Every city has its Penn Station. Every modern city, at some point, eats its young and then regrets the decision. New York wrecked its cathedral to rail travel. London knocked down Euston Station and tossed it into the swamps. And Berlin, ironically, had its Wall. Yesterday in Berlin, I asked a wide-eyed German working on… Read more »
“I wonder if they have Ed Hardy up here.” “How did I learn Italian? I came for study abroad.” To a gondolier: “Where in the river do you go?” “This place is like a jigsaw puzzle. I’ll show you.” “East of the Mississippi, there are more deer now than in 1607. Whaddaya think of that?”… Read more »
It started when I stepped on my laptop. I learned that when you step on a laptop screen, it makes a satisfying crunching sound, but the satisfaction is extremely short-lived. That horrifying incident happened right after the Eurovision broadcast ended. I immediately phoned Apple to see if I could get it fixed quickly. My friends… Read more »
I saw Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the Public Theater. It grabbed me. Musicals that portray little-known aspects of American life strike a chord in me: Floyd Collins and Dreamgirls are two of my favorites, and my thesis musical at NYU, Americo Presents the Stars and Stripe Cavalcade, was a Cabaret-style skewering of all those… Read more »
Last weekend, someone introduced me to CatPaint for the iPhone. I am afraid I have not used the discovery for good. All this app does is take any picture and let you stamp it with pictures of kitties. Each time you add one, your iPhone meows. That’s it. Yet it’s knee-slappingly hilarious. Here is a… Read more »
When I was in Branson a few weeks ago, my buddy Kenny Kleiber tuned me into College of the Ozarks, which runs an ice cream parlor that sells ice cream made by its students. I’d written about this place a few times before, both for WalletPop.com and for the departed Arthur Frommer’s Smart Shopping magazine,… Read more »
What can I say about this one? In the green room, the monitor was showing Bill O’Reilly doing his pre-tapes for guests for Thursday’s show. Dennis Miller did his segment, and John McCain was starting his just as I was called to sit in the chair. It’s nothing short of distracting to hear him prepping… Read more »
A few weeks ago, the Library of Congress announced that it would be archiving every public tweet ever sent on Twitter. So I thought it would be a fun idea to head down to Washington, DC, and find out exactly where all those tweets would indeed be living, and why such an esteemed archival entity… Read more »
I’m talkin’ scams. What I said is really true, by the way. Someone really did try to call me this very morning to get personal information out of me. Don’t do it, America! By the way, did you know Chef Boyardee is a real person?
On Saturday, I pretended to go to Portland, Oregon. There was a conference of travel editors going on, and because they were all using the Twitter tag #satwpdx, I was able to follow what the various speakers were saying. (Go to a professional conference from a diner table at the Star on 18th!) That was… Read more »