One for the Road: How to Sh*t Around the World

by Erik Olsen on

We haven’t done a One for the road feature in a
while, so I figured I’d offer one for all our avid readers out there. Here’s a book that I just stumbled upon while
perusing the Traveler’s tales site and found quite curious.

The book is called How to Sh*t Around the World, The Art of Staying Clean and
Healthy while Traveling (asterisk added). Written by noted feces expert Dr. Jane Wilson-Howarth, the book takes you
around the world in eighty bowel movements, and explores one of the most basic human activities, offering sensible tips
and techniques for how to relieve yourself in various situations.

Actually the book appears to be more about
other travelers and their, um, experiences. But you also get help on how to avoid some of exotic traveling’s more
miserable experiences such as diarrhea, parasites, malaria, typhoid, and hepatitis, all of whch have been known to ruin
a good trip. What are others saying about the book? Well Budget Travel calls it "Worth digesting", by whch I
assume they are saying it’s not crap.

Valentine's Day Domestically

by Erik Olsen on

Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching,  which means you have very little time left to procrastinate before
running out on the morning of the 14th, pretending to get a pound of coffee at the store when really you are buying a
valentine’s Day card for your significant other that you sign and stuff in the envelope at the check out counter. Or
was that just me last year?

No matter. For those who are planning some sort of getaway this year, but have
not actually decided on any particular place, take a look at the suggestions over at Fodor’s. They offer a host of domestic travel ideas
like Charleston, SC and Chicago (Chi-Town), IL, as well as New York and San Fran. All good choices to be sure. The list
provides places to go where you and your honey can snuggle and sip wine, and perhaps exchange a box of
chocolates…among other things. They also provide some activity ideas. For example in San Francisco, they recommend
you check out the jewels on display at the Museum of Modern Art. Or smell the
orchids on display at the Conservatory of Flowers’.

Red Corner: Moscow Cafe Culture

by Neil Woodburn on

For those of you who still imagine Moscow as a poverty-stricken, Cold War backwater of breadlines and borscht-slurping malcontents, I invite you to check out the following website.

Coffee Mania is a chain of coffee shops which has become quite popular in Moscow. When I first started visiting the city in the early 1990s, coffee came black or not at all. Cups of Joe could be purchased in the few food establishments around the city, but there was no café culture where one could leisurely enjoy a drink and chat with their friends (Allowing the discontented a venue in which to collectively express their anger is never a good idea for a dictatorship).

But, with the fall of communism, café culture has come back to Moscow. In addition to Coffee Mania, there are at least half a dozen other coffee chains and numerous independent cafes in which to comfortably sip away one’s time in the capital (although I can’t promise the same for areas outside of Moscow).

Please take a moment to check out the amazing site from Coffee Mania. Not only will its virtual tour make believers of Cold War stalwarts that there is capitalist normalcy in Moscow, but the site is amazing itself (albeit a bit slow to upload). It is simply the best virtual tour I’ve seen to date on the web (which also says quite a bit about the progress of Russian programming).

Montreal Ice Bar on the Rocks

by Neil Woodburn on

When most
drinkers go in search of “a nice cold one,” they are usually referring to the drink itself, not the
bar.  But in Montreal, high atop the Place d’Armes Hotel, lovers of
the frigid can indeed find a nice cold one—a bar, that is. 

Last month, the hotel opened Sub Zero, an
appropriately named rooftop bar made
of 75,000 pounds of ice.  Seats, stools, two bars, and 50 different sculptures have all been carved completely
out of ice for the, um, comfort of the bar’s patrons.  Vodka is served in glasses made of ice, and
undoubtedly consumed in quantities massive enough to stave off the city’s infamous, sub-zero winter
temperatures. 

Hmmm… vodka, freezing temperatures, rooftop bar, slippery ice…  Is it just me, or does this sound
like the perfect recipe for disaster?  Or at least a lawsuit. 

Nonetheless, hats off to the Canadians for finding a way to make their inhospitable winters a bit more
hospital.  Er… I mean hospitable. 

 

Sake in Outside Magazine

by Erik Olsen on

Everyone’s got
their favorite poison. Myself, I pretty much gave up the hard stuff years ago, and stick to beer or wine if I decide to
indulge. But I’m also a big fan of sake. I’m no connoisseur, mind you, but I like a good sake every so often when I can
get it.

Seems the folks at Outside Magazine are also into the rice wine thing. Take a look at Outside’s ode to sake.

It seems more Americans than ever are drinking the Japanese beverage, some of them are doing so out of the
belief that it’s somehow more "pure" or because there are health benefits associated with it. True? I have no
idea. But the article here says that an article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggested recently
that organic acids in sake can protect the skin against UVB rays. Which might explain….oh, never mind. But if it’s
true and you’re up for a little experiment, you might consider taking a bottle along on your next trip to the Bahamas.