Mummy Pets

by Erik Olsen on

There is an old lady on West 11th Street who really loves her little fluffy. She goes everywhere with him, grooms
him at an expensive pet grooming store, feds him sirloin, and picks up his poop with a peculiar reverence that always
makes me wonder if she’s saving the steaming piles in some wall-safe in her apartment.

She’s a bit excessive. But the fact is, we all love our pets. We have loved our pets from the first time a prehistoric
wolf-dog chased an antelope femur and brought it back to his master. So it should be no surprise that the
Egyptians loved their pets
too. Loved them enough that literally millions of animals were mummified and buried alongside their owners. Many of
these have now been dug up, and they are on display for your pleasure at the Natural
History Museum of London. So if you’re looking for some great ideas on how to prep Fido for the afterlife, you
might pay a visit.

Millennium Park Chicago

by Erik Olsen on

Now let me say up front here that I love Chicago. I
thikn it is one of the best cities in the world. Not as great (sorry!) as New York, but a tight second place.

So with that pehaps offensive intro out of the way, I have to ask: Have you heard about the new
Millennium Park in Chicago. Just last night I was listening to Charlie
Rose and he and his guest were raving about it. It is said to be one of the finest examples of urban renewal and park
development since Olmstead said to himself, yes, a park in the middle of New York City. A FINE idea!

Well, for those who haven’t heard of the new park…and even for those who have and want to know more, the
Chicago Trib has got a
dandy feature on the project, with photos, text and even video of various artists talking about their work. It is
really inspiring to watch, especially for those of us here in New York City where officials and biz folk can’t seem to
get their sh*t together over what to do with Ground Zero, the Stadium the Olympics, etc.

Guatemala’s Charms

by Erik Olsen on

It’s interesting to see how often Central America is now on the radar screen of the big newspaper travel sites. Is it just me, or is the region really beginning to take off as a tourist destination? I know that for years people have gone to Costa Rica to trek, dive and mountain bike, but other places like Nicaragua and Honduras are now getting lots of attention.

Here in this LA Times travel piece, Guatemala now gets notice. The piece is positively bullish on the little country, hailing it as the next great destination for adventure sports fans and the site of the next Survivor series. I guess the numbers tell the story. More than 1 million people visited Guatemala last year, about a quarter of them from the United States. According to the article, growth has been so strong that tourism officials cheerfully predict Guatemala will soon pass popular rival Costa Rica in visitor numbers. Apparently even Bill Clinton and Francis Ford Coppola have succumbed to Guatemala’s charms.

As someone who has traveled there, I will say that it is a great country. Very interesting and filled with things to do. There are areas that might still be considered dangerous or somewhat under-developed so that travel is not necessarily easy, but that can be a good thing. Some people, for example, find Costa Rica almost too developed. So if finding a place that has not quite yet become a tourist juggernaut is for you, this might be a place to visit.

French and Indian War Games

by Erik Olsen on

If you were to lost all the important conflicts in American history, say the top ten, I would guess that the French
and Indian War comes in dead last in terms of its brand recognition. Most people probably don’t even know who fought in
the war…um, the French and the Indians, right? Well, no. Not quite. The fact is, the
French and Indian War was a very significant
conflict, whose result could have changed American history (i.e. we could be speaking French).

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the start of the French and Indian War in New York. In fact, while the war
raged throughout Canada and all the way down to Pennsylvania, most of the key events of the war took place in upstate
New York.  And so beginning this summer, historic sites from Fort Ticonderoga along the Vermont line to Old Fort
Niagara in western New York
have created a series of
events, including battle re-enactments and colonial military encampments to make people a bit more aware of what
the FI War was about. And perhaps it’s about time.

Riding Canadian Rails

by Erik Olsen on

David Newland takes Canada’s Greatest Ride aboard a Canadian train from Toronto west to
Vancouver and then all the way back east to Halifax, and then finally (whew) home to Toronto again.
Newland is the self-professed “web guy” for the Discovery Channel and
is documenting his
trip for the Globe and Mail. You can catch Newland’s dispatches
here.