Another quick rumination following my JetBlue flight West. Why do jet airplane toilets make that wonderful sucking
sound when they are flushed, and why is this sound so deeply satisfying? Would not our every day be modestly enhanced
if our home toilets made such a noise, signifying albeit just symbolically, how we can be rid of the waste in our lives
with a wonderful whoosh, a satisfying slurp of cathartic expurgation? I love that sound. Is it not a celebration of
life itself? Such finality, such completeness, as if to say that this waste is now gone from your life forever, live
on! Live on!
Manhole Covers in Japan
I love the little details of everyday life, the attention occasionally paid to the mundane. In New York City, you
see this all the time. Walking around you’ll be struck by some stone carving of a gargoyle up high on a ledge or the
metal work of someone’s door. Those are the things that offer an incremental, but valuable, addition to our lives. This
is why strip malls suck. Strip malls are the antithesis of artistic attention to detail. And sadly, this is why many of
our cities and towns also often suck. People neglect the details. We build for immediacy and economics.
So along these lines, I thought this was really
cool. A site dedicated to manhole covers in Japan. The variety here is wonderful, the artistry sublime. I herewith
suggest that every city in the country have a manhole design contest and build the best 25 designs for cities around
the country. It’s a small gesture, and it will lift our spirits just a fractional amount, but those fractions count.
Just ask Darwin.
Switzerland’s Top Adventures
I haven’t posted very often here about Switzerland. Sure, it’s small…a wee country, as a Mike Meyer’s character
might put it…but for outdoor and adventure buffs, it’s a bit of a Valhalla. Skiers love Switzerland, parapenters dig
it’s jagged peaks which they soar over, and even bunjee jumpers find gravitational satisfaction from it’s bridges.
That’s a couple suggestions for things to do there, and now
here is a list of lots more…20 to be precise. Twenty Swiss-based adventures from ballooning in
Chateau d’Oex, to hiking the Bernese Oberland, and strolling the Glaciers at Jungfraujoch. The list goes on,
check it out.
Kipling in Vermont
The literary
traveler is one of my favorite sites. It explores places around the country and the world through the context of
famous literary folk who have lived or visted them. Some authors just seem permanently affixed to certain places.
Steinbeck to California, Faulkner to the South,
Hemingway to Cuba…and Key West…and Spain (ok, so some are
associated with more places than others). No matter. The point is that often we come to know a place through these
people. And that’s what thiis site is all about. Bringing fresh light to a place you might think you know, by showing
it to you in the eyes of a famous writer.
I’m going to single out a single example, this article on
Kipling in Vermont. But there are plenty of
others on the site, and you might just find yourself on this lazy Friday spending a fair amount of time there.
Taking on Tenerife
Spain kicks ass. It is without a doubt one of the most historically rich and intriguing countries in Europe, perhaps
the world. And there are so many places to explore in Spain that once you get away from the big cities, you find a
countrywith much more diversity than first meets the eye.
So in the spirit of great places in Spain, I want to post
about this article on the town of Tenerife. Tenerife has a reputation as a kind of dirty beach town, but if you
venture outside, or north across La Columna Dorsal, the nearby mountains, you find will encounter lush countryside,
volcanoes, and smart little towns like La
Orotava. I lived in Spain for a little while, and have to say I never went to Tenerife, but after reading this
piece, I felt like I missed something.