Month: July 2013

Fantastic Fail at Fox

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One of the things I really appreciate about being a journalist is that you can cover many different topics.  I’ve covered random things from pee-wee sports to international development to eyebrows to recovering lost pets.  Yes, when you pay your dues you have a strict beat – the school board, a certain neighborhood, a losing hockey team in the third poorest city in the country.

But after a while your beat grows into a Dave Brubeck covered by Miles Davis jazz riff, rather than the metronomic dictation of death by excel.  If you get high enough up the journalism food chain, your beat becomes a very vague or large concept, like my brother’s – which is parts of MENA or, say, religion. As of 2010, 84 percent of the world’s population (5.8 billion people) was religiously affiliated, mainly divided among 8 groups which included Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindi, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and others, including indigenous faiths.[1] Continue reading “Fantastic Fail at Fox” →

A new twist on locative gastronomy

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fieldtripFor the last year, I’ve been working with the International Institute of Buffalo,whose mission is twofold: to provide critical services to refugees and immigrants and promote global understanding and connections in Western New York, on creating a map of restaurants in the city.  At first, we were creating a map of restaurants started by those emigres/immigrants with connections to The Institute.   But then, the list of international food providers and restaurants serving foods from many different cultures grew to be even more inclusive.  Continue reading “A new twist on locative gastronomy” →

The Good Wife/Bad Woman?

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She’s got a name for headlines, and her politician husband a strange knack for keeping them in the limelight.  No , no time machine flashback, not Hillary, but her former aide de camp – Huma Adebin.  The Humanity, the Humaliation, the Humar of Wiener’s Wee-Wee-peat – the list could go on and on, but surprisingly, even the UK’s Daily Mail has been circumspect with “Huma Adebin Faces Backlash For Standing By Her Man.” This from a paper that has called Pippa Middleton’s 34b’s lolling and sagging, clearly not known for its restraint.  The New York Post, also not a harbinger of tact and decorum, went with “Pained Huma Backs Husband, Marriage.” A blog for New York Magazine went with “No Longer Flawless, Huma’s Been Humanized.” Ironically, Harper’s Bazaar, in an article penned by Adebin and printed previous to Anthony Weiner’s latest sexting scandal, opted for “The Good Wife.” Continue reading “The Good Wife/Bad Woman?” →

Dance To The Storm/Harbors Make Me Happy

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I am not afraid of the storm, for I am learning to sail my ship. Louisa May Alcott

I recently came across that quote and it stayed with me. Not only did this quote force my adult self, with its understanding of free will, to reevaluate my perception of Amy March (she is no longer just the Laurie stealing oh-no-she-diduhnt sister), but it brought to mind comforting nautical references.  From Genesis (Noah) and The Book Job to The Perfect Storm, from Homer to Shakespeare (who loved a good shipwreck) to Melville or even the celestial sailings of Winken, Blinken, Nod and Opus, literary works have used the sea and boats as a vast slew of devices – symbols, allegories, tropes and you name its. The sea, the shore, sailing – all are able to have several different meanings: vastness, redemption, opportunity, hardship, a vestige of what was once unconquered and also travel and former lives, the unknown, journeys both physical and figurative, and water, lots and lots of water. Continue reading “Dance To The Storm/Harbors Make Me Happy” →

Solo Travel

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If travelers have styles, mine is solo. No luxuries, no must-sees, no hard routes, and no invitations rejected by committee. Just an open mind and an open schedule. Sounds whimsical—and it is—but dropping the companions and traveling by yourself may well lead to the most rewarding experiences you’ll ever have.– Robert Young Pelton, for National Geographic

I am a big fan of traveling solo. As, it would seem, a lot of people are.  There is a thriving industry catering to solo travelers.  Why the boom in solo travel? Not just because more than 50 percent of adult Americans, Britains, Scandanavians and Japanese people live alone, but also because it gives people space to discover things about themselves as well as make personal connections that could not else wise be made.  A single person is much more approachable (this can be positive and also occasionally negative) than a large group.  Continue reading “Solo Travel” →