WHS new “Tentative List”: Places to Love–Poverty Point National Monument

by Grant Martin on

For the Gadling series “World Heritage Site new “Tentative List”: Places to Love” we are covering the 14 sites that have been submitted for possible inclusion as an official World Heritage Site in the United States. The sites will not be posted in order of importance or in the order they appear on the list.

Number 6

Name of Site: Poverty Point National Monument and State Historic Site

Location: Near Epps, Louisiana

Reason for importance in a nutshell: Constructed 1700 – 1100 years ago, this may be the “remains of the largest hunter-­gatherer settlement that has ever existed.” And it’s in America’s back door!

Grant’s Take: Many people don’t think that North America is rich in archaeological history. As Poverty Point shows, however, many parts of the country are rich with anthropological, indigenous depth. This 400 acre site features a series of concentric earthen circles on which an ancient culture based their society. It’s an excellent example of historic organization and cultural stratification, and may well be America’s real first city. Sounds like reason enough to take a look.

Langston Hughes: Poetry inspired by travel

by Jamie Rhein on

When Langston Hughes’s dad moved to Mexico when Langston was a child, he created the path to the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” In 1920, while crossing the Mississipi River on a train on his way to Mexico to visit his dad, Langston was inspired to write the poem on the back of a letter. He had just finished high school.

In honor of Black History month, the inspiration gathered from world travel and Langston Hughes, whose poetry still inspires, here’s a short video of him talking about this trip and writing the poem. Plus, he reads it at the end. See what images of your own trips are conjured up. This is a lesson in always having a scrap of paper and a pen or a pencil with you when you travel.

Red roses banned in Saudi Arabia for Valentine’s Day

by Abha Malpani on

Married men in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will have to put their creative caps on to think of an original way to woo their significant other on Valentine’s Day this year, as the Kingdom’s religious police have imposed a ban, not only on red roses, but anything scarlet in gift shops.

Why? All under the premise of not encouraging people out of wedlock to have relationships, something that is prohibited and punishable by law under the rules of Sunni Islam — the type of Islam that governs Saudi Arabia.

You have to keep in mind that Saudi Arabia doesn’t even allow unrelated men and women to mix openly, so if you are a local, you would have to rack your brains to come up with a clever strategy to even communicate with someone your heart is pounding for.

Red, blue or green, a gift is a gift is a gift. The particular availability of something red to gift on V-day is a bonus, so how exactly banning the sale of red items would play a role in discouraging opposite sex relations is beyond my understanding.

As for the expatriates living in the Kingdom, every thing goes in their residential compounds so I doubt they would care too much.

Romantic souls will have to live with gifting yellow, pink, white OR rainbow colored (?!) items instead. No big deal, eh?

New contest: Six-word motto for US

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Over at the always thought-provoking Freakonomics blog, Stephen Dubner has been inspired by a new book of six-word memoirs to hold a contest for the best six-word motto of the US. So far, the contest has elicited almost 1,200 responses, and they run the gamut from inspiring to critical to just plain funny. Here are a couple samples from the contest so far:

“Still Using Fahrenheit, Feet, and Gallons”

“A Billion Dollars Makes You President”

“The worst. Except for everything else.”

“No, we still don’t like soccer”

“Petulant youngster, but generally well intentioned.”

“This space for rent – bids please”

“Shut up! The Hills is on.”

If you like, drop by and submit your own entry in the contest, or leave it here in the Comments.

Photo of the Day 2-10-2008

by Catherine Bodry on


Uncornered Market snapped this shot on a boat ride from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw, Laos. I took this same boat ride in reverse, in 2005. It was peaceful and beautiful, with green hills and lapping water. It was also freezing (it was an unnaturally cold week and I hadn’t brought any warm clothes) — another traveler offered me their sleeping bag in sympathy, and I took it.

Got travel photos to share? Upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool and we’ll consider them for our Photo of the Day feature.