That’s right, we’re going off-topic again, but this time it’s for a very important reason. We’re only weeks away from the November 2021 election and the Minneapolis ballot has a crucial charter amendment question about establishing a Department of Public Safety, or as it’s more popularly known, “defund the police.”…

It’s almost Halloween and you know what that means; a new round of manufactured urban legends to distract and scare simpleminded people into ignoring that their Republican elected officials probably wouldn’t stop to pee on them if they were on fire. But! It also means a reliable uptick in interest…

Though it feels like a lifetime ago, it’s been five years since I recorded this interview with Rick Steves, talking about Vlad “The Impaler” Dracula. It was one of the maybe three or five instances in my whole life where I benefited from exquisite timing. Steves had recently returned from…

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…