Try this Triggerfish...It's Abundant and It's Good!

In South and North Carolina, Georgia and Eastern Florida, January brought new restrictions to what fishermen can catch and sell out of the local waters. That's because some popular species like grouper, red snapper, black sea bass and red porgy are becoming too rare--and need time to increase their numbers.

A story by Christine Muhlke in today's NY Times magazine profiled a fisherman named Mark Marhefka, who is now delivering abundant species like triggerfish and other 'trash fish' to seafood restaurants who once turned up their noses at the stuff.

"If I don't make Abundant Seafood work, I won't be able to survive being a commercial fisherman anymore," he said. There is something satisfying to me about people using the many types of fish in the sea who aren't endangered, by simply showing people how to cook them. The story included a recipe for triggerfish, it seems that the biggest effort is convincing people that they can enjoy an unknown species instead of their regular snapper and grouper.

These fish are often caught a mile from a restaurant but then trucked to a warehouse across the state before its delivered a few miles from where it first docked. Marhefka sells his line-caught fish after he gets the orders while he's on the boat...and only has to deliver it a few miles from where he docks.

"Honey, They Shrank the Newspaper!"

A chill went through me this morning when the oil company called, telling me that if I wanted a heating oil delivery today it would cost me an extra $100, since it was Saturday. These are the same people who I made famous when I signed a 'budget plan' and ended up paying $4.20 a gallon all year when the average price of oil was about $2.65.

But no, they wouldn't come out, and so I did a 'number 8' as the Kiwis would say. I drove down to Wal-Mart and bought a 5 gallon jerry can. Then I poured the soapy fuel into my oil tank, and prayed it would last until Monday.

While I was at the gas station, I saw a box with the local daily newspaper inside. "Honey, they shrank the paper," I thought, noticing that this broadsheet paper has now become a tiny little tabloid like the Boston Herald. A woman in Cumbies told me that they only shrunk Saturday and Monday's papers, and the rest of the week they print the full broadsheet size.

I know that they have big money problems at most papers, but this is a dramatic shift. Printing it sideways and turning the Republican into a part-time tab means far less column inches to sell ads in. But then again, they'll use half as much paper.

He Didn't Listen to His Woman...and She Didn't Let Him Forget!

I got a call yesterday from a reporter named Agnes Pawlowski from CNN.com. They were doing a feature on dirty hotels and wanted some quotes. I was happy to pull out this old chestnut, a classic case of a man who should have trusted the wiser instincts of his better half. Here's the passage.

"Max Hartshorne said his girlfriend will never let him forget the time he booked a hotel room in Los Angeles, California, based on the low price.

The couple, from South Deerfield, Massachusetts, were on their way to New Zealand and just needed a room for the night. Hartshorne, the editor of the travel Web site GoNomad.com, said he had a bad feeling when the hotel shuttle that was to pick them up from the airport turned out to be a dented, decrepit van. The hotel itself was a dump in a seedy neighborhood, Hartshorne said.

"It was dirty, it was a bummer and it was the classic thing where the woman is telling the man not to do something and the man thinks it's the cheapest," he added. The couple ended up scrambling to find another place to stay."

Thanks for reaching out CNN, glad to provide fodder for your travel site!

He Teaches Physics...and Can Explain It

Last night I attended a meeting of the local cable TV station. A sort of goofy guy my age sat down next to me, and said he was there because his son was attending the meeting. "I'm the driver," he explained. But later as we sat together eating pizza, he told me what he did, and it threw me.

"I teach physics at Smith College," he said. I love it when people tell you 'what they do' and they impress you. I mean, physics, hey that's gotta be the ultimate geek genius department. I asked him how his students use physics in their day to day lives, and how it stays relevant. His answer reflected the wisdom of one who has lectured for many years.

"Physics gives you the basis for how to analyze a problem, how to systematically figure out what is what, and how the processes fit together." Then he explained a question to me that my sister posed that had stumped me a few months ago--how do radio waves transmit sound to our ears?

"It's all various levels of spectrum," he began. "Whether its xrays, or radio sound waves, or cellphone transmissions, they're all different levels of spectrum that nobody can see, but each diffferent type of activity uses a different section of this spectrum." Spectrum is what Verizon and AT&T spent billions on in the US government auction last year. They want to own more of the wave space so that their customers phones can transmit on it.

Deliciously complicated, it's one of those topics that I love exploring. Even if I don't totally get it.

High Speed Rail in Western Mass: Yes, We Can!

Train service is one of the things that travelers know is much better in Europe and Asia than in the US. Who hasn't traveled to say, Switzerland or England, and marveled at the speed and the efficiency of their rail transport? I took a train across Austria a few years ago and it was one of the most marvelous travel experiences I can remember. I took notes of the many things I saw out the window as we sped toward the ski resort town of Kitzbuhel from Graz.

Today I was happy to read about the new funding for high-speed rail that will turn our I-91 corridor, along the Connecticut River, into a new high speed rail track. Stations that haven't seen passengers since the 1960s like Greenfield and Holyoke will get new rail service.

The people who aren't happy are the devoted rail-users of Amherst, who pleaded with Amtrak not to change the route. But taking a detour over to Palmer and Amherst adds 45 minutes to the Vermont-New York route. Amherst was overruled, thank God, and now the trains will follow the most logical way, straight up and down. I can't wait to board the train in Greenfield or Holyoke, just as soon as the tracks and the stations are ready to go!

Obama Thinks He Can Sell Us Anything

I voted for Obama, like everyone I know. But it's been hard for me to put into words why I'm disappointed in how his presidency has worked out. Despite the virulent naysayers who can't find anything amiss, I found a writer, Bret Stephens of the WSJ, who put it into words for me.

It's been a year of rebuffs, from people who Obama insisted we just had to reach out to and would find common ground and move ahead--wrong!

First, make the Czech and Poles mad by giving up missile bases there, to try to get Moscow to be tougher on Iran. NO! Then a snub of the Dalai Lama, to make China like us? NO!

Then speeches in the Middle East are met with 'meh!' in the region Egypt's 27% favorable view of the US tops the list. France? Sarkozy openly suspects the President is weak.

Healthcare is an issue I feel strongly about, but most Americans don't like the current bill. Obama thinks he can just sell us all, and look what happened in Massachusetts.

Stephen's point is that piling up a $12 trillion deficit is turning even those who want to love him into doubters.

In the Slums of Naples, Bosses are Challenged

In the gloom that we called Sunday afternoon, we watched a movie filmed in contemporary Naples called Gomorrah. Like its Biblical namesake, this southern Italian city is indeed a place full of vices and the portrayal of life in the tenements was gritty and grim.

It was one of those movies where you miss a lot, despite the subtitles, because the nuanced conversations between youth, or aging mafiosis, are hard to put down in writing. The neighborhood's apartments--hovels with screaming kids and other loud noises--are supported by the mob. A man named Don Ciro metes out the payouts, and nearly every recipient grumbles that they aren't getting enough.

A pair of snot-nosed kids who think they're tough begin to annoy the mobsters. They come across a cache of automatic weapons, and the next scene is of these two teenagers in their bikini briefs, firing off machine-gun rounds on a beach. You just know they'll regret stealing those guns.

In a parallel plot, an experienced tailor named Pasquale betrays his Italian boss by conspiring to teach low-paid Chinese competitors to make the couture dresses in a sweatshop. They smuggle Pasquale into the factory and with a translator, he shows the eager Chinese how to make dresses just like the more expensive native tailors. Eventually, the car he's riding in is driven off the road and crashes. It's just not a good idea to mess with these guys.

When Times Are Tough, Give and You Get

January is a tough month, as anyone with a payroll and hungry vendors can attest. But it is wise to consider that every year, we survive and thrive and make it to February and beyond. I called up my sister this morning and she gave me some interesting advice. Counter-intuitive, yet compelling.

"When you're struggling, that's the best time to have benefits, and donate to charity. If you give when things are difficult, you get back when times are flush. It really works." She recommends we organize a benefit, or try to reach out and help people. I think there is truth to the notion that giving gets, and I hope that I can get some traction for my idea of helping local people who are unemployed by offering assistance at the cafe.

I put this out in our newsletter but didn't get any bites. Could it be that everyone on our cafe email list is gainfully employed and doesn't need help?

I keep thinking that offering people the chance to use our computers, sharpen up their resumes, and brainstorm about how they can get jobs and get their careers on track is a service we could offer. Do you know anyone who is out of work and needs our help? Please send them our way.

It's the Time of Year When We Hate It Here

Now is the time that every one of us here in New England settles into our winter funk. We ask ourselves why we do this, why we live in a place that for so much of the year is unfriendly because people are so cold. Slipping around on ice, trying to start nearly frozen cars, not wanting to go for a walk 'cause it's too damn cold. The whole thing puts me in a foul mood.

The only bright spot is that all of us have been going back to the gym, doing Zomba and aerobics and working out in our own ways. That is my bright spot in this sea of ice-cold dreariness. The feeling of elation when I leave the gym lasts for a few hours, until I settle back into being cold.

I got sent a lifeline when I spoke with a PR rep about the Azores. These seven islands are only four hours away from Boston, via a direct flight. The average temperature there is in the mid-sixties at this time of year. Portugal owns these ancient volcanic islands, and they want us to come see them. I am rearranging things in order to make this short escape. If all goes well we will end this dreadful month hiking in green forests of the Azores.

At the Neighborhood Watch, We Share Our Stories

Last night a meeting was held in a Holyoke elementary school, gathering people together who live in Ward 7. It was about forming a neighborhood watch, after many of us had been burglarized. When the official from the Sheriff's office asked who had been broken into, a majority of people's hands went up....incredibly, more than two thirds of the gathered crowd of about 80 people had been recent victims of crime!

One street, Fairfield Avenue, seems to be the epicenter. Again and again we heard people tell their experiences with daytime burglaries, or in some cases, people breaking in at night and scaring the wits out of them. "Who can guess how many patrol cars are out on the streets between 4 and 11 pm? asked the official. "Six."

That means they depend on people to call police, or to provide information on the anonymous tip lines that they man at the Ludlow jail. One woman said she had moved to Holyoke a week ago, and she lives on ...Fairfield Ave. She hasn't felt safe since hearing about all of the break-ins, and she was distressed to hear even more details.

The Sheriff's official advised that people should close their blinds, so as not to tempt bad guys with their big screen TVs and other stuff, and that bushes provide good hiding places for those in the process of breaking in. "But we are all in this together. We have to look out for eachother. Get to know your neighbors, know who lives to the right, left and across. That's how we can make this work."

Tucker Hartshorne as Joe Kennedy Singing "Shake Hands"

Chris Hartshorne, We Already Miss You

A great big light has gone out in our family. Our gregarious, hilarious, fun-loving and smiling cousin Chris, known to most as Tucker, has passed away. It's damn hard to believe that he won't be around to smile and charm us, and bring us back so many memories just by being his wonderful self.


READ COMMENTS FROM HIS MANY FRIENDS ON HIS PASSING HERE

Chris was an animal trainer who worked with major studios providing them with animal characters that he taught to do tricks and follow instructions. One of the last things I read about on the blog created after he fell sick was about his friends who had to rustle up the goats that they brought into the Saturday Night Live studios for a skit. He was Susie's partner for 30 years, he was a devoted husband and had hundreds of friends...we found that out when he married and so many people came to celebrate with them.

Chris and Susan have been a fixture...he more than anyone else, brought us closer together as cousins, aunts and brothers and sisters. Chris loved the family legacy, the old Essie stories, and life in the 1960s and earlier. I remember he had a 1954 pick-up that he loved driving around, he brought it up to my prep school and stayed with me in my dorm room for a few nights. He loved old black R&B crooners and he loved playing music. He did it for a living for two decades.

I just can't believe he's gone.

'Hoarders' Makes Me Want to Throw More Stuff Out

Christina and Janet are two middle aged women with the same terrible problem. They were profiled on a chilling television program on A&E called 'Hoarders,' which showed their jam-packed houses where piles upon piles of clothing, boxes and thousands of other things lie in disgusting piles. There are narrow trails that the women and their children navigate to get to the bathroom, and both of the women's bedrooms are their epicenters of clutter. The kitchen? Worse than you can imagine, with every dish balanced, Dr Suess style, on top of the sink and counters.

It's a disease....not just a personality trait. The aerial views of the piles and the semi-soft focus makes it all look even worse. The subjects are shown in tight facial shots, explaining the circumstances that caused them to value those boxes of plastic children's toys and six-year-old newspaper clippings. Each has her own reasons for this spiral into living in a cluttered hovel.

But the time comes after the therapists arrive and men in blue shirts come with big trucks, prepared to rid these poor families of their clutter. But each trash bag must be gone through, each discarded child's shirt or sheet of paper must be approved. It gets tough, the most hard core hoarder retreats to her bedroom, the bed closed in by a mountain of clothes. Still, the second woman soldiers on, letting it all just....go.

We are treated to a refreshing sweep of the now decluttered house, it's like the euphoria of showing a new house to a new tenant. Janet weeps as she sees her living room in a state that won't embarrass her daughters. Christina never quites gets into the groove, and settles back into a depressing and cluttered state.

If You Get Pulled Over, Don't Flash a Bogus Badge

"Do you know who I am?" is the well-worn phrase that people who think they're important use when confronted with hurdles like being pulled over by a cop, or a big long line. In today's Gazette, I read about a former selectman who tried the same thing when he was pulled over for speeding on Route 9 this month.

David Moskin waved a badge 'vigorously' out the drivers-side window as the patrol officer sat writing his ticket. He says now that he was trying to show that 'he was a local,' but to the police officials this smells like 'do you know who I am?" It reminds me of those stickers people post on their rear windows, proclaiming how they support their local troopers. Hey, anything is worth a shot I guess.

Now the town of Hadley is looking into all of those badges they gave out to former police commissioners, the purpose of which they are hard-pressed to explain. When Moskin was pulled over for doing 44 in a 30-mile-an-hour zone, he told the officer a former board member said to show that badge if he was ever pulled over. Oops. The cop seized the badge.

If We Can Imagine It...It Can Be Done

I drove down to Costco for supplies, and as I often do, took the longer slower way through the flats of Holyoke up to Cindy's. I stopped by this bridge and got a good look at the former Parson's Paper factory, burned up and wreckage.

This might someday be the home of the high-speed computing center, full of servers and smart people, all bringing the biggest high tech project that Western Mass has ever seen. Right here, right next to this canal, which will bring cooling water in...imagine it.

I look forward to coming back to this forlorn little bridge to see a gleaming high tech building with multiple photovoltaic cells, maybe a green grassed roof, and people coming and going in pursuit of high tech wizardry.

An Eminence Grise Speaks Out in Favor of Lord Leno

I read in today's NY Times about an NBC executive who came to the sudden defense of the chin--also known as Jay Leno--who has been attacked recently by his fellow late-night talk show hosts.

Ebersol says its gutless, and 'chicken hearted' for Conan to be mad at Jay, because the reason he's being cancelled is simply low ratings.

"Ebersol is an eminence grise at the network, with a longstanding relationship with CEO Jeff Zucker." wrote the Time's Bill Carter.

I love that term, eminence grise, and found out that it means grey eminence, and originally referred to Francois Leclerc du Tremblay, right hand man of Cardinal Richelieu. Leclerc wore beige robes which in those days people called grey, and had a lot of influence over his eminence the cardinal.

The term refers to a person who is a powerful advisor or decision maker without an official title. Like the president's wife, or somebody else who speaks unofficially but carries a lot of weight.

Ebersol is head of NBC's sports department, but once ran entertainment. So he can speak as a powerful behind the scenes guy, maybe a little more candidly since he's buddies with the big boss.

While the Tourist Boat Passes, She Flashes Boobs

It's a whirlwind of a day and finally, the cafe is chugging on all eight cylinders, shaking off a lousy few weeks of post-holiday doldrums. With my most excellent staff handing all of the soup and pannini making, I had time to do what I should be doing, publishing stories and planning new trips.

I got an invite to do the old 'social media' thing and yak about South Florida, and I'm hashing out details. Boy, Fort Lauderdale sounds good just about now, even though temps down there are hardly balmy. But even 60 degrees is an improvement for most of us New Englanders. I hope we can include an airboat trip in the Everglades as well as a boat tour of the estates of the rich and famous along Lauderdale's canals. I remember doing this back in 1993 and while the boat full of gawkers passed by, a woman pulled up her top and gave us all a show. The boat's captain was a comedian, and riffed off the many famous rich people who made their homes in this tony city of canals.

I am still optimistic that Panama will fall into place, and in the fall Cindy and I will be going to Peru. But the thing is that we never know what might come up between now and then. That's what makes it all so fun.

This Has Gotta Be a Plant...

A new study finds that couples who do more housework have more sex on average than those who slack on keeping the house tidy. After interviewing almost 7,000 couples about their household chores and frequency of sex, researchers found a direct correlation between the two. More housework completed = more fun in the bedroom.

But the division of labor needs to be equal — or at least close to equal. In households where the woman does significantly more of the housework, the couples reported having sex about 36 times a year. Compare that to households where the husband steps up and helps close to the same amount as his partner? They have sex at least 15 times more per year.

The researchers don’t suggest that the key factor here is the amount of work on the house husband’s put in. Rather, they concluded it was a “go-get-’em” or “get it done” attitude that motivated them to keep their houses tidy and not skimp on sex.

“Rather than compromise their sex life, this group of go-getters seem to make sex a priority,” the authors of the study found.

Lava in Antigua

photo by Kyle Hammons

Life in a Little Village, Joyous to Have No Commute

I just got back from bringing my grandson Nathan to school. It's less than a half mile from my house, and the same tiny distance from my office. As I drove home I thought about the difference between my life in 2010, and my car-oriented life of 2004. I used to fill my gas tank twice a week, and drove all the way down to the Connecticut border every day in that old life.

As gas prices tightened up and our website became more profitable, my need to drive fell away. After January of 2005 I never had to leave this little village for work. There is something right about this, I think. Picking up a four-year-old to go to school is a joy for me...as my own mother says often about the time she spends with her grandchildren, these little times spent in the company of the tiny are pleasures, not responsibilities.

The price of gas flew up in 2008, and I remember thinking of how glad I am that I don't need those two tanks of gas any more. As I sit here in the cafe, looking out of the windows at the passing cars, I am glad I'm not joining them on their journey. No, my little circle of business, family and friends are right here in my village.

The Dinosaurs Can Attest: Asteroids Are Dangerous

I tore an op-ed piece out of one of last week's WSJ's because it both worried and reassured me. It was about asteroids, one of which is expected to nearly hit the earth in 2032. It's a long time from now, but in Russia, they are gearing up to actually do something about it.

Russia has experience being hit with giant asteroids. In 1908 a 100-foot wide chunk of matter hit Tungusa Siberia, and destroyed 100 million trees, flattening 1000 square miles. That's what a mere 100-foot long monster can do. But the asteroid named Aphophis is a whopping 1000 feet across, as big as the Rose Bowl, and what it can do is the thing of armageddon. Ugh. It would destroy an area as big as France and would have a blast effect 100,000 times worse than Hiroshima.

Needless to say, the Russians are right to be thinking about this. The idea is to go out into deep space and try to alter Aphophis' trajectory. While NASA's manned space missions have been abandoned due to budget cuts in the US, there is still interest in landing on the asteroid. That would give us time to study the thing and see if we can destroy it. Or maybe it will just miss us, and we don't have anything to worry about.

Spike Lee's 'Miracle at St. Anna' a Bloody Mess

Last night I watched a Spike Lee movie. It was terrible, and it was very long. Amazingly, I kept on until the bitter end, until the last bullet hole was drilled into a body with spurting blood, until the final Nazi machine gunner was thrown down and the last leg stump made an appearance.

It was "Miracle at St. Anna," a World War two movie filmed near a town in Tuscany where we stayed for a week a few years ago. I wanted to see those scenes from a familiar place, Barga, but this film was one of the goriest and bloodiest I've ever sat through.

The plot is far too complicated to try to explain, but it starts with a murder in a post office and takes the long way to explain why this was justified, if revenge for even worse previous deeds is worth it. The usual Lee rancor over ancient racism comes up here, as we are taken back to the Jim Crow south where blacks can't get served. But this time Lee comes back with a vengance, having the soldiers who were denied ice cream storm back with guns drawn to make that stupid cracker give them some respect.

And did I mention the shooting, bombing and carnage? Somebody turned that up a notch, Lee even combines a bare bloody breast with dying babies who get stabbed by evil Nazis. It goes on and on, and somehow, on a beach in the Bahamas, it's all supposed to tie together. It doesn't.

The Kingdom: "We Will Kill Them All"

"Watch your mouth. Don't use those curse words!" Faris chastised the only Jewish member of the FBI investigative team as they surveyed the damage from a massive bombing and shooting attack at an American compound in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We were watching a 2007 film called "The Kingdom" and the action was fast and furious with bombs hitting SUVs and blood spurting out of maimed bodies.

Saudi Arabia is a tough place for any American, especially a Jew with passport stamps from three trips to Israel. The movie begins by showing how the Saud family became the absolute rulers in 1938, and how a group of about 10,000 royals live in baronial splendor as their citizens, half of whom have no rights, seethe. The film is about a realistic but fictional attack on an American compound, and the team of four FBI agents who come to try to solve the horrible crime.

They are hindered mightily at first by their minder Faris, the one who doesn't like curse words. No, you can't touch any evidence. No, you can't go up on that roof where the bombers videotaped their awful deed. It takes a visit with a prince to give them any room at all to do their work. They aren't supposed to be in the country at all, and a state department flack keeps trying to get them on a plane home.

All around them people are planning new bomb attacks and filling vests with explosives. One telling moment close to the end sums up the frustrating dead-end all of this hatred leads to: While our hero Jamie Fox promises his young son he will kill all of the terrorists, a dying bomber tells his young grandson they will kill all the infidels and make them leave forever.

Role Reversal: Trying to Snag an Intern

We had a visit last night from a tall Chinese student named Sitian. He is a computer science major at UMass, and he applied for an internship with GoNOMAD. For the first time, the roles were reversed, and we were in a new position of really, really wanting him to say yes to our program.

We've been hosting interns since the very earliest basement-days of the website. We've had at least one, mostly two journalism or communications majors as interns every year since 2005. They are always eager to come on board, and they write stories, send out link requests, update blogs and learn how to publish on the web. It's never hard to interest them in our internship program, and it's usually them convincing us that they're up to the job.

But last night my webmaster Joe and I were in a new position. Sitian told us about his computer work, involving facial recognition and creating complex databases, and said he had several other companies who he was considering. We thought about the database we want to build, and the complex programming challenges that have eluded us...this guy could really help us out, we thought, how do we get him interested in us?

I told him about the kind of experience we'd give him; and that an internship with us would round out his college experience. It wasn't just geek work, I said, it was a different set of challenges. He left after a 30-minute interview and said he'd let us know. We hope he says yes.

Aren't You Glad The Holidays Are Over?

I don't know about you but I can't remember another time when I was so glad to be back to our regular routine...no more holiday days off, no more closed cafe, no more distractions from the good work that we all love. No, it's simply, finally, Monday morning, January 4, 2010.

I'm a bit overwhelmed with all that there are so many things I should/could be doing. Where to begin? I felt good that I took the time to write out my goals for 2010 on New Year's Day. I guess the first place to begin is to print them out and post them up somewhere. Hey, everything takes a first step.

I am thinking about my travel calendar...bare at this point. I've gotten some nibbles for some South American destinations, but I've gotta press the flesh and work the phones to set up more. That's one thing I know how to do well.

In Virginia, the State Now Offers Payday Loans

Have you ever taken out a payday loan? These loans are famous in working-class and minority neighborhoods and can add up to as much as 400% annual interest! In Virginia, the state is trying out a new program that offers cash-strapped workers a way to avoid the trap of these predatory loans.

In a story in the Wall St. Journal, I learned that the state of Virginia will now offer between $100 and $500 to state employees, at an annual rate of 24.9 % interest. They have to join a credit union and the money is debited from their paychecks over six month period. Already more than 2700 employees have taken the state up on its offer.

Despite the healthy bottom lines of the many payday loan companies who have sprang up during our hard times, the story argues that offering these stopgap types of loans is essential to help the public avoid diving into the well of debt.