When Ernest Hemingway faced the existential crisis that he couldn’t write anymore, he blew his brains out. When Fran Lebowitz realized she couldn’t write anymore, she simply devolved to what she loved the most anyway, which apparently was smoking cigarettes and talking to people. Both managed to maintain mystiques beyond their years of fame, […]

   If I were ever to have a bonkers food dream, where I went from one Italian restaurant after another, eating a full meal of sturdy, al dente pasta and buttery meat sauce at each one and never getting full – or fat, I’ve been to the place where that dream will likely be set. […]

My idea was to find a Hollywood hotel that was walking distance from the theater we’d be attending, with the rim shot being a sweet Italian eatery halfway between. My aspiration in traveling to a big city is always to park the car and leave it parked until it’s time to go home. Carol’s aspiration […]

   So, what began as a humdrum weekend chaperone with Carol’s two oldest grandchildren soon metastasized into Carol and yours truly hosting a New Year’s Eve California beach party extravaganza for, now, six swarming, super-energized hormonal containment systems, otherwise known as teenagers. Or at least, that was how I was initially projecting the new plan. […]

   As soon as Carol saw the motel room, she didn’t like it. She had picked the hotel, based on my desire to be walking distance to an Italian restaurant (any Italian restaurant) in Big Bear, and her wish to stay in a place where she wouldn’t have to jam the luggage against the door […]

   Until I read John Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez recently, I’d always thought that tidepools were populated and depopulated with the tides. When the tides rolled in, so did sea life. When the tides went back out, sea life followed. I guess I’d thought of those tidepools as the bar and nightclub scene for marine […]

A daycation (good old fashioned day out) holds a number of benefits for you. Here are some reasons why you need a daycation:

   Carol’s 13-year-old grandson happened upon a week this summer, where he had no scheduled activities, camps or play dates. I seized the impending idleness, and challenged him to a miniature golf tournament. I figured since he had absolutely nothing better to do, he’d accept. And he did.    Over the three years we’d gotten […]

Photo by Carol Madigan    The forecast was a good one for someone like me heading for the beach. A ninety percent chance of rain meant an extended happy hour, and when the other ten percent unfolded, at least the beach sand would be wet and firm for walking.    For me, sand is a […]

   What if you make a trip to some place, and it’s a total disappointment? Does it still count as travel?    Of course it does. You get blown away by the Grand Canyon, and rightfully so. But what about a strip mining or a Super Fund site? Aren’t you blown away by that scene […]