Top Ten Places for St. Patty's

by Erik Olsen on

OK, these are rather ambitious, and since it is already St. Patrick’s Day, they might be best left for next year. But
I think you will still find the list inviting,
useful and, if you’re Irish, satisfyingly educational. The list includes the top ten places to go today to experience
your Irish roots. So all you red heads get your printers fired up and put this on paper and hang it on your fridge.

So what’s on the list? Well, first they go to my town, New York City, and send you over to Fifth Avenue at 44th
Street. That is where the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade starts. This year the Fighting 69th Regiment, just back from
Iraq, will lead the parade.

Then head to Doyle’s Café in Boston, perhaps our most Irish city and one
of the most famous Irish-American political pubs around. Cross country and check in on Butte, Montana which, and I had
no idea this was the case, one of the largest Irish-American populations per capita lives. It all goes back to building
the railroads and all the Irish that joined in that effort. And today, Butte is one of the loveliest little old towns in
the country. In fact, I believe it is the film location of the recent Vim Wenders film.

So that’s just
part of the list. Check out the USA Today article
for the rest.

Manhattan: A Brit's Eye View

by Erik Olsen on

I love to hear what foreign travelers think about our
country. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Bernard-Henri Levy ‘s dispatches for the Atlantic, which
became the much-hyped, somewhat derided book American Vertigo, was one example of this type of
"see-yourself-through-other’s-eyes" journalism.

Here’s another article in a similar vein. This one in the Washington
Post, is about the experience of a couple of self-professed British matrons, Naomi Sutcliffe and Jayne Steele. The
first thing you’ll notice is that when the middle aged birds get here, they are thrilled to find that we have
breakfast food like that they’d find at home. To wit: greasy, fat bacon and heaping helpings of pancakes. Ah, the
English breakfast.

They do make one fine point, though. As the pair flits about the city, they inevitably bu
stuff. Shopping is, after all, one of the things New york is famous for. But in England, says Steele, "you’re
quoted the total price. We’re not used to all this plus, plus, plus." Yeah, what about that? Why can’t they just
add your taxes to the price of things and that’s what you pay? Who among us ever knows exactly what something is going
to cost until it’s rung up? Maybe we do need to see things through others’ eyes to kow what we need to change.

Thus Passeth the Inventor of the McNugget

by Erik Olsen on

With Neil honoring Guinness and the beverag-ariffic joys
that this hearty drink has brought, let us also pause for a moment and bow our heads to mourn the passing of a man
whose gustatory inventions brought us great happiness, and who has passed upwards into the great fat fryer in the sky.

You may not know the name – Robert C. Baker – but you know his work. Mr. Baker, who died yesterday
at the ripe and rather foul-smelling age of 84, was the creator of some of our most cherished processed food products.
Mr. Baker, virtually alone (albeit with the hlp from some poultry) came up with the idea of the chicken McNugget. Call
him the Thomas Edison of fast food, Mr. Baker was a pioneer of poultry innovations, and for that we hail thee! May you
stride through heaven’s Golden Arches like a colossus. May the denizens of your new celestial world be equally
blessed with chicken nuggets, strips and fingers. And may there be ample honey mustard sauce in which to dip them.

Africa Travel: Niger

by Adrienne Wilson on

Whenever you find yourself having a hard
time finding good information on a destination not as frequented as others you can always rely on Lonely Planet and even UNESCO’s World Heritage List  to point out spots of
interest. Seems there is a World Heritage landmark in every country these days and for my short blurb on Niger that is
exactly what I’m going to direct your attention to. The W National Park of Niger is an area where savannah and forest
land meet, mix and the river at the park’s northern border form a double bend. Wildlife is scarce according to LP, but
a variety of bird life is still left to be seen. UNESCO also mentions how the site reflects the interaction between
natural resources and humans since Neolithic times. That could be pretty far-out.

If something like this
sounds right up your alley I did manage to find a tour company that specializes in trip to Niger and this area
specifically. Looks like an eight day affair around the country with days six and seven at the W. For more details click here to go to Nigercar Voyages. Also, be sure to check with the US Embassy for additional notes on the country is general.

World Wide Panorama Evennt Borders

by Erik Olsen on

By the way, I forgot to mention
that the next World Wide Pano event is
happening. I’ve contributed to three or four
of these and find doing them and being a part of this project a really cool experience. The World Wide Panorama
event is sponsored by the Geography Computing Facility at the University of California Berkeley. It’s a non-commercial
project, put together and contributed to by volunteers (like me). I do it to get my
pano work out there and because, well, because it’s an immensely cool project.

Anyway, every
hemispherical solar quarter (or whatever you call the equinoxes and solstices) they hold a new one, and each time there
is a theme of some kind. This spring the theme is Borders, which can really be interpreted anyway you want. I’ve got my
own interpretation which I’ll post about in a week or so when the site is up and running with all the new
contributions. So here’s what you have to do: you need to go shoot your pano NOW and get it done by the 21st. That’s
the last day. Then you have a week or so to build it and then you upload it to the folks at Berkeley. That simple. I’ll
post more about the project in the coming days. But for now, get busy shooting.