What’s my problem now? If you’re new to this blog, what took you so long? Also, you may not know that I was a full-time, freelance travel writer for 13 years. This included many years researching and writing Lonely Planet guidebooks, which requires agonizing amounts of fact-checking, because if you…

As the title suggests, this is part two of the list of fun facts about 130 countries. (Here’s part one.) This one is a bit more difficult: There are only three fake facts in this post. Can you find them without resorting to Google? Thirty percent of the residents of…

Lists of weird/fun facts about the countries of the world are always a good time, because hey, they’re weird! And fun! But there’s a twist – I slipped in nine fake facts among the real ones. Without resorting to Google (you can resort to Google a little), can you pick…

View this post on Instagram A post shared by MMCCglobal (@mmccglobal) I’m taking a break from the usual travel-related goffballery this week to add to the chorus of global concern about the unfolding situation in Afghanistan. The juggling community has a soft spot for Afghanistan due to the wonderful work…

I remember it like it was yesterday. June 20, 1993 was the last time I barfed. I remember it so well, because it wasn’t your ordinary barf-wipe-and-go. It was a defining life event, like the birth of one’s child or a wild monkey stealing your $1,500 camera and throwing it…

It’s not enough for some people to just see the world. People of a certain inclination feel compelled to break travel world records by doing stuff in faster, longer, crazier, painfulier ways. These records vary wildly in the time, resources and expenses they require. On the low(er) end, two English…

One of the many dazzling enticements for getting into travel media is the idea of jetting around the world in luxurious style for free. The industry term for these free or sponsored trips is “fam trips,” A.K.A. “familiarization trips.” But those of us that have been on a bunch of…

Did you hear that? That was the sound of my EEG going haywire. I get triggered during every summer Olympics by what sports are and aren’t part of the games. The ho-hum legacy Olympic sports that are still included are one thing (humans hate breaking tradition), but a handful of…

Thirty-seven years ago today (July 27th, 1984), Purple Rain hit movie theaters. What soon followed was an almost instant super-charging of an era now known as the “Minneapolis Sound.” Prince’s statement-making project simultaneously topped the respective charts for films, albums and singles (with “When Doves Cry”), a feat only achieved…

And we’re back! This post is going to be a more useful, less goofball update to my original humor writing post from 10 years ago(!), called “How to write funny shit for your blog.” What makes me qualified to talk about humor writing in an authoritative manner? Pardon the humble-brag,…