For most of the year, it's just too damn early to get up and out in time to get good sunrise photos. But the winter is a different story. While in Vancouver, B.C. last week, I noticed on my phone that sunrise wasn't until around...
The truly magisterial thing about life is that, when you wake up each morning, you can never be completely certain about what the day has in store for you. This applies to President Obama, Pope Francis, a weird guy I hired to rake leaves at...
Crispin Scott's semester abroad in Barcelona was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. But on January 6, 2012, the night before he was to attend the program's orientation session, the handsome 20-year-old math major and rugby star at Dartmouth met a tragic fate....
When it comes to barbers, I've never been very monogamous. Oh sure, I've had some good barbers whom I was faithful to for periods of time over the years. But something always comes between us–a long line of others waiting for the same guy, a...
I'm cheap and I don't care as much about my appearance as I probably should. That's why I don't mind patronizing beauty schools, where you can get a haircut–and sometimes a shampoo–for as little as five bucks. It takes longer because the students often have...
Here's a question I bet you haven't given much thought to: why the bloody hell is sexually assaulting a dog only a MISDEMEANOR in Oregon? Behold this revolting story in the (Bend)Bulletin about this depraved couple who are accused of sexually abusing children and also,...
"You got any trash for me?" asked the cute teenage girl at the Shell station dressed in an all-white 1950s soda-jerk style uniform. I thought I had heard her wrong. New to Oregon and its delightful law mandating that gas station attendants, not customers, pump the...
There are plenty of places to commune with nature in and around Bend, but I'd be hard pressed to think of a better place to spend the night than in a tent by the banks of the Metolius River at the Allen Springs Campground inside...
Where else but in Bend, Oregon can you take out 100 books at a time and then return them up to 7 days late with no fine? I'll be damned if I know. We moved to Bend from Evanston, Illinois, and I used to be...
If a place like Sparks Lake existed within 100 miles of a major city, the place would be a zoo. Thankfully it's in Central Oregon, just about a 40-minute drive from Bend along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. On a recent Saturday morning, there were...
The evolution of digital photography has made it cost effective to be a narcissist. And the emergence of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others provides today's Digital Narcissist (DN)-LOOK AT ME! LIKE THIS! FOLLOW ME!- with ample platforms to indulge their apparently...
When you're traveling across America via our interstate highways, it's easy to slip into a zombie-like trance where you are still awake and alive but only in a technical sense. For all intents and purposes, you are a dead man driving- drifting from one chain...
I don't expect PR flacks to be creative writers, but a little originality would be nice for a change. This morning I read this story in The New York Timesabout how Rutgers University cut their new quarterback, Philip Nelson, after he was implicated in a...
Is it my imagination or is every shitty fast food restaurant in America using the word "Tuscan" to describe menu items that have no connection to Tuscany whatsoever? First, at the risk of sounding like a big, I've been to Tuscany so give me a...
The news this week that Pope Francis told a woman married to a divorced man that she had the right to take communion had me thinking about another initiative I'd like to see the Pontiff tackle: streamlining mass. Don't get me wrong- I'd also like...
For more than four years, the parents of David Gimelfarb, a graduate student from Highland Park who went missing while on a hike in Costa Rica in 2009, have maintained hope that their son is still alive. They have returned to Costa Rica each August,...
I've been a compulsive traveler for more than twenty years. During that time, I have taken well over 100 trips to 45 U.S. states, 6 Canadian provinces and more than 50 countries. I have never, ever regretted a single trip. Travel is the one expenditure...
My son James is only 4 but he's already smart enough to know that he doesn't want to work for a living. His preschool is hosting a career dress up day this week where the students are supposed to dress up like a person working...
I'm all for cheap drinks but sometimes a drink is so cheap you can't help but be suspicious. On a recent trip to Spain I found myself shopping for sangria in a Barcelona supermarket. There were three choices: one was ˆ1.35, another ˆ1.10, and a...
If someone asked you, at age 5, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" What would you have said? My five-year-old son, Leo, graduated from preschool today and while you might laugh at the notion of a preschool commencement exercise, I have...
It was a perfectly imperfect game. Everyone made contact with the ball. Eventually. Errors were made- typically several on each play, though I'm not sure how the scoring works when teammates tackle each other in a rugby scrum fighting for a ground ball. And no...
My three-year-old son, James, is a brutally honest lad. "Daddy, I love mommy better than you," he says just about every week. And he's not kidding either. When my wife is out of town, he acts more loving toward me, but as soon as she returns, he's...
I'm the kind of guy who never forgets a good cookie. Eleven years ago, I worked for a publisher- Northwestern University Press in Evanston- and I used to frequent a place called Al's Deli that had otherworldly butter cookies. Al's was one of the few...
How great is the Evanston library? Let me answer the question by relaying a conversation we had with a librarian there last week while signing up for library cards. "Now, you can take out up to 75 books at a time," she said, before my wife...
I knew we were in trouble as soon as I saw the grave look on the campground owner's face. He was standing with his arms folded across his chest as we drove up the path toward our campsite and as we inched closer toward him,...
My hatred of the Yankees and their fans borders on the pathological. I see the Yankees logo on a hat or a bumper sticker and I immediately formulate a negative opinion of the person brandishing it. If Mother Theresa had been a Yankees fan, I...
The golden-vested front man of the Marlin Latin Band is leading a crowd of mostly middle-aged Europeans in a choreographed line dance, the likes of which hasn't been seen in North America since the heady days of disco and Saturday Night Fever. He calls out...
"You called me a liar, and I don't like this," said Graziella, the shop manager, looking hurt. "Look," I said, "I never called you a liar and I didn't mean to insult you, but I can't see with these glasses you sold me." I was standing at...
Have you ever gone on strike? If you're American, I bet you haven't. If I had to guess, I'd say that 99% of Americans have never walked a picket line, professional athletes notwithstanding. But in Italy, and other parts of Europe, strikes are an every...
Travelers expect people who work in tourist information offices to be friendly, helpful and proactive in providing information and tips that help them plan their visit to the destination. Over the years, I've visited hundreds of these places around the world and all the free...