Last year, I wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal lamenting how companies I patronize have turned increasingly political and woke. Many speciously echoed Democratic Party claims that Georgia’s new voting law is racist without specifying how so. Others have been woke for a...
Okay, folks, I've heard you! You asked me for a list of woke companies, and I gave. you one. Now many of you are asking for a list of companies that are not woke (or shall we say unawoke?) This is going to be a...
I’ve been scammed by many companies in my lifetime, but never as audaciously and for as much money as we have just been scammed with Spectrum. This company is criminal! Back in January, my wife noticed that we had two charges from Spectrum on our...
Here are some Footsteps of Federer updates: So far, we already have great reviews and/or mentions from Federer biographer Rene Stauffer in Tages Anzeiger (syndicated to 11 Swiss newspapers, Swiss Info, Tennis, the Daily Telegraph, Newly Swissed, Tennis Now, Thrive Global, and Perfect Tennis. I...
I had high expectations for Chris Clarey’s new Federer biography because I’m a huge Federer fan and because Chris has done a fine job of covering tennis for NYT for many years. But sadly this book misses the mark on many fronts and I’m shocked...
** Read the first chapter of Mad Travelers via Literary Hub ** Listen to this podcast interview I did on Footsteps of Federer and Mad Travelers with Joe Hamilton of the St. Pete X podcast. ** Here's a podcast interview I did with the great Rolf Potts,...
My recent interview with Roger Federer is now out on The New York Times website! Big thanks to Switzerland Tourism and The New York Times for giving me the opportunity to interview my favorite athlete of all time, a man who is not only a...
You may have heard that my hero, Roger Federer, became an unpaid spokesperson for Switzerland Tourism on March 29. That's right folks, the man is selling Switzerland for nothing more than love of country. Can you imagine Lebron James or Tom Brady doing this for...
WARNING: There may be some spoilers below depending on how much or little you’ve already read about William Baekeland and my book, Mad Travelers. When I first heard that HBO was making a film about William Baekeland—a wanderlust-stricken Brit accused of being a con man by...
On April 22, HBO/MAX debuts a new 10-episode series about con artists and hustlers produced by Jigsaw Productions and CNN Original Studios called Generation Hustle. Episode 6 is about William Baekeland, the primary character in my forthcoming book, Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed...
I’ve heard authors liken publishing a book to giving birth. Maybe, but I pulled all-nighters when my sons were born and I do not plan to do that tonight even though my new book, Footsteps of Federer, comes out tomorrow, March 2. When I traveled...
I’ve been busy covering tennis for the Atptour.com website lately and have been remiss in reporting some exciting news I received a few weeks ago. My publisher inked a deal with Tantor Audio to release an audiobook edition of my forthcoming book, Footsteps of Federer:...
Make a plan, right? I know I’m a bit of a curmudgeon, but I hate mantras that are repeated over and over and over again as this one has in recent weeks. This is the most important election ever! Make a plan! What they’re really saying is, come...
It was 63 degrees this morning in St. Petersburg, Florida, but it felt like 43 to my soft ass. I've only been living in Florida for just over a year and this is my first time living in the Tropics—save for a three month stint...
I'm excited to announce that I'm doing at least a pair of Zoom talks to discuss my new book, Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed & the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth, comes out. The first event, on June 1...
Driving around town with an unwanted set of snow tires in my trunk, I felt like a thief who had just pulled off a jewelry heist and needed to sell his hot merch. Quickly. Bend is the only place I’ve ever lived in where snow...
Roger Federer (SUI) playing against Marin Cilic (CRO) in the final of the Gentlemens Singles on Centre Court. The Championships 2017 at The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon. Day 7 Monday 10/07/2017. Credit: AELTC/Thomas Lovelock. Update April 1, 2020: As expected, Wimbledon has cancelled the...
“Would you like to donate a dollar to the Buy Xboxes for Children in Timbuktu Foundation?” asked the cashier at a local supermarket. “No thanks,” I said. “Thank you,” she said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Okay, so I’m lying about the name of the charity....
Am I the only one who is fed up with our tipping culture? According to The New York Times, tipping has been a part of our culture since the nation was founded. Apparently Thomas Jefferson and George Washington even tipped their slaves. We’ve had tip jars...
Bend is, in the words of a guy I recently met, a “frickin’ magical place.” Many of us have moved to this High Desert playground for its myriad of recreational opportunities—hiking, cycling, tubing, fishing, you name it, we got it. And so, we take this...
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...
Until I injured my knee playing tennis a month ago, I used to be one of Bend’s FitBit People. Now I’ve joined the sedentary class . I know that some of the folks you see riding motorized scooters around big-box stores really need them. When...
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,...
“ Free Pre-Paid Cremation! Details Inside" Purveyors of direct mail have many different ways to get you to open junk mail. The most common tactic is to create a sense of urgency. The actual verbiage can vary but the undertone is this: Open this fucking letter...
Visitors might wrongly assume that Bend is a bastion of crunchy, left-wing, kombucha swilling vegans who wear hemp, recycle toilet paper and look forward to listening to NPR’s Wait-Wait-Don’t Tell Me on weekends. After all, this is the small, outdoorsy city that shows up in...
“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...