A Year of Travel...Looking Back through 2009

My friend Johnny Jet presented a digest of all of his 2009 travels, and it inspired me to do the same. I often wonder just when I went to a certain place, so publishing the full record is a good way for me to remember them. Below is my 2009 itinerary.

I began at the end of January when Cindy and I went to Cancun and Puerto Morelos, Mexico. I have to say we both enjoyed the smaller fishing village of PM more than the bustling Cancun, but mostly I was glad to experience the delight that is Mexico. What wonderful people and such gorgeous sites to be seen!

My next trip was to Alabama, I waited until March for this trip, which included Mobile and the Gulf Shores. There I learned about the two official factions in the state...either Roll Tide, (U of Alabama) or War Eagle, (Auburn). Everyone chooses their fav and loves them for life.

Then in April I flew down to Beaumont TX, another first, having never set foot in this great big state. This city is near Houston and my trip included seeing Jim Belushi and Dan Ackroyd doing their Blues Brothers Show. A great night out!

In June Paul Shoul and I returned to one of my all-time favorite destinations...in fact it's the world favorite spot..France. We toured Normandy and slept in a castle. Great oysters and camraderie with one of my favorite road warriors.

Then in the summer it was domestic travel time. I went to the Jersey Shore and found the elusive yet satisfying 'twilight down the shore.' A peaceful time after a day at the beach that brings families and adult beverages together in a moment of bliss just as the sun sets.

I also got a chance to see the town where I summered for more than 40 years from the sea...We stayed in the Edgartown Harbor and cruised the Massachusetts Coast in the Isis, a sturdy and seaworthy vessel owned by my friend Denny.

In the fall, I combined business with pleasure and flew to Patagonia, Chile, and later up north to Iquique. It was a chance to meet hundreds of South American tourism officials and fellow journalists, and I was happy to have Sony Stark on the journey with me. What a treat!

We ended the year with our big trip to New Zealand. Having Cindy along made it much more fun, and surprisingly, our second trip there was just as delightful as our first trip in 2007. We blogged and met fantastic people once again. We also got a chance to return to friends we'd met the first time down.

A Town on Tenterhooks

In the NY Times, Northampton was described as a "town on tenterhooks." This expression goes back to 14th century, and refers to the 'tenters' which were used to stretch out wool in the sun, so that it wouldn't shrink when it was being cleaned. The woodent tenter held it stretched tight, and like people who are anxious, the wool was stretched uncomfortably over the frame.

I spoke with Shoul today, he has written a blog about his feelings as he covered the events with his camera. We agreed that despite the terror that this has brought the calm way of life in Noho, it has done a lot to show us how we can mobilize if threatened. The speed with which people rallied and fought back has been awesome and gratifying.

I think it also is a rallying point for the nascent NorthamptonMedia.com. This city news portal is trying to make inroads and an event like this is a natural chance to see them succeed. Masslive too, is jumping on this big time, I read the twitter feed for #northamptonfire and felt like I was at the meeting.

I think this person is going to be caught. The eyes of the city and of the connected citizens will get them.

The Oldest Justice Swims Every Day

John Paul Stevens has been on the Supreme C0urt for 34 years. It is thought that he might someday become the longest serving justice of all time. I watched him on television tonight, and at 89 he was as spry and sharp as a man of 60. It was remarkable.

He was asked how he stays so fit. He said he swims every day and plays tennis three times a week. He said he used to play golf, but he's lost most of his foursome over the years.
Brian Lamb interviewed the justice in the chambers. They showed where the judges talk privately about the cases. Nine leather chairs around a big table.

Stevens cited well-known judges like Brandeis, and Holmes and said he judged them because of the quality of their work. What he meant was that their writing was so clear, and so well explained, that is what he meant. Congress, he said, counts on the judges to make things clear, to take complicated issues, and 'let the judges figure it out.' That's what we do, he said.

Odds and Ends at the End of the Year

I read in the Boston Herald about a tragedy...that donated clothing is being turned into rags. Rags! You'd think the clothes were alive or something. People are upset, and vowing to only bring their throwaway clothes to Goodwill, not to to the boxes that sit in many Cape Cod Supermarket parking lots.

I've seen the stacks of American clothing sitting in places like the DR and Chile. Nobody ever goes without a shirt in these nations, because the clothing, donated by Americans and other westerners, is neverending, arriving by the railcar every week.

Then I popped over to Web Pro News and found a story about cars. And Wi-Fi. Ford is going to be offering a fully-Wi-Fi equipped sedan next year. It will use off the shelf parts like USB and offer internet connectivity for all, using the same method they have pioneered with their SYNC program that offers streaming music.

At the end of the day I walked over to the FCAT studio and produced the first segment of the GoNOMAD Travel Show. It will be on the cable airwaves soon, and in about 90 minutes I got through seven minutes. It's hard and it's fascinating, and I can't wait to see it on TV.

"I'm Happy Just to Look at You:" The Real Rain Man

When Barry Morrow won Best Screenplay Oscar for Rain Man, he gave the precious statuette to the original Rain Man, Kim Peek, who had inspired the screenplay. The savant who would become world famous after the movie won four Oscars died last week, leaving the world without an incredible mind that never failed to amaze.

In the NY Times obituary by Bruce Weber, Peek's gifts were described. It is thought that the man read more than 12,000 books during his short life, dying at age 58. He could read using both eyes at once, and devoured all he could find about mathematics, chess, geography and movies. "He was the Mount Everest of memory," said one savant expert.

Ironically, when he was just 9 months old a doctor told his parents that he would never walk or talk, and that he should be put into an institution. Another doc recommended a lobotomy when he was six. By then Kim had read and memorized the first eight volumes of an encyclopedia set. His father said he didn't know how Kim ever learned to read, but he sure did it well.

Peek grew into his fame and traveled frequently, "even becoming something of a showman." Once during a presentation he gave about the British monarchy a young woman stood up and asked him if he was happy. "I'm happy just to look at you," answered Peek, displaying smarts far above his 'normal' peers.

Christmas Morning Repose

It's Christmas and a feeling of peace and contentment wafts through the air. Everybody is busy with some new toy or gadget; others are casually pulling their loot together to get ready to bring it home. It's a satisfying thing to know that virtually every business has stopped, for a winter break, and that despite it being Friday the cafe won't open, and the stores will stay shut.

I like the chill in the air. The sky feels like it is going to storm; a forecast told me that the Midwest was going to be getting a big one. We'll drive up north, and if it snows tonight, that will be good. It's Christmas after all, and snow is part of the charm.

A Net Zero House: My Eventual Goal

Some things are exciting....like being energy neutral. I read today about Net-zero homes that make and save as much energy as they use in the WSJ this cold morning. WOW! In Greenfield, Rural Development is putting up duplexes with these features, and can add $37K to the price of the house and sell it easily.

The government shovels money at these, offering tax incentives and so does the power company, who say that they want to encourage building houses like these, which cut the yearly utility bills from $2700 to $700. One feature that I think is especially clever is a thermal storage basement, where cooler air in summer is kept there and then released into the house, and in winter, warm daylight air is held for circulation at night. Brilliant! They also have triple pane windows, electronic thermostats and thick, thick insulation.

Rural Development has completed eight of 20 planned duplex houses in Greenfield, all using almost no electricity. The rooftop solar panels cost $10,000 per 3-bedroom house. Other builders are making the houses prefab, up to 500 per year.

Do We Really Care if Cops have College Degrees?

I read so many things today I can't think of where to begin. The Recorder had a story about how some police unions are suing a local town over Quinn Bill benefits. This law provides steep raises for any cops who take on-line or other dubiously challenging college courses. It's always been a political football, and the unions are tough on any governor or other politician who tries to challenge it.

Well, the state called the union's bluff by refusing to pay its 50% share of the Quinn Bill raises. So now we have the cops suing Sunderland, saying that the town should fork over the state's share, even though the town never agreed to that. Quinn bill raises can boost pay $10 or 20K more a year, and of course, this all makes their lifetime pensions even more expensive.

I don't think the public is any safer knowing that the patrolman in the car that just pulled you over has a BA or an MA. But it sure is a good way to raise pay...just like having the $50 per hour roadwork jobs, but what I've always wondered is, who pays for all that gas that gets burned while the cruisers sit on 91?

Another story that caught my eye was about GM deciding to push their Chicago plant to 24-hour production. Few auto manufacturers run three shifts, and with all of the downsizing, it seems strange. But GM says that its Buick Lacrosse and Chevy Malibu are selling so well they have to. Still, you wonder when they'll do maintenance and other tasks if they are running their production lines nonstop.

Quadruplets Add Four to Yale's Class of 2014

I dialed up the NY Times on line this morning as I sipped my first cup of coffee. There I read about quadruplets from Connecticut who all got the same joyous news...they saw the blue screen, then the Eli bulldog, which meant that they had all been accepted into Yale.

Ray Crouch got the news first. Then Kenny, also 18, then Carol, who the article said wears her hair in an oversized Afro, got in. Finally, Martina, who is described as wearing 'a smudge of red makeup under each eye, to promote eye contact, got her yes.

It's a first for Yale, they've never accepted a troupe of quads before.
But these high achieving kids aren't done selecting colleges yet. Some have interviews with Harvard, one sister likes Wesleyan and Kenny has apps into Princeton and Johns Hopkins. He's a stand-out sprinter too.

So this is all great news, but imagine being father. You now have four Ivy League tuitions to fork over for...probably 200K a year. He's a civil servant with a low salary, I guess the next stop is the financial aid office.

How Do You Choose Between 110 Kinds of Tide?

I was sent a magazine called Smart Money since I subscribe to the WSJ. It was more interesting than most magazines about finance, and a column by Anne Kadet caught my attention. It was about how Americans are fatigued with too many choices...and I must say I agree.

That's why I hate going to supersized stores, where the milk is located so far, far in the back and if you forget something it's just not worth the heartache of going all the way back in. Her point is that drugstores and other retailers are coming to the same conclusion, and in the years ahead we will have fewer choices for consumer goods.

Walgreens and Rite AId are eliminating nearly 5000 products. Kroger supermarkets slashed its cereal selection by 30 percent. Wal-mart has cut its hardware and toy selections.

It's not the retailer's fault. Companies love coming up with variations and 'new' ways to sell the same stuff. Did you know (how could you, really?) that there are 110 variations of Tide detergent? And that Frito-Lay has 46 varieties of potato chips? Who could possibly need that many? Yet they have grabbed 46 percent of the chip market...So I guess it works.

The column goes on to say how store managers suffer when they eliminate even minor items. One Maine market tried to get rid of Franken Berry cereal, and customers went nuts. Americans, said the headline, "Are Gluttons for Choice."

One of my favorite stores of all time is Trader Joe's. They don't have a million kinds of anything...just their own really good brands that are usually cheaper. I'd like more stores to just find the top three of something and don't give me so many choices. No excuse me, I've gotta go back into the way back of that big store to get the milk I forgot.

Today's Teacher Lesson: Just Sit There...for Months

It's the calm before the storm...and in the cozy GoNOMAD Cafe, I found a place to write here in front of the windows. I logged on to LATimes and read about the downside of teachers unions.

There are 160 teachers in LA who are paid to come to school every day and do nothing. No teaching, no grading...they just sit there and do nothing. They are all accused of various infractions; from drug offenses to sexual contact with students, and they are all waiting for their cases to be reviewed. Still, they sit and get their $68,000 salaries.

There was a time when LA teachers not teaching would be assigned non-teaching jobs. But the contract with the union now prohibits them from being assigned anything else but just sit there. Teachers have complained that nobody tells them what their rights are and how long they will be assigned to just sit.

School board members decry the system, 'that is tilted toward teachers,' and proves how damn hard it is to remove anyone from the classroom.

In NYC, it's worse--about 550 of the district's 80,000 teachers spend school hours in 'rubber rooms,' where they do crossword puzzles, and wait til the end of the day.' They're waiting for a judgement that most likely will throw them out of teaching...but not before they collect months and years worth of salary.

If You're Dumb Enough to Check a Laptop, Well...

A story by Scott McCartney in yesterday's WSJ convinced me never to ever pack anything with real value in my checked in bags. The story was about how many bags are looted and stolen from, and to make it worse, have their tags ripped off so the luggage never makes it to its intended destination.

It's not only the baggage handlers who are blatantly ripping off passengers, but the TSA. Both are guilty of hundreds of thefts, according to the story. In a Phoenix neighborhood, a couple were found to have stolen luggage piled up all over their condo, more than 1000 pieces, all lifted from the carousels at the airport!

But who is dumb enough to put a new iPod into a checked bag? How about piles of valuable jewelry? Yes people check that too. It's like holding a steak out in front of a wolverine...it's gone! Since 2003, a total of 330 TSA officers have been fired for stealing. Things have improved since fewer hand checks are needed now that many bags can be scanned through machines without opening them up.

Cops planted a bag bristling with all sorts of tempting electronic gear, in order to snare the thief. They found the TSA and the baggage handler working together, and videotaped them swiping a computer and a cellphone, then switching the tags to help cover their tracks.

It's Scary Being a Squirrel

Hawk in Holyoke.

Early Cruisers Loved One Thing: The Booze

I set out for the Y this morning without the book I'm reading. So I found another book on my shelf and dove in...it's called Devils and the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams and Schemes and Showdowns that built America's Cruise-ship Empires. It begins by recounting the last day on a cruise on 2005's biggest cruise ship, the Voyager of the Seas. The book's author is Kristoffer A. Garin.

As people gather on the decks with their luggage already whisked away into the central storeroom, called I-95, the author recounts the enormous effort it takes to resupply the massive vessel. The thousands of wine bottles, the tons of potatoes, the 3000 live lobsters. The amazing part is that this ship, at 142,000 tons, is dwarfed by an even more immense ship the Oasis of the Seas that was just launched this year. There's even an ice-skating rink with a Zamboni on board!

But despite today's money mint that is this industry (well times were a bit tough last last year but they are looking up) it wasn't always such a goldmine. The original cruise ships were built to ferry immigrants from Europe to the US. But in 1924, after millions had come, the brakes were put on and a limit of 3% of current immigrants from each country was imposed. So there were all of these ships and far fewer passengers.

But in 1924, there was one thing that proved golden....prohibition. So if you wanted to legally have a gimlet or stinger, or a nice dry martini, you could take the cruise from New York to Halifax, as this advertising copy read: "as you sail away, far beyond the range of amendments and thou-shalt-nots, those dear little iced things begin to appear, sparkling aloft on their slender crystal stems....utterly French, utterly harmless--and oh so garglingly good."

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"Perfection is OK, But it Leaves the Old Man with Little to Do"

Mike Kirby writes a blog called On the Loose. A few days ago he mused about downsizing into a new condo. Granite counters, shiny this and that, but what would he be missing? He hits it squarely on the head.

"Perfection is okay, but it leaves the old man with little to do besides gather dust, take his meds and work on his crossword puzzles. There’s nothing to fix. I remember, as if it was yesterday, a private duty case I had looking after this old doctor and his wife living in one of these new planned retirement communities. Everything was perfect up there too, tons of skylights, -all everything kitchens, and an unearthly quiet that was only broken every Friday when the guys and their big machines mowed the lawns and trimmed the bushes. And that couple, once life-sized, sat there like shrunken mummies, lost in the vastness, he just home from the hospital. And they had little to say to each other that wasn’t solicitous and polite when the help was around, but I sensed a certain glacial tension in the air. Let me out of here, I said to myself.

All that granite is nice, but what good is a showpiece when you’ve left behind all the people you know to live in it? It's just a reservation for old people instead of indians. The memories that I get from looking at our Formica counter that stepson David and I wedged into place nearly twenty years ago are nicer. And where is the place for the garden? Where do we hang up the laundry? Who are the people that live in this new shiny upscale street now? Will there be any gossip worth hearing?

Join Us for a Second New Year's Eve in Holyoke

As I've gotten older I'm less and less willing to go out on New Year's Eve. Yet last year I broke with tradition and ventured out to the Wisteriahurst Museum, to join about a hundred other proud Holyokers to bring in the new year. It was a lot of fun and it was more than that...it was a symbolic getting together and a true example of voting with your feet.

Just being there and supporting the cause made the suited men and glamourous women look even better, mingling in the many rooms of that rambling museum nibbling on hors dóeuvres and champagne.

This year Councilman Aaron Vega asked me to put in a plug for the second edition....This time it will be held at Open Square, and billed as New Year's Eve on the canals...sexier than Venice. I love Open Square and the forward-thinking businesses who have located there. And I'm super excited about what may lie ahead as Holyoke welcomes the super computer center.

So if you're a Holyoke booster, excited like me about the progress the city has made and the effervescence that Holyoke CRUSH has brought to the city, join us for New Years Eve. In Holyoke.

Buffett Told Them to Send a Fax, But They Didn't

A front page story by Scott Patterson in Saturday's WSJ detailed the scary times last fall when it seemed the economy was collapsing right in front of our eyes. Warren Buffett says 'he looked into the abyss' when confronted with the scene--the government bailing out big banks, and most of them calling him frantically trying to get him to invest billions...and in most cases he said no. One story was particularly amazing to me.

Buffett was in Edmonton Canada for a charity concert. He was reached at his hotel room at 6pm by bankers trying desperately to put together a buy-out deal for Lehman Brothers. He listened to their pitch, then they told him that they needed cash to guarantee the shaky brokerage's positions until a shareholder vote. Buffett had to leave, but told the bankers to fax the details of the lucrative deal to the hotel and he'd give them an answer.

He returned to his hotel that night and there was no fax. The deal went nowhere. It turned out that the bankers had left a voicemail on Buffett's cellphone. But the Oracle of Omaha said he doesn't use cellphones that often, and didn't get the message until his daughter discovered it on his phone ten months later!

So there's a lesson here. Don't expect old rich guys to get cellphone messages; when they tell you to fax them, well, you better do it that way or you don't get five billion in emergency bailout money.

They Fear the Aspirations of their Own People the Most

I was up early this morning, reading and reading on my little iphone while lying in bed. So many interesting stories on such a tiny device, Lord what did I ever do before I got my mitts on this thing?

I read Obama's speech that he gave to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. In the speech, he made a passionate argument for a 'just war' and contrasted free societies like ours to totalitarian states where nobody is free to speak their minds. This goes well with last night's movie, The Tunnel, a story set in East Germany about trying to escape to West Berlin through a hand dug tunnel.

Cindy asked me why they built that wall, and it prompted me to my iphone where a Wikipedia entry explained the origins of the 'anti facist wall' built in Berlin in 1961. The point is that in societies where people can speak freely and move about without restrictions, nobody is building walls to keep them in. Obama made this point eloquently, saying about Burma and Zimbabwe, 'it is telling that the leaders of these governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation." He continued, "and it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear to these movements--these movements of hope and history--they have us on their side."

How About Putting a Sail on that Freighter?

It's a brilliant cold Saturday, and I learned quite a bit as I read last night's WSJ while looking out at the chickadees and finches flitting over the feeder. One was about a German company called SkySails that installs parachute-like sails above commercial freighters and says that in the right wind conditions they can save up to 50% of fuel consumption.

Giant tankers and freighters gobble tons of bunker fuel, the sludge on the bottom of the refiner's barrel. In recent years the carbon dioxide from ships has soared, putting this industry in the crosshairs of climate change advocates. Maersk, the world's largest shipper, said their response to the problem would be simple...they'll sail slower and do better scheduling to avoid idling. Japan's NYK Line brags that they'll be introducing a zero-emissions ship by 2050, relying on fuel cells, solar and wind energy.

In the industry, the reaction higher taxes on the bunker fuel they all use is, of course, mixed. Perhaps the most politically palatable option would be to allow the shippers to use the tax proceeds to buy carbon offsets...in other words, plant lots of trees and support solar farms on land to justify the pollution they're creating at sea.

A One-Time Newspaper that Turned Heads

In San Francisco, they published a one-off that impressed everybody and they all lined up to buy it. Print newspapers aren't dead, the story asserts, we just want them to be much better. This paper was called the San Francisco Panorama. It's a big broadsheet in color with features about culture, and art and politics and investigations. They'll print 20,000 copies at $5, and sell out.

Then people will pay up to $14..."a sign that even the hip, jaded and highly wired residents of San Francisco still cared about newspapers." So this one time phenomenon will stand as a statement...a suggestion...of how it might be possible to dazzle and amaze people with newsprint.

I'm not sure why McSweeney's Publishing House in Boston decided to spend 11 months writing what appears to be a one-shot deal. But the success can't be ignored. Everyone just had to have one, it seems.

Potemkin Village: A Useful Term for Our Time

Reading a story in the WSJ tonight I came across an excellent word that prompted me to delve into its meaning. That is, Potemkin Village. As in, 'they planted a potemkin forest to block the highway.' It goes back to Catherine the Great's tour of Crimea in 1787, when a fake village was built, using facades of buildings, to impress the monarch and her travel party with the value of the her new conquests, enhancing her hosts' standing in the empress' eyes.

Later on, the Soviets built similar Potemkin Villages to fool visiting foreigners. Select villages, factories or schools were selected to be presented as typical, rather than exceptional. Other uses include places like Delaware or the Cayman Islands, where international companies base their headquarters but conduct their real business elsewhere.

As recently as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing the term came to life, when describing the host city as 'kind of a Potemkin Olympic Village.'

Captured by the Snowfall

I am looking out at a serene backyard, dappled with sun. Yet in my part of the woods, the winds rage, the rain pours down on top of the big snowfall. Happily plugged in, I manage to 'kill time' a bit here in NJ while rides home are sorted out and routes don't include traveling over snow. Plans to board a 'Hound to get home were scrubbed, which left me a chance to visit a shopping mall. Weather has wreaked havoc over my schedule, so I pass time here in NJ instead of at home.

This mall is Princeton's oldest, and dates back to when I was very young. There is still a sentimental attachment to this little mall, with outdoor walkways, and no big chain tenants. It was once the home of the Acme Supermarket, now it's a high-end grocer. I noticed that the stores I like the best, both here and in a traditional mall, only pop up at this time of the year. They are coming through and hoping to cash in during December, and by January, they'll be gone. Sort of itinerant retailers...too timid to jump in all the way, so they only open in December.

It was rows and rows of dog breed calendars that commanded a lot of my attention that day. Portuguese water dogs, isn't the the Presidential breed now? I did some shopping and am relaxing now in that famous home that I grew up in.

Princeton Shopping Center is where Jon and my sister first opened a cafe, theirs was right here, on the corner, and out front was a bookstore. Now in its place was a great kitchen store called Ace Housewares. I thought they were only for hardware, but this place was stocked!

I think that was when I got the cafe bug, to open my own place like my sister had done, (twice) and now my cousin Chelsea is working at a cafe. Her's features a forklift right in the cafe area and super fancy, stainless steel espresso machines. Plus a shiny grinder that made me very envious. Visiting other cafes always gives me equipment envy.

The Narrative Pollutes the Minds of Muslims

My parents get two newspapers every day at their New Jersey home. One of them is the Trenton Times, which publishes Thomas Friedman's column, as does the NY Times, their second newspaper. I read him today and as usual, agree with what he has to say.

It's about the Narrative...a series of lies and fabrications that's the talk of the Arab street. Jihadist websites, mosque preachers and Arab satellite TV stations broadcast an oft repeated tale of how the US government is trying to wipe out Islam. That the war on terror is war on Muslims, and it's all a grand 'Crusader conspiracy.'

But what about the muslims the US and allies have fought for, in Darfur, Bosnia, Somalia and post-earthquake Pakistan? asked Friedman. He rightly points out that the muslims who are dying are at the hands of other muslims, jihadist suicide bombers and the like.

Interestingly, a million muslims take the streets and protest Danish cartoons supposedly badmouthing Mohammed. Yet there are no street protests against the muslims who are bombing other muslims and conspiring to kill thousands of Americans!

Wild Things Are Captures Boyhood's Emotions

We staggered out of the theater in Davis Square this afternoon after seeing Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze's brilliant adaptation of the Maurice Sendak children's classic. The emotion that he's able to squeeze out of 20-foot-high characters in elaborate costumes and CGI faces took our breath away. Those eyes and those gigantic faces were so poignant, and the story of a little misunderstood boy so powerful, it made Sam and me both weep.

Starting out in the real world of conflicts and mom's dates, and the kinds of misunderstandings and trouble that any nine-year-old gets into, we travel with Max by boat to a mysterious shore where the wild things live. We know we'll see glimpses of the conflicts and the difficulties that launched this runaway voyage, yet they're subtle, sly, and never hit us over the head.

When Max becomes King, having lied about his king-qualifications to these skeptical yet believing giants, that crown on his little head becomes a burden. "You're not a good king," complains Carol, the horned wild thing that we all know from the book's cover, with the great big toothy smile. Voiced by James Gandolfini, this a tough, misunderstood giant bonds with our protagonist, Max, who 'is kind of small to be a king...but that's ok.'

I can't remember a young actor who better captures what it's like to be misunderstood, feel like the cause of all your family's problems, and at the same time revel in the joys of life with the wild things. Who wouldn't love sleeping in a pig pile and roaring at the ocean with all of your pals?

But like all dreams, or lives, eventually it's time to sail home across the seas, and say goodbye to new friends who have come to realize who Max really is. It's hard, and there are tears, but Mom is waiting when he runs back down his street to the safety of home.

The Supercomputing Center in Holyoke Is Coming

Just last week we were enjoying long, long days as the southern hemisphere moved into its summer. More than once we would be having dinner at 8 or 9 o'clock and the striking light outside made us swear that it was about 5. Today as I sit in Holyoke and look out over a light dusting of snow, I realize that yes, it will be pitch black at 5 pm, and no, we're not headed toward any summer just yet.

I joined many friends from Holyoke at a party that we attend every year on River Terrace. Among the topics of conversation was the computing center that is going to be built somewhere in the Paper City. It will take advantage of all of the water in the canals which can be used to cool thousands of PCs that run in datacenters, plus the electricity that is made by hydropower and costs a third less than in other cities.

Nobody really knows exactly when this super computer facility will be built; or exactly where it will rise up. Parson's Paper Mill and the buildings near Open Square appear to be the front runners, according to Jeff Hayden, of GCC who was once the city's chief promoter.

Though I'm only a weekend Holyoker, I take full part in the revitalization here; attending the meetings, the functions and blogging it up to help spread the enthusiasm. I think we'll look back on 2009 as the year that the city finally realized its potential, and started to really grow.

Along with this exciting news about the future, I heard some depressing stories of the present, about Holyoke's treasurer. Apparently he had a shoebox full of excise tax checks never deposited, failed to send in premiums for teacher's health insurance and played a lot of golf during the work day. Glad to see that he didn't get re-elected, good riddance!

He Wants to Race Cars Down a Steep Slope

It's great to be back and reading the local paper the Recorder: I heard about Mik Muller's idea to have fun...by racing homemade carts down a steep hill in Turner's Falls. It's named, 'gravity-power' but the truth is what male can ever resist something that involves rolling fast carts down a dangerous, curving hill. (photo: Paul Franz/Recorder)

Muller wants to hold a gravity powered derby here next September 18th. Different ages would have separate races. Already one selectman has given him the thumbs up. "I like it," said Patricia Allen. When I showed this newspaper story to several other men, their thumbs all went up too.

Muller is no slacker when it comes to his own passion about the idea. "This ig going to be huge. Every single person I talk to is really excited." If there are any other engineers and scientists out there who want to help with planning, contact Mik at Montague.net.

In the Seafinn's Cozy Cabin, Enjoyment Inside and Out

When I reviewed our itinerary for this trip, I didn't realize that we had saved the best part of the trip for last. Nine years ago I did what nearly every visitor to NZ's South Island does; I took a bus trip down to Milford Sound and went on an overnight cruise on the Milford Wanderer.

Since those days, guides here told us that the solitude I remember from way back then is no more---now more than 20 boats ply Milford's waters, and there are lines of up to five boats at a time at many of the dramatic water falls that bring such renown to the place.

We choose to visit Doubtful Sound instead, three times as large and far less crowded with boats and tourists. The boat was also key--it was a 60' cabin cruiser with just twelve passengers and two crew. When we came aboard and saw the table in the cabin that we'd all gather around for meals, I knew at once it would be more than a chance to see a World Heritage Sight like Fjordlands up close...it would mean making friends with our fellow voyagers in that cozy cabin.

Gill and Steve, from Liverpool, had rented a caravan for their NZ holiday, and they told us tales of getting used to living in 'their shell' which both surprised and delighted them. We made mental notes to investigate this option on our next trip. Brian and Eva, two actors from New York turned out to be a couple we'd seen at the Red Cliff Restaurant in Te Anau, and were charming and fun. So many stories, and so much time to get to know people as we all delighted in watching the bottlenose dolphins who frolicked in the boat's wake and performed tricks for us as we cruised the remote fjord. Whales have been spotted here, as well as several other species of dolphins...up on an island, we saw Fjordland crested penguins jumping into the water.

Perhaps the most fun for me was when we dropped fishing lines baited with barracuda into the rolling waves of the Tasman Sea. We pulled up about ten fish, including my prize cod that took the prize for the biggest catch. Tasting these filets, hours old, that night was a true pleasure.

But it wasn't the fish, nor the perfectly sunny weather, nor the staggering scenery, it was a feeling that once again, our favorite country never disappoints us. How many times can a return trip to a beloved place turn out to be just as much fun as the last time? Count one for NZ!

Will Mount Aspiring Park Be Mined?

Mount Aspiring is up there in the clouds, this is the glacier as seen from down on the river. Unlike the glaciers up north, this is not actually in danger of melting away, we were told that every year it gets bigger in the winter and smaller in the summer, but hasn't shrunk the way its cousins in the north have.

In the paper a story said that the NZ Green party leaked a memo that laid out a plan for the government to allow mining for gold, chromium and nickel in up to 20% of Mount Aspiring National Park.

"Browlee's bulldozers" a negative reference to Energy Secretary Gerry Browlee shows how charged up this issue is...and host of groups here are ferociously opposed to the idea.

Another topic that gets people riled up is using 1080 poison dropped by air to kill the possums and stoats which eat up to 95% of the native bird's eggs. There are very strong opinions on both sides, but no one disputes that these introduced species breed wildly and are eating tons of the bush every night. Some say to trap them, and some towns create sanctuaries where they poison an area inside an inpenetrable fence, then bring kiwis and other birds back to live without threat of possums and stoats eating their eggs.

Getting Online in NZ: "Please Don't Skype!"

We love New Zealand like an adopted son, but there is one little thing that we also love and miss terribly during our time here. That would be our seamless, fast, cheap and always reliable web connections in the US.

People here actually pay for bandwidth...yes, that's right nobody knows what their monthly bill will be. So as we checked into this B&B by Lake Manapouri, the proprietor told us that we couldn't use Skype, our favorite means of calling home. Nope, it takes too much bandwidth. Ugh. We also laughed because the password she handed us was CIA-level strong, a string of about 50 letters and numbers that required very careful typing. It made us appreciate the first place we stayed where there was no password.

We've been so used to our iPhones and the easy means with which we get our email it's taken some adjustments. But it's hardly worth a quibble, even though for the next 30 hours we'll be out of all range in the gloriously remote Doubtful Sound.

This boat trip will take us over Lake Manapouri, then a 45-minute bus, then to a boat called the SeaFinn which will cruise all the way to the ocean overnight. I am sure it will be raining most of the time since it's one of the world's wettest places. Silent tall fjord cliffs and no one there but us.

Milford Sound is the number one South Island attraction, every day dozens of buses wind their way down the famous road to this fjord...but we chose the less crowded Doubtful Sound with much of the same topography (in the same Fjordland National Park) but less traveled.

Imagine Her Relief When Her Husband Came Home

We took a stunningly scenic drive down to Manapouri from Queenstown and en route bought the Otago Daily Times, 'the voice of the south.' A front page story was about an Auckland woman whose 14-month-old son mistakenly locked her in a closet and she had to endure seven hours while the toddler had the run of the house, with her pounding in vain for hours to try and get help.

Her husband wasn't expected home until midnight, her brother, Andrew, not until 11 pm. It was 10 am and she listened anxiously as the child grew weary of hearing stories through the closet door and began crashing and banging around their Mount Eden home.

All of her screaming upset the youngster who began to cry. So she entertained him for a bit more time by playing with her fingers beneath the door, all the while trying to ram it back open to no avail. After an agonizing seven hours, her husband decided to blow off the after work function and came home at 4:30. You can just imagine her relief hearing that car pull into the driveway!