Calling Female Carpenters

by Erik Olsen on

Are you a female who can you hammer nails with the best of them? How are your igloo building skills?

The British Antarctic Survey may
have the
job of your dreams.  The BAS, a scientific research organization, has
launched a recruitment drive to attract tradeswomen. They are in
search of all type of folks who can work with with hands including electricians, plumbers, carpenters, steel erectors,
chefs and boat handlers to work for 6-18 months at its five research stations on and around the Antarctic.

The starting salary is $34,640 plus an Antarctic allowance. Not bad, really. I mean, what are you going to buy there
anyway? That all goes to the bank.

Oh, and all walrus blubber, igloo accommodations and travel are paid for.

In the New Yorker!

by Erik Olsen on

Like Jim Benning over at
Worldhum, I am a New Yorker fan. Wait, this is an understatement. I live for the New Yorker. It is, IMHO, the best
magazine in the world. In fact, I’m not sure what I would do with myself if it ever went defunct, not that I expect it
to, of course. It’s just that in the wide wacky world of publishing, you never know what’s going to happen. The
emergence of all the LCD/ADD lad mags once worried me that long-form journalism was on the way out.

Anyway.

So as a travel writer, I was downright giddy to learn that this
week’s issue is dedicated to travel…or journeys to be more precise. For some reason, my issue, which almost always
arrives on Monday, was not in yesterday’s mailbox. I almost wept, but will rush home today to see if it’s there. But I
did check out the Web today and found several of the peices online (btw: someone PLEASE tell the folks over there that
their site SUCKS. I would LOVE to help them with it, if they need advice.).

There are peices by Jonathan Franzen, Jane Smiley, and a story on back country skiiing (something
we’ve posted about at length) by Nick
Paumgarten. There is also a profile of Brazilian photographer Sebastian Salgado, whose photo essay on whales in a
recent Rolling Stone took my breath away. One of the main pieces is
a wonderful look at Lonely Planet and its
founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler.

Speaking of which, I should also mention that within a day or two, we will post our next
podcast which features an in-depth interview with LP’s Don George. It was
such a treat to talk to Don, who is one of my travel writing heroes. We discussed all sorts of things, including his
new book

Travel Writing, and, in a similar vein to the New Yorker piece, the “Lonely Planet” effect (you’ll see). Anyway, I
know you’ll enjoy it, so tune in again soon when the podcast is up.

Worst American Airports

by Nino Marchetti on


A great

thread in the Lonely Planet forums from earlier this year talks about the worst American airports. As most threads
like this go, opinions are all over the map, though there are some useful tips to be had from savvy travelers on making
the most of the more crappy terminals around the country. I personally have never been fond of the United section of
Washington Dulles – its long, narrow and very difficult to navigate when crowded. What’s your worst airport and/or
terminal?

Ivana’s Little Dive

by Erik Olsen on

Well, roughing it this ain’t, but I had to post about it just because it’s absurd and because it’s a story about one
of the places in the world I most want to visit. Ivana
Trumpalot has built an exclusive…and I mean this in the real sense of the word…resort in Queensland, Australia
which is, and I quote: “available only to a privleged few”.  The luxury condos are aimed at an elite market
promising an invitation-only client list and that the complex will be “paparazzi-free.” Yeah, right.

Seattle’s New Look

by Erik Olsen on

Having lived in Seattle for five years, I am always on the lookout for good articles about one of my favorite
cities. The Mercury News has a
piece today about how Seattle’s architecture has changed so dramatically over the last few years that it is no longer
just the city of the Space Needle.

Between Frank Gehry’s Experience Music Project and the new library, Seattle is
becoming even more a culturally rich metropolitan area…a destination site for people in search of big city life.
Whether that’s good or bad depends on your point of view, but Seattle is already one of the most beautiful cities on
earth, and the addition of these new buildings, I believe, can only make it more so.