Category Archives: Americas

La Fine della Tenuta di Tenuta – Turning the Page on 90 Years of Family (and American) History

Posted on March 17, 2012 by

You’re looking at the house my great-grandparents moved into in the early 1920s after they got married. They were immigrants from backwater towns in Calabria, in southern Italy, and they, like a lot of immigrants from their immediate vicinity, moved … Continue reading →

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Swimming in the Sky | The Millennium UN Plaza Hotel in New York

Posted on March 12, 2012 by

There’s no way Jack Torrance would have chased his wife and kid with a hatchet if they’d been caretakers of a hotel in Hawaii instead of Colorado. Winter is a sickening, deathly season, capable of driving anyone mad. Even this … Continue reading →

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The Chrysler Building: New York’s Art-Deco Masterpiece

Posted on February 26, 2012 by

Come to New York City and you’ll see a lot of great artistic achievements: Ancient Egyptian obelisks, neon theater marquees, statues, fountains, and the like. The city is an open-air museum. But it’s also a work of art itself; when … Continue reading →

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The Hiawatha – Amtrak Gets One Right

Posted on February 18, 2012 by

I’ve previously criticized Amtrak on this blog as junky, inefficient, and a ripoff. That criticism has been justified, in my opinion. For traveling distances of 200 miles or more, Amtrak won’t get you there faster than a bus (unless you … Continue reading →

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Times Are A-Changing in Rio

Posted on January 26, 2012 by

With soccer’s World Cup and the Summer Olympics just two and four years away respectively, Rio de Janeiro has been under some fierce deadlines for cleaning up its act. As the Cidade Maravilhosa gets ready for its close-up, the powers-that-be … Continue reading →

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Santiago in 36-ish (or so) Hours

Posted on January 24, 2012 by

As I mentioned in this post, Luciana and I stopped in the tapeworm-shaped nation of Chile for a few days on our way to Brazil for Christmas. We sandwiched a scenic Saturday night stayover in coastal Valparaiso with Friday and … Continue reading →

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Valparaiso, Chile – Charming and Challenging

Posted on January 5, 2012 by

Happy New Year. We’ve been away for a while, mostly in Brazil celebrating Christmas. On our way there, we made a stopover in Chile. (Big shoutout to LAN Airlines, by the way – awesome service and comfortable, modern 767s. At … Continue reading →

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Throwback Football on the Hudson River

Posted on October 18, 2011 by

This site has been a little football heavy lately, thanks to my weekly NFL picks (75% accurate, thank you very much). I like keeping sports in the mix, which is why I added “& Other Diversions” to the description on … Continue reading →

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Fall Foliage in Upstate New York

Posted on October 13, 2011 by

One thing about living in New York City – sometimes you’ve gotta get the hell out of New York City. Like 54% of households in the Big Apple – and unlike most of America – we do not own a … Continue reading →

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