to produce quote-worthy people who offer us unvarnished views of politics, trends and what people are talking about.

Today I was driven to the University del Caribe, a public college of about 1800 students on the outskirts of Cancun. Professor Pedro Moncada works in the Dept of Sustainable Tourism, part of the hospitality major at the college. We met in his airy office and I quizzed him about things people are talking about in Cancun.

First I wanted to know about the men who gather in the nearby park, hordes of workers who our driver Roger said were day laborers waiting to be picked up for work. "They are mostly from Chiapas," he told me. "Cancun is the only place in Mexico where nearly everyone can get a job," added Erika Mitzunaga, PR manager for the CVB. "People come here from all over Mexico to try and find work. But to work in the hotels you have to have schooling, and of course, speak English." So these guys wait for $10 a day jobs working in construction or landscaping. In Chiapas they'd be earning $40 a week, so it's well worth being here in prosperous Cancun.

The one shortage Erika and Pedro both cited was technical workers, people who can fix things like laundry machines, dishwashers and HVAC systems. So often they have to import these technical experts from the US. "Everyone wants to be a lawyer here, not an engineer," she said.

The university's graduates have done well finding jobs in the hotel and restaurant business, said Pedro. And the major indicates that the government and local officials are placing a heavy emphasis on keeping the tourism sustainable. Unlike in the early '70s when these dozens of hotels were being built at breakneck speed.

"The new president is committed to keeping the balance and he's much more transparent than in previous years," said Pedro. "Tourism is the strongest and most sustainable business, so we've got to prepare more students for this career."

Spider Monkeys in the Trees of the Yucatan

Spider monkeys weren't the only things we gasped and said were soooo cute during our day with the Mayans. This little girl took to Cindy and we enjoyed meeting her and her family as they brought us into their home and served us dinner. The tortillas were made on the back porch by grandma, and the whole scene was as real as their lives...no posing in fake Indian garb or pretend war dances.

The monkeys live in the forest and all have their own names. We craned our necks to watch them cavort up in the trees, and observed a mama and a little baby playing around way up high.

I never knew that there were such outstanding ecotourism opportunities so close to a major tourist city like Cancun. But this scene was just about 90 miles south of the city.

Ecotourism with Mayans Near Cancun

Governments can do some good things, but the real heavy lifting is often done by NGOs, or non-governmental organizations. We rode out to Nuevo Durango this afternoon, with Jesus Mesa del Castillo Bermejo who does good work for Kanche helping develop tourism and other endeavors among the Mayan people of the Yucatan.

These original Mexicans have seen their population mixed over generations with many newcomers, and Kanche offers 23 different tourism activities aimed at helping them diversify their income sources and remain in their homes in the countryside. We got a chance to visit this small Mayan village where some of the 45 families showed us their stony back yard full of papaya, coffee, herb and coconut trees. Adorable little tots raced around beaming big smiles and eagerly showing off riding their bikes and playing on hillsides. The town features a cute little one-room insect museum, and down the road there's a chance to tour a deep jungle that's filled with spider monkeys, swinging high in the trees munching on fruit.

The excursion is one of many people can take to learn about this ancient culture and see nature close up. We were graciously welcomed to their tiny villages and ended up on a dock just as sunset was coming on. The sound of the birds and the beautiful sweep of the lake made a perfect end to a lovely day here--ecotourism in Cancun. Yes indeed!

In a Pumpkin Patch, A Cave Entrance is Found

Arsenio Hau's uncle was picking pumpkins when they found a big hole in the field, covered by vines. He fell part of the way in, and he got trapped. When he was rescued with ropes and they shined flashlights down the hole, they discovered the Caverna Nueva Vida, or New Life cave.

About 84 km from the bustling Cancun hotel zone, we were introduced to a family of Mayans who now lead tourists on excursions to exotic places like this big cave.

We rapelled about 30 feet down into the mouth of this cave wearing miner's lights and gloves, and then hiked about 100 feet among eerie stalagmites and stalagtites, jagging down from the ceiling. Stooping to avoid hitting our hardhats on the ceiling, we clambored through the moist chambers. A bat clung to one, and flew off when we inspected him closely.

At one point we sat in a circle and turned off our lights. The silence was unlike anything I've ever experienced. It was like being blind, absolutely devoid of any light, and no one shuffled or coughed. We sat there for what felt like a very long time, alone yet together in the consuming silence and inky blackness. It was strangely comforting, yet I began to have a twinge of claustrophobia and wanted to go back up. That involved hooking up to the ropes and waiting as we were inched back up into the light.

Then we joined our guide with his relatives in their tidy cement home. Out back they had a pen with deer they were raising and a pen full of turkeys and a few geese. The ground was hard to walk on, so littered with rocks large and small. Our guide told us that farming here is damn hard, just trying to get something to grow among these prolific rocks and the sand in between.

They had cooked us a chicken underground, using hot stones and wrapping the bird, onions and squash in banana leaves. Their little girl giggled as she put on some earrings she was given, and held tight to Cindy's hand, enjoying the attention from her new-found tia.

Cancun Surprised Us...It's Damn Nice Here

I'm liking Cancun much more than I thought. I remember running into a very suave tourism official, Emilio,while I was on a river cruise in Pittsburgh back in June. As the boat made its way up the Ohio River, all of the passengers were either journalists, PR folks or Tourism board officials. He came up to me and gave me a card, telling me that he was sure I'd like coming to Cancun.

"But we don't write about places like that," I pleaded weakly. But he said he knew there were places around here that would make good article topics, so he pressed his card in my hand. I knew that around this time of year a place like this would be a temptation...so here we are.

Despite the prevalence of American tourists, and the lack of Spanish language in the air, I like it here. It's full of the kinds of amenities that you need when you just want to get away. We spent hours on a big bed with a thatched roof overlooking the water. We dozed and read and had lunch brought over. Cindy wore the only one-piece suit I saw the whole day. Hey, how can you not like that?

Later we took a walk down the big boulevard to a mall called La Isla, which had a real river running through it and lots of typical mall shops. The prices of sunglasses I looked at were way too high, just like in the US. (I settled for cheap drugstore glasses, since I lost mine yesterday.) At the edge of the mall there was a dock, and the water of the lagoon lapped up against pilings.

We did what Cindy and I like to do on vacation: putter along, poke into shops, and we stopped for an espresso where we could people watch. I noticed that many of the Mexicans who passed by were overweight, like the way Americans often are when you walk through a Wal-Mart. Not that there's anything wrong with that, hey I'm working on losing a few pounds myself. So to feel better we hit the gym here at Me by Melia, and now we both feel great.

The Earliest Residents of Cancun Had Iron Guts

A brilliant sunrise got us out of bed early in our hotel, the sun beaming right into our faces. It was an opportunity for Cindy to practice with her new Lumix camera, trying again and again to get that line out of the shot when she shot into the sun.

Last night we were invited to have dinner at Silk, the Asian Teppanaki restaurant here at Me by Melia. The chef, Juan, stood behind the big black grill and flipped food up and down and rapped his knives on the surface. He made a little fire of oil inside a pile of onions and let it flame high. He was friendly and outgoing, originally from Peru. He learned all of this flipping and grilling at Benihana in Lima, he said.

The people here are genuinely friendly, going beyond just the expected hellos and goodbyes. They give you their fullest attention and to a person they've been welcoming. You get the feeling that since this city was built in the early '70s exclusively for American tourists, everyone here is on the same page...no surly waiters and no snippiness. Wherever we've been the servers have been outgoing and sweet to us.

I read a bit about the area's short history---Cancun, (or in Mayan,"snake's nest" ) was created with filled in sand and the earliest explorers said it was a nightmare, with every kind of biting insect and snake imaginable. One French scientist said that the average Mayan's intestines were like a museum of microbes. So many tiny bacteria that would in the years to come make many visitors sick.

The planned city had few models in those days...one was Brasilia, the capital built in the distant jungle and spurned by nearly everyone in Brazil who wanted to stay in Rio. Fortunately, Cancun has not suffered such a fate, and today more than one million people live here. More than two million tourists come to visit staying in one of 28,000 hotel rooms in 145 properties squeezed onto this 7-shaped peninsula.

Cindy loved the area in the hotel where I found the big book of Cancun's history. It's called the E-space, it has rows of computers, full bookshelves, recliners for lounging and a Pottery Barn sort of ambience. There's also a pool table and a little pastry case.

A full Sunday with nothing to do except putter, lounge and fiddle with gadgets. We love it.

In January, Cancun Feels Mighty Right

We're kicking back, a Saturday afternoon on Mexico's Caribe. The ocean out there is turquoise, then it blends to a slightly darker shade of blue. We're in a place that I once thought I'd never visit...Cancun! Never say never.

That's because GoNOMAD espouses the philosophy of visiting the less-visited. We publish hundreds of stories each year about places all over Mexico and the world, and obscure yet fascinating parts of the US besides the usual tourism suspects.

But the opportunity to warm up and spend some time in front of an azure sea during the harsh month of January was irresistible. How can we not enjoy changing into shorts and swimming up to the bar, or walking in the brilliant sunshine to a restaurant by the lagoon where we saw a barracuda swallowing falling pieces of chicken? Cancun's hotel zone is a strip of land that's shaped like the number 7, with the lagaoon on one side and the ocean on the other.

We'll be here for the weekend, and then we'll visit a ecotourism site where we'll have lunch with Mayans. Our guide Roger speaks the Mayan language, and he promises that this will give us a day-long taste of the indigenous people who once ruled this Yucatan peninsula. Until Monday at 9 am, we'll chill out, doze off, and enjoy feeling this Mexican sun warm us up.

Leave Eric Alone--Being Shy Isn't Self-Centered!

Today is a whirlwind and not in a good way. I feel discombobulated and of course, unprepared for my trip to Mexico tomorrow. I'll be gone a week, and we'll be spending time at a beachfront hotel with a stunning pool and lots of time to do...nothing. I'm not sure that I need so much of this vaunted downtime. But we've got the tickets and we're set to go. It was nice to pack shorts and tee shirts instead of heavy sweaters and mittens.

As is my usual habit, I visited Van Dog's blog and found a post entitled "The Eric Suher Show," where the famously shy music mogul appeared at the Holyoke Conservation committee hearing. He was there to answer questions about the trees he cut down on top of Mount Tom. Eric wasn't comfortable being videotaped, and he told the committee he'd rather not talk in front of the leering lens. Van Dog got it all on tape, Eric's request, and then their answer, which was a reasonable compromise to move the shooter to the back of the room so they could proceed.

What bothered me was the comments that appeared below the post. People called him self-centered, and made melodramatic statements about not visiting his music venues any more. Even the mild-mannered Van Dog was put off because he didn't feel that Eric should be able to send the videotaper to the back of the room.

I commented that I think reticence about being taped or photographed is part of who Eric is. It wasn't unreasonable...and it wasn't a big deal. Eric's done so much for the city of Northampton's arts scene. He employs dozens of people and isn't in it for the money. So give him a break, he'll talk about the music venue when its ready.

Two Women, Two Studios, a Hallway in Between

Every so often somebody leaves a copy of the NY Times at the cafe, and today I picked it up and found an article about a unique and appealing living situation. It was headlined "To Each Her Own" and was about two women friends who live in a giant apartment that they sort of share. That's because it's been set up so that they both have their own studios, and they're linked by a common hallway.

Roselyn Leibowitz, 64, and Catherine Redmond, 54, are both single and both love their privacy. As many of us of a similar age can attest, there are limits to how much interference we want in our lives. Still, it gets lonely...and their unique arrangement gives them a bit of comraderie too.

Buying a space big enough for two separate studios doesn't come cheap in New York's west 30's. But proving they were truly friends, Ms. Leibowitz paid the $3.1 million for the two adjoining lofts. Redmond splits the monthly bills with her studio mate.

The two communicate between their studios by text message, sending missives about an upcoming trip to the store, or whether one wants to join the other at a local Thai restaurant. So far, they told the Times' Suzanne Slesin that the only thing that might come up some day is if one of them met someone they wanted to marry. "Ours was an agreement based on trust and friendship," they explained.

A Negative Example or a Boost for Hamas?

The WSJ never fails to be a treasure trove of tidbits that fascinate and entertain me. Sometimes I forget to bring it home--and then dutifully drive back to the office to fish it out of recycling. It's just that good.

I learned today about how an Israeli colonel believes that their attack on Hamas strongholds has strengthened, not weakened, the terrorist's control in Gaza. It's a repeat of 2006, he says, when relentless bombing of Lebanon resulted in Hezbollah emerging stronger, by paying for rebuilding. How else do you make friends with destitute people--pay to rebuild their homes and point to Israel as the cause of the destruction.

Hamas has already begun handing out $2000 down payments to civilians caught in the battle. The Colonel, Shmuel Zakai, says that "winning the hearts and minds is as important as victories on the battlefield." He said that Israel should be the first ones on the ground helping to rebuild Gaza and making sure Hamas isn't.

Yet another columnist, Bret Stephens, maintains that by losing so few soldiers and stomping so hard on Hamas buildings, bomb factories and tunnels, Israel has regained its reputation as a ferocious fighting force not to be taken lightly. Israeli military planners, say Stephens, think that the Hamas state, in its now bombed out condition, will be a negative example to the West Bank's Palestinians, like East Germany once was for the more prosperous West Germany.

We Were All Set to Watch it on the 'Net...Not Yet

The Inauguration in all its glory is now history. I'm sure Justice John Robert's gaffe during the oath will be replayed for decades. At the cafe, we were all psyched to watch the whole historic darn thing on our computers. I had my tech wizard Joe Obeng here late Monday night making sure our connections were working and the video display that normally shows enticing photos of sandwiches and short travel videos was all set to play hulu.com and the live stream.

So there we were, a bunch of customers huddled over a screen....that barely changed from a still image of the capital. DÓH! It seems that too many people were trying to do the same thing, and eventually, I found my customers drifting off to Georgios where the cable tv was presenting all they were missing on the 'Net. The tough part is that you couldn't have turned on a TV with rabbit ears because DÓH! they've stopped broadcasting over the air TV signals.

What did we do? We turned on NPR of course, and listened while the stupid computer monitors showed us a steady unmoving image of the event. Chase Sheinbaum, the Recorder reporter, came in and interviewed a few folks...but the news of the day was that the web isn't ready for prime time yet.

Shooting, Scaring, and Other Means to Keep Birds at Bay

The other day I felt priviledged to tell a guy in the cafe the whole story about the plane that landed in the Hudson. As if living under a rock, on Friday he hadn't heard the tale yet. I found out more about how airports deal with the problem of birds getting sucked into engines in tonight's WSJ.

"The accident also raised questions about whether airports around the country are doing enough to deal with bird flocks. The agency that operates New York City's major airports said it has a multimillion-dollar program to chase birds off its property, but can only do so much to protect planes once they are in the air.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it kills thousands of birds every year in the marshy waterways and tidal flats that surround its two major airports in Queens, and uses guns, pyrotechnics and hawks to drive away birds.

Among the other tactics: Bird eggs are coated in oil to prevent them from hatching. Nests are removed. The agency also plays recordings of bird distress calls, and landscapers remove shrubs and trees that might be attractive to certain species.

Sometimes aircraft have to take evasive action to avoid flocks of geese. Other times, it's too late and they can only hope for the best."

Perl Loves the Amherst Quirks that Irk Larry

On the basketball court, they called him Perl. For some reason I didn't get that it was a shortened version of his last name, Perlmutter. Instead I thought it was an homage to Earl the Pearl, of the flashy 1960s Knicks. I read about Perl today, he took over my route as an advertising rep for the Daily Hampshire Gazette in the late '80s.

Today he's in the paper, named the president of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce. One of his favorite advertisers when he was rep was Larry Kelley, who gets way too much publicity because of his pesky blog and how many people he infuriates every day. Funny, the things that make Larry so mad are what Perl said he likes about Amherst. "It seems we're forever making national news for the weirdest of reasons, and deep down I love that too," he told the Gazette's Nick Grabbe. I can just see Larry now, poring over the paper, composing a blog decrying these same things as 'embarrassments to a fifth generation Amherst resident.'

But over the years, sadly, I rarely see Perl in my travels any more. He's one of the people that I had the most fun with during my ad rep days, yet we never run into eachother and my attempts to set up lunches mostly fell on deaf voicemail ears.

I'm glad for him that he's got a new gig selling commercial printing and that he's taken on the presidency of an organization in which I was once an active. Best of luck convincing businesses that Amherst really, truly is a good place to open up, and please don't move out if you're there already.

I Did Have a Moustache...Really I Did!

Outside a new blanket of snow quiets down Mountain Road. It's cozy as we all sit around in our bathrobes, sip coffee and wake up. Cindy has come up and last night we watched a movie. Or should I say, I watched it after the rest of the people went to bed.

La Moustache was the film. Nobody liked it but me. It began with a man shaving his face in a bathtub. Carefully, he clips each hair and finally finishes the soup-strainer off with his razor. He thinks it's a big deal, something about having that moustache for so many decades. After the shave, his sultry girlfriend looks at him, not noticing the missing 'stache. They go to visit friends, toting a gift for their young daughter. The couple tells long stories about a weekend in Burgundy where somebody turned the heat too high and blew fuses.

No matter how many times he looks right at them, nobody notices the change. It frustrates him, he wants them to say something. He comments on his hostess' new hairdo. "A nice change," he says. He digs out photos of the couple in Bali, when he clearly had the moustache...yet nobody accepts this as a fact.

Whatever he does, he can't get anyone to see...and they begin telling him he never had a moustache at all. They can't figure out what he's talking about...he's frustrated to the point of insanity, and flies off to Hong Kong. Maybe there they'll stop telling him he's crazy. I am fuzzy about the ending, except that it sort of faded out....and I'm not sure they ever told him they noticed.

Twitter: A Cooler Way to Blog in Little Bursts

Twitter is providing me with lots and lots of cool links and ideas. I am now officially a fan! Not only have I found articles that really provided me with great ideas (like one about the top ten ways Twitter can help a business do better on line) but I've 'run into' people through reading their posts, and emailing them. One twitter named nlerner wanted to know about cool travel blogs and I sent her the link to our blog network; another gave me a great idea for a GoNOMAD article about a thousand-mile horserace across Mongolia.

The thing about Twitter that's cool is that it's so quick and so archivable. The posts you might have written months ago are so easy to find, and people stuff all kinds of links in the posts. I am one of those people who often does wonder what somebody is doing right now. So for some people, I can get my answer by reading. I do have a tiny bit of twitter envy: some of the 82 people I follow don't follow me! This is the new insecurity of 2009: counting how many people don't care enough to follow your tweets but you still dutifully follow theirs.

I just peeked on SEKeener's twitter feed--he said that there are now videos and photos in the twitter feed. He's the CEO of Bootsnall.com a big travel website, and he's one of the people I wish would follow me. The most famous photo of all is the instant cellphone image that popped up on twitter while people were still standing on the wing of the USAirways plane that ditched in the Hudson. It was taken from a ferry by a guy named Janis who's now the most famous Twitterer in the land.

A Contest for the Intern Spot at GoNOMAD.com

Interns are a great help to us at GoNOMAD. As we have joined our fellow businesses in seeing the fragility of the market, and the downward trend in business, we always can use people to help us out with tasks. There are now three UMass students who want to be interns. All are midway through college. Interns send out emails to get links and write articles for the site. They also write the Travel Reader blog, compiling the best travel stories from the web on a blog in our network.

So I decided to have a contest. I sent them a link to our writer's guidelines and told them to submit a travel article to us. And the best story would win the slot. We don't want to have any more than two interns each semester, and we have Isadora Dunne who's doing a great job and will be here til the summer. She just did a story about Yoga trips for GoNOMAD.

It's encouraging that people want to work with us, and are willing to compete for the spot.

We have promised to bring a TV next Tuesday, and provide Obama televised coverage at the cafe. So now I'm trying to figure out how to do it, since we put it up on the video display in the cafe. I'm hoping a website like Hula.com might be a way to broadcast over the web.

We are going to have an Obama-menu too.

The Warmth of the Y and Agatha's Trip

I've really warmed up to my new routine at the Holyoke Y. Entering the building and seeing mothers and tots and then entering the fitness center, that's filled with people of all ages is heartening. I used to go to a gym in Northampton where everyone was either bulging with muscles or a harsh-looking lesbian. Not that there's anything wrong with that...it's just that at the Y there are no attitudes, and I think I have the Christian in the name to thank for that.

When I get up on that elliptical I finally get a chance to read books. Unlike at home where the distractions of the laptop, the iTouch, the television and my grandchildren steer me away from the printed page, here I can concentrate and enjoy just a few of the many books that are generously bestowed on me by my pal Kent. (Kent made a grand entrance the other day, debarking into the waves from a seaplane at a beach on and island in the Great Barrier Reef. I told him it was very Howard Hughes of him).

I've begun enjoying The 8:55 to Baghdad, which follows the trail of a semi-retired Agatha Christy who loved Iraq and other places in the Middle East. Andrew Eames, a British writer, has a wonderful way of describing places and people. He describes Ljublijana, Slovenia as a "pocket-sized little city, in a pleasant pocket-sized little land. The River Ljubljanica threads right through the cobbled centre, a lurid green ribbon perpetually bandaged by little bridges. At its heart the city is reminiscent of Saltzburg: cobbled, tea-shoppy, with flurries of art nouveau and overlooked by a castle on an outcrop of rock."

A Groovy New Toaster Speeds Up the Cafe

I'm the toastmaster general now, seeing as how we've upgraded to a new superdeluxe conveyor belt toaster in the cafe. This baby just keeps on rolling, taking in the bagels and spitting them out lovely brown and ready to eat. We've had so many problems with burned bread, pasty white bagels and so I sprung for this nearly $600 contraption to make everybody happy.

Donna our manager was thrilled, and greeted me with a big hug. It's nice that our staff and manager take such pride and have a lot of fun at their jobs. With the climate of layoffs looming and so much bad economic news, you can feel it when you place a help wanted ad on Craig's list and get swamped with so many people who want a job.

Now a great guy named Dean who left us just called to say he wanted to come back. Hey, have we got a job for you!

The Comanches Lived on the Backs of Horses

You know those books that you love, then you find get tiresome, and then, one day you just pick up a random page and it starts to be fascinating again? Well that's what I think of American Nomads by Richard Grant. I turned to a page that told the story of a people who once ruled a 250,000 square mile territory. It was the Comanches who overthrew other tribes and with their skill at horsemanship and hunting, chased their rivals the Apaches and Sioux away and conquered their lands.

At one point pioneers in Texas were discovering that bibles and other books were being stolen by the illiterate Indians. It turned out that the paper made an excellent bullet-proofing for their bison-hide war shields. According to Grant, the Comanches were the only tribe who successfully bred horses for speed, endurance, striking colors and patterns. They used to have the biggest herds. Even ordinary warriors would own 200 horses, while a Sioux war chief might have his own equine armada of about fifty. No one kept more horses than the Comanche. One band was said to consist of 2000 people and a herd of 15,000 horses.

They lived on horseback. Eating, fighting, sleeping and even defecating was done on horseback. The Huns did the same. They distained walking. In many ways, says Grant, they were America's version of the Huns or The Scythians, who were the first recorded nomadic warriors in history.

The Comanches terrorized Mexican towns, raiding, raping, and dragging woman, children and more horses back north across the border. Today, the genetic legacy haunts the small number of surviving Comanches. Seventy-five percent of the tribe has diabetes and a quarter have had amputations of limbs resulting from the disease.

At Almost 20 Days, Sofie Smiles by the Fire

click the photo to make her huge

I got a request to show more Sofie photos. Who can resist this 19-day-old little bundle? As the icy wind blew, we made a daytime fire at 9 Mountain Road and as you can see, Sofie likes it too.

January can be a depressing month, and with this week's cold temps, I am thinking about Mexico in a few weeks....a great tonic to look forward to.

Oil Speculators and Panhandlers Are Both a Bummer

We always try to make it back from wherever we are to catch Sunday's 60 minutes. It's still one of the few shows you can say that has real 'water cooler' cred, many, many people I know watch it and often a segment I watched they watched too.

Last night the opener was about how speculation in commodities caused an incredible one-day per barrel price hike (on Sept 14, 2008) of $25. The experts on the show said that there was no reason for this other than hedge fund and brokerage company manipulation. Dan Gilligan of the Petroleum Marketers Association also said that only one out of twenty barrels of oil was ACTUALLY bought and sold by oil companies...the vast majority was just paper buys enriching clever men in New York. My pal Sony was so angry about this that she sent out the article with the details to a bunch of her friends.

On a totally unrelated note, I was incredulous reading last week's Gazette and saw the photo of the protesters marching in support of panhandlers. Come on! The city is proposing that these bums, and let's be honest and call them that, that the bums can be restricted from asking for loose change. Now we have a cadre of defenders raising their voices and writing letters to newspapers defending these damn bums who bum money. Get a job!

I wrote a blog about one of the men who stands by the I-91 offramp with a cardboard sign asking for money, saying then that it's a helluva way to make a living. The guy's SUV was parked nearby, so he could drive back down to Connecticut hauling his loot.

These panhandler defenders strike me as misguided do-gooders who are defending people whom the city is right to try to get rid of.

Baby by the Fire

It's a cozy Sunday morning with about 5 inches of new powdery snow and we've shoveled it all out.

Cindy is seen here with Sofie relaxing by the fire. We'll head up to the cafe and read the papers, and later on we'll go to our Circulo Italiano meeting. There will be a speaker, a big Italian food potluck, and lots of bottles of wine. D'OH!

No wine. Oh well, I'll sip on some fake wine or some cranberry and make do.

You’ll Eat It…Even If I have to Tempt you With an iPod!

As I drove north in the GoNOMAD Café truck en route to pick up supplies, I listened to Michael McConnell on the AM dial. He isn’t a total right winger either. He was talking about a new program that the Feds have implemented to get kids to eat their free breakfasts.

It seems that the government puts out a feed every morning at thousands of public schools, but there are few takers. Almost none of the poor starving kids want anything to do with the free cereal, OJ, toast and milk that the school dutifully doles out.

As much as ninety percent of the food is thrown away. Oh, God, what do we do? It reminds me of a story my cousin CT Tucker once told me, about a prison where they cook ridiculously enormous amounts of food and throw most of it away. But if they made less, they would have their food budget cut and that would be bad. So they keep on cooking and throwing away vats and vats of food.

But the schools are fighting back. They are now holding contests where any kid who eats the damn breakfast gets entered to win prizes like iPods. One girl said she’d now pretend to eat the food, just to enter the contest. Others explained their indifference to the chow, saying that they had to catch a bus, or that it just wasn’t that tempting.

Now that their being offered a chance to win ipods, I’m sure the nutrition of American school children will dramatically improve.

The Challenge of Making a Travel TV Show

It's a complicated day, full of fits and starts and stuff I am not sure how to fix or finish. First it's getting tickets to Cancun, which sounds great...but then we saw that our Mexican agent's price was way, way higher than what the airline offered. DÓH! It's too late to change it. Bummer.

Now I am wrestling with how to do this television show. The part I am trying to get around is whether a show that has still photos on the screen is really a TV show. I have traveled many times with people who haul huge cameras, lurch around hotel lobbies with tripods, and generally make quite a fuss with all of their equipment. But all I've ever done is to shoot some short videos with my camera, and thousands of stil photos.

I've been hoping that a show that shows fast-moving slides of full screen images and clever voice-unders about the destination will be viable and interesting. I have a great selection of Iran images and now I'm back from meeting with FCAT. Things are coming together. We have excellent Persian music and there are enough good photos and a short video to make this show compelling. You'll see it on the air soon.

A Story About My Iran Trip Makes it to Print

In life there are times you have to just hold your tongue and say thank you. Thank you, Recorder, for publishing a neat article about my trip to Iran. Chase Scheinbaum the young reporter got all the facts right, and the photo looked kinda cool. But...

It's NOT on their website. Ayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. The Recorder just had to do that, right? I mean, they print this nice story, even mention GoNOMAD's web address, and then when you go to their site, they've conveniently put up six of the approximately 12 local articles on their website. But not mine. Well, if they won't put it on the web, I will.

Here is the story...

Hard Rock Park Turns into Just Plain Hard Luck

Who knew that so few people in Myrtle Beach would be willing to shell out $40 or so to visit a rock and roll theme park? But apparently, nine months after raising over $400 million the owners of Hard Rock Park are giving up. They couldn't have opened at a worse time, said Liz Gilland, a local official in the area.

The park licensed the name from the Hard Rock Cafes, which have struggled mightily in recent years. They put up a 60-foot high guitar, and had a roller coaster that was tested and approved by the surviving members of Led Zeppelin.

An article in today's WSJ described other attractions that will no longer be open to the public. One is a wooden roller coaster that wasn't as intense as the Zep ride, called The Eagles--Life in the Fast Lane, and Alicé's restaurant, named after the song of course.

They got excellent press, and the state was gung ho as the park opened last April. But they had to borrow so much cash that the annual interest payments were $24 million, and they took in only $20 million in ticket sales for the whole nine months. Now the city is worried about who will pay to change the name of the four-lane highway that goes to the lake the park sits around.

I keep wondering...what do you do with such an edifice, if you can't charge admission any more? What do you do to reuse this, the single largest tourism investment in South Carolina's history? For now the owners have to battle the Hard Rock company in court, who say that its failure has damaged their reputation. And they want Garth Brook's $746 cowboy hat back too.

The GoNOMAD Travel Show is Coming to Channel 12

I did a recap late this afternoon about what I got done today. At the top of the list was a meeting in the cafe with Marty McGuane, the new Director at Franklin County Access Television, which serves the towns of Deerfield, Sunderland, Conway and Whately.

It was time for a pitch...and Senor McGuane was eager to hear about our idea for a new TV show. It will be called the GoNOMAD Travel Show, and of course, be brought to you by the GoNOMAD Cafe, downtown South Deerfield.

What I envision is a half-hour show where we take a look at several GoNOMAD article topics, and talk to the writers and discuss where they went. We'd talk about the details of stories and show photographs full screen, so that it wasn't just a person in the studio.

Marty told me that he's ramping up his list of original programs, and so far there are only a few. That means our show will be broadcast in the day and again in the night. We'll post the shows on YouTube and then we can place them on the FCAT website, and maybe on GoNOMAD too.

I did lots of other stuff but this was the most interesting.

Who's Right About Soaring Railroad Rates?

I read a story by Alex Roth in today's WSJ that made me think two ways about the same problem, from two ends of the railroad track. A large Florida utility that buys long trainloads of coal is trying to get the state to re-regulate the railroad that brings their supply since the shipping costs have gone up so much. They think it's unfair, because they're what is known as 'captive customers,' which means only one railroad connects them to their coal supplier. So even though railroad freight volume has gone down steadily, all four major US railroad conglomerates' profits have zoomed way, way up.

The utility says that the 1.7 million Florida household's electric rates will go up by $100 million a year, and that it's just unfair for the railroads to have doubled the rate to ship coal.

But the railroad says they have to use that money to pay for railroad track improvements and expansion, so many big things that they promise to do with their windfall profits. It must be tough being a captive customer, 'cause there's nothing you can do. And they point out that a ton of coal or other freight goes 462 miles for each gallon of fuel. They say they're part of the big climate change problem's solution. They're green. And green with fat profits.

The Key To Feeling Great

I am proud to show my keyring now. Despite its janatorial heftiness, you can see that I've now got a Y card attached. And I am just back from my first workout as a regular member!
It feels great to be a little beat up in a good way.

I got a sweet phone call from my mom this morning, she who has lived more than 30 years without a drink. I am not thinking about AA or about a new embracing of sobriety, but when I think about mid-February, after I have another liver test, that's when it will be harder. At this point, not drinking is just following a doctor's strict orders...but after that it becomes a lifestyle change that I might have a hard time with. It was nice to know she's there if I need to call her.

I now recall that it was in the fall 2005 that I had this same health situation. I traveled that year to Chile and I remember turning down so many pisto sours, 'the national drink,' and countless beers. I was working very hard then to abstain, and ultimately in the years that followed slipped back into much too regular a habit.

But now I have these keys...and this mom who calls me and offers love and support...and I know so many people who no longer drink, they just carry on and have fun. So I'll just take this whole thing day by day and hope that my judgment remains clear.

Slumlord Millionaire Is a Mumbai Sonic Explosion

Going to tonight's movie was like driving through the FastLane on the Pike. We walked past a long line of people waiting to buy tickets, since we had bought ours ahead online. We just scanned a barcode and out popped the tickets--no waiting. The movie was a breathtaking sonic explosion called Slumdog Millionaire.

The film captured what life is like in 2009's Mumbai with a crashing intensity. The trains roar by, the slums pulse with life, and a hundred sounds come at you all at once. The movie unspooled backwards, beginning with the end and explaining itself through flashback scenes. Scenes of the young urchin running through teeming neighborhoods and through fetid garbage dumps were made even more stunning by the sounds of modern Indian music and crashing ambient noises.

It is the story of a young man who won India's Who Wants To Be a Millionaire TV gameshow, and the tangled and painful tale of how he got to the chair on the stage to play the game. We are given glimpses of so many hardships that the young tea-server has been through, and in the end it all make sense--and makes us realize how deserving he is of the cash and the girl.

The story of a lifelong love affair that refuses to be broken is poignant, and as we follow the pulsing intensity of his life as a gritty, smart street kid, we end up rooting for him, and fearing he might slip away. It becomes clear why this kid knows so many of the answers, having to fend for himself and figure it out on his own.

It was a very well-done movie and it made me want to recommend it to my friend Tom Gates, an Indianophile of the highest order who would love seeing these scenes of the slums of Mumbai and the immersion into Indian culture that this film provides.

It Seemed Like Such a Good Idea....

It sounded like such a good idea: develop a print magazine using reader-contributed stories and photos. And let the readers vote on which articles would make it into print. Sort of like Digg, but wow, in print. But you need more than a good idea to stay in business in 2009.

This turned out not be such a good idea, according to today's WSJ. Publisher 8020 had tried this scheme in publishing two magazines, one called JPG a photography title, and another called Everywhere, a travel magazine. Both are calling it quits this week.

The travel magazine space is littered with the remains of failed endeavors. Those of us in the business can well remember Blue, and Transitions Abroad, and so many others. It is sad but it's also similar to so many other publishing genres....getting attention is tough, and the economics of print--getting newsstand space, magazine returns, and collecting advertising bucks work against even the most determined publishers.

When Halsey Minor of CNET started 8020, he said it was the future of publishing "because of the way it engaged its audience, integrated its print and online properties," and operated so cheaply, with less than a dozen paid employees. It might have been the future of something but so far, not the publishing business.

In a Recession, It's Nice To Be Good at Something

Today at the cafe, a Christmas song came on the sound system....I felt self conscious like I should stop playing those tunes from the expired holiday, and face the fact that we are now in January, a month I've dreaded since I first became an adult. There is something bleak and stark about January, pushing out in front of me, weeks and weeks of cold, ice and nothing. I thought about how many times the cafe has actually been closed....only six days a year. So the cafe will be open from now until Memorial day. There's no let up in sight.

I asked a customer who runs a painting company how things are going. "Bad--I'm not working on any jobs, people are not going ahead with projects," he said with a sigh. Then a friendly mustachioed contracting company owner, who said he had to let five guys go, but he still has a 20-person payroll. "Twenty grand a week, hey, it ain't easy, let me tell you." He is happy to have some decent jobs but is bidding hard even for small stuff, like a 70K house addition.

One of my least favorite pieces of advice that you hear from people like Suze Orman is that giving up lattes and other little expenses is how to save money. No, Suze, that's bad advice. Lattes and coffees in a little cafe are how you connect with your neighbors, and besides, it's a good chance to read the paper which most people no longer subscribe to.

I sent an email to my friend Jim Foudy who edits the Daily Hampshire Gazette. I told him I thought I could help them make more money from their website. He replied, interested in hearing what I advise suggesting we meet soon. I've confirmed a speaking engagement at the Boston Globe Travel show in late February, talking about 'Web 2.0' and making money from the web.

It's nice to be good at something, even in a recession.

Fred Knittle, Singer, Father and Friend to Many

Last night we watched the Young @ Heart Chorus movie, and among the best parts was that of Fred Knittle, singing Coldplay's 'Fix you' to the full house at the Academy. Very poignant.

Bill Knittle's dad, Fred Knittle, died today. Fred had a great role with lots of facetime in that film. I thought about him as we were watching, thinking that it was filmed in 2006, so what was he doing today? I had heard that Fred was ill just a week before. Sad to have to say goodbye, sad for his family and friends who will miss him. I found an item about an email Fred sent to a writer who wrote about him in his blog.

Dear Steve: I just went to your blog and it was great… thank you for the kind words… It also gave me a picture of you that will help me recognize you when you come North for a visit to Northampton (Mass.).
Thanks for the phone call today and for being outgoing and warm during the interview. I felt relaxed throughout your in-depth questioning. Seriously, my new found friend, I look forward to getting a copy of the article in the St. Pete Times.
Fred

The email's tone just shows what a sweet guy he was. Bill and I worked together for many years at the Gazette, when we both sold ads. He'd talk about his dad Fred often, visiting him and his mom Barbara in the house in Northampton where he used to live. "He said he was a friend-raiser, not a fundraiser," Bill said, explaining his dad's job at Clarke School for many years.

A Story That Won't Please Iran's Mullah Leaders

I was pleased with the Advocate article I wrote about the lives of Young Iranians in this week's issue, especially that they were able to include four photos.
I was moved by the comment that came from a reader in Iran named Parin, who said...

I want to see my relatives,that all of them live in U.S.A...but i couldn't because they think maybe i wouldn't back to my country..BUT in spite of every thing i love my country,my land, it's view...and so many memory...so many friends...that i couldn't find them any where...i don't care about our president because sooner or later he will change and i care about what's happening now, but when i couldn't do any thing i prepare to change my world. I hope some day, each of us, i mean universe people, have this right to go wherever they want and live there peacefully. :)

It's funny because since I've become a regular blogger and Twitterer, it's so much easier to write....the stories tumble out, and require just a quick edit before they're ready. I remember very well in 2005 when I came back from Cyprus. I struggled mightily to get that story written, kept starting it and then hitting a brick wall. Now that I blog so much, writing a longer piece is a breeze.

This Advocate piece though, probably wouldn't please my Iranian hosts. I interviewed these young people who are against the government, and who someday might just overthrow the mullahs. While I want to share this story with my readers, I don't want my gracious hosts to feel betrayed.

Bummer News for Pen Salesmen

Here's a few of the things I found out last night reading the New York Times.

Bicycle sales have slumped from their huge increase over the summer. Even though the gas prices of over $4 a gallon made many people bring in old bikes to fix up, and buy new ones with commuter gear, and made many of us think that bikes would see a golden resurgence, some bike stores have seen a sales slowdown now that the recession is in high gear. Analysts aren't sure if the warm weather will bring back the good times or if it was all just a fad.

Dairy farmers, too, are now feeling headwinds compared to the rosy days early this year. That's because milk powder is selling for about one third less than it was back then, and it's piling up in huge warehouses. The US government has agreed to pay farmers about 91 million to buy up a bunch of this surplus milk, but prospects are bad and many farmers are trying to cull their herds. It's tough to find buyers because the dairy business is in weak shape.

In South Korea, another hard hit sector is the plastic surgery business. People are cutting down on liposuction, breast implants and nose jobs because of the recession.

Forty drug companies have agreed that starting this year they will no longer give out pens, staplers, flash drives and other gadgets branded with names of their drugs. It's a giant blow to the makers and sellers of these useful and ubiquitous giveaways. Big pharma spent about six billion dollars a year on dinners, trips, and the giveaways, and they voluntarily agreed to stop, since it makes it seem like they are influencing doctors about which meds to prescribe.

Sounds like a major bummer for anyone who sells pens and now maybe Staples will see a surge in sales since the freebies will no longer be given out.

In 2009, He Left the Wine Glow Behind

It's a new year and I am coming into it with a totally different way of looking at life. That's because just a few days back I was told that I couldn't have any alcohol for six weeks. And that after that, it was likely I'd have to curtail my drinking to a tiny fraction of what I'm used to. It's that same thing that happened to me a few years back...my liver tests showed that I'm in a danger zone. Wow. Well there's no use arguing, and no big pat on the back for my willpower...it's more like that's all there is to it. I'm done.

When I think about my life on my press trips, it's hard to fathom that from now on they'd be without the sweet elixir that comes in tall bottles at both lunch and dinner. When I think about our November trip to Northern England, I can still taste that delicious semi-cold ale that poured from so many taps. Jeez, even if it's three percent alcohol can I have some? NO!

I think about last night, at the party, when I sipped cranberry juice and then went to glass after glass of water. As I watched my friends get the wine glow on and get silly, I thought about what I was missing. I reflect on the many people I know who, for various reasons, don't get that silly glow any more.

Part of me is relieved that I've got a built-in, no holes argument for not drinking. Part of me wants to know what it will be like to lose weight after not taking in so many of those delicious wine and beer calories. Part me is sad, thinking about how much I've enjoyed sipping wine and quaffing beer in so many settings around the world with so many friends and family.

The other, bigger part says, well this is what life has given me, and so why not make it into a positive? There is no other path to take.

Proud Grandpa and His Grandkids

Little Sofie is just six days old, and as you can see, just bigger than one hand. What a joy to have such a tiny bundle of life living at our house. Nathan has been an excited big brother, and everyone is so happy to have the new addition.

Rambling Van Dog Exposed at CRUSH Party!

While often I feel resistant to go out on New Year's Eve, since everyone expects you to, we rallied for a great cause by joining about 100 other Holyokers at the Wisteriahurst Museum to celebrate the city of Holyoke.

A grand shindig was planned, with music, great food, two bars and festive dress. It was all planned by the core group of 30-something Holyokers who created Holyoke CRUSH. It was billed as simply festive attire...so we saw tuxedos, suits, sexy backless dresses and some people with absurd masks with pointy noses and dangling baubles.

Cindy and I were wearing summer attire but nobody noticed, and we got a chance to mingle with friends old and new from this resurging city. I also was happy to introduce Cindy to my blogging pal Rambling Van Dog, who caught a lot of shots with his new Nikon D90. You can tell Peter is most comfortable as a reporter /photographer, preferring to shoot the photos and not be in them. Still, I couldn't resist snapping his mug. We learned a little more about his life in the flats and his involvement as one of the original founders of Holyoke CRUSH. Peter really loves the city and his blog is probably the best place to find out what's really going on here.

At about 11:30, we headed for the door, and got a chance to speak with a woman named Rebecca, who with her husband owns a jewelry store. She told us about their plans to do a lot more with their little piece of the Highlands, and how much they'd like to see a cafe and a winebar open up to serve the people here. Who knows, maybe some day it will be us.