Miffy Museum

by Erik Olsen on

Man, they’ll build a museum for just about anything
these days. To wit: The Dutch have actually built a museum for the author of
children’s picture books. That’s like creating a Shel Silverstein or Charles Schultz museum…wait, that’s not
such a bad idea. OK, for my skepticism. That’s kinda cool.

Well what it’s all about is a guy named
Dick Bruna, one of the world’s most popular creators of picture books, who will be joining the ranks of other Dutch
masters like Rembrandt and Van Gogh. To many, Bruna is best known for Miffy, the cutesy white bunny (of whom, I will
confess, I have never heard). But others certainly have. Bruna’s books have been translated into more than 40
languages, and 85 million copies have been sold worldwide. And so the museum will display many of these books as well
as 2,000 book covers, more than 100 posters, and dozens of postcards and pictures. The 4,000-square-foot facility is
part of the Central Museum in Utrecht.

Mongolian Song

by Erik Olsen on

For those who are fans of world music, cowboy songs and just plain well-told stories, this really cool little piece coming from the NPR
archives is a real listening pleasure. The story examines a group of Mongolian herdsmen who traveled all the way to
Elko, NV, to hang out with some bona-fide American cowboys (albeit singing cowboys) and the two form a kind of bonding
experience about music and life on the range. And then as you’ll hear in this story, the cowboys meander to Ulan Bator in Mongolia for some cultural exchange and an immersion into
Mongolian song.

The piece is Narrated by Hal Cannon, and transports you for a brief moment from behind your
desk into another space where the binding qualities of music and the carefree life of a cowboy are rendered wonderfully
in a Mongolian version of John Denver’s Country Road.

Chewing Qat in Yemen

by Erik Olsen on

A fascinating little video over at National Geographic.com takes
a look at the city of Muscat, Oman, where writer Bernice Notenboom and photographer Martin Hartleyo head out to
explore some of the ancient and extremely remote nooks of Yemen. Takes a while to load, but it’s worth it, we learn
about chewing Qat, a brush cultivated everywhere and that is masticated
a bit like chewing tobacco…but apparently the buzz isn’t that great. Still people are absolutely addicted to it. They
show one guy who is, I’m not making this up, a professional qat eater. Notenboom seems to really like the stuff and
gets a little rush from it. Something tells me that the marketing folks at Starbucks are making trips to Yemen as we
speak. You’ll be able to pick up an elegant little box of the stuff by the register, and they’ll call it something
fancy like Qat-izzi.

Tipping Tips

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s a nice piece
from the Washington Post that falls under the "News You Can Use" category … which, alas, we don’t have.
Not yet, anyway.

The piece takes on the matter of tipping. We all tip at some point, right? Your waiter,
doorman, cabbie, gynecologist, whatever. Knowing what to give whether the service was good or not can be tough. Fifteen
percent? Twenty? I mean, isn’t it the case today that there’s a little bit of tip inflation going on? Isn’t twenty
percent now the accepted standard? And what about the case ,as the article here mentions, of getting a free breakfast
at that all-inclusive hotel in the Bahamas? Is the tip free too?

Well, the article answers some of these
questions and more. For example, did you know that a tip can actually be considered an insult in some places … like
Japan? Well, the articles says so. So give a read and boost your, um, tipping point.

Be on TV

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s your big chance to get that travel show you’ve always wanted. The folks at the Travel Channel
are looking for a couple to be part of a new show based on the book 1000 Things to Do Before You Die, the Lifelist
book that is all the rage these days. They are looking for folks who will get to do things like visit the pyramids in
Egypt or Raft the Grand Canyon or swim with dolphins. I know, you’re eyes are bugging out right now. You’ve got a pen
in your hand and are breathing heavily, wondering when I will get to the point.

OK, OK, here’s the rub.
There are a few small rules. First, you need to be able to travel for up to four months without returning home. So quit
that crappy job. Hey boss, I’m going on safari in Africa, for free…and I’m going to be on TV, so take that Xerox toner
and, well, you know what you can do with it. OK, next. You have to download and fill out a questionnaire and an
application/release that says you will not hold the Travel Channel responsible for getting eaten by a lion on
safari…even if they covered you with hamburger and left you on the savannah overnight.

Then, and here
comes the tough part, you have to make and send to the Travel Channel folks a short videotape of you and your partner
(lasting no more than three minutes) showing how well you get together, what you look like on camera, how you sound,
and why you are inspired to travel. Pls. no Paris Hilton films! Then, finally, send in some pics of yourself. Couldn’t
be easier ,right? So what are you waiting for, get going!