Kipling in Vermont

by Erik Olsen on

The literary
traveler is one of my favorite sites. It explores places around the country and the world through the context of
famous literary folk who have lived or visted them. Some authors just seem permanently affixed to certain places.
Steinbeck to California, Faulkner to the South,
Hemingway to Cuba…and Key West…and Spain (ok, so some are
associated with more places than others). No matter. The point is that often we come to know a place through these
people. And that’s what thiis site is all about. Bringing fresh light to a place you might think you know, by showing
it to you in the eyes of a famous writer.

I’m going to single out a single example, this article on
Kipling in Vermont. But there are plenty of
others on the site, and you might just find yourself on this lazy Friday spending a fair amount of time there.

The Gaudi of Garbage

by Erik Olsen on

A great little story about an obscure old dude in an obscure little town in Argentina. The old dude is something of
an artist, he makes odd little works, like a mini-Taj Mahal, out of trash. The whole “found art” scene is a growing
phenomenon, but Joaquín Raimundo Alonso, an
octogenarian former civil servant, seems to have taken the whole notion of art as trash a bit further than most. His
work, scattered everywhere around his property, has earned him the nickname, the Dali of Recycling…which is really not
that catchy when you think about it. In fact, the help the old guy out, I hereby dub him: the Gaudi of Garbage, or the
Ayatollah of Trashola!

Hiking the Hayduke

by Erik Olsen on

I think it would be great to hit a hiking trail for days on end, to have long days stretch before you where all you
have to do is walk and camp. These guys are doing just that, and
posting along the way.

Mike Coronella and Joe Mitchell set out earlier this March to amble the
Hayduke Trail, and thus become the first end-to-end
travelers of a rigorous route which snakes through America’s southwestern deserts and the Colorado Plateau. The posts
are well-written and compelling, providing a glimpse off the kind of travails these guys face as they trudge across the
countryside.

Outside did a piece on these guys
as well.

Building Libraries in Nepal

by Erik Olsen on

A
cool story about the spread of libraries in Nepal, a
country where things have not been going well lately. Maoist rebels in Nepal have made the country dangerous for
visitors and the political situation there remains dodgy, but this story covers a side of things there you don’t often
hear about. In Nepal, where literacy rates are at 50 percent (or less…the rate among women is 35 percent), a new
program to build libraries throughout the country, especially in the small towns, is introducing lots of Nepalese kids
the wonder of words. The effort is led in part by an organization called READ, headed by Antonia Neubauer, who has been
building libraries in rural and remote Nepali villages and towns. This really is a good story. Could be a good
documentary.

Vocation Vacation

by Erik Olsen on

We’ve posted about these types of trips before, but they were usually the kind where you
go overseas to help dig up mummies ot something. I still find the concept wildly interesting. Here is
a piece in MSNBC on how to make your vacation fulfilling in a
different way, by undertaking some job that you’ve always thought would be cool, but whose vocational viability you
never took seriously.

 

VocationVacations is basically a summer internship for grown-ups.
And the pay is about the same. Or worse, actually, since YOU have to pay. In this article case, a woman ventures
to the Oregon zoo to take care of animals, although she finds that the majority of her work involves managing animal
poop, which might appeal to some people, less so to others.