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How to make savings goals for the new year
Does anyone else feel like this year went way too fast?
I probably say this every year, but it feels like my life is in fast forward and I just want it to sloooow down.
Whether I like it or not, a new year will be here before we know it. Even though I love the start of a new year, assessing your finances and setting goals can be a daunting task, especially after you look at your bank statement after the holidays.
Today, I want to share a few tips with you on how you can make a new and improved savings goal to help you prepare for the future and even splurge on occasion.
How To Make Savings Goals For The New Year
No matter what your income level is, these tips will help you to decide where your savings funds and will go in your budget for the new year.
Evaluating your income, savings, and future expectations is a must, and I have some easy suggestions to guide you through this process.
The tips below all center around using a budget. If you need help getting started check out my free monthly budget template.
Get real about your current income and expenses.
Whether you are already saving money, or not, it is always the best to start with the basics.
A regular assessment of your income and expenses is recommended throughout the year, but especially when you are setting savings goals for the New Year.
You want to take the time to make sure that everything is being covered already, and you have no items going unpaid in your household budget.
Basic budgeting rules include listing all income sources and all outgoing expenses.
Subtracting expenses from income should result in a balance leftover that is flexible income. However, if you are living paycheck to paycheck this amount may be non-existent.
That is when you should evaluate your expenses more closely to find any wiggle room.
If you find that you have excess funds at the end of the month, it is easy to proceed forward to creating your savings goals.
If not, then you need to take a moment to really look at your budget and find ways to create more flexible income.
This can be nearly impossible for some families. In those cases when you simply don't splurge or have any extra expenses, it is time to look for alternate income sources.
We have some great articles here already for you on how to become a virtual assistant or even some side hustles for your spare time. They are a perfect resource for increasing your income to create that wiggle room you need.
Make sure your budget has these items included:
- Housing (rent or mortgage)
- Utilities (electric, gas, water, garbage pickup)
- Transportation (bus pass, car payment, car insurance, gas for car, vehicle maintenance)
- Food (all meals including school lunches, breakfast, dinner, lunch at home, or at the office)
- Insurances (health, life, dental, vision, home owners, renters, and business if applicable)
- Telephone and Internet (if needed for school or work)
- Entertainment: While not mandatory, it is important to not stretch yourself so thin you are frustrated and overspend. Even a $5 entertainment allowance for movie rentals or an ice cream out is a way to fit a splurge into your budget.
Determine what expenses are worthwhile to you and your family.
When it comes to actually setting savings goals, you have more than just a number in mind, but the expense for which it will be used.
Saving $1,000 is great, but what is the purpose of the savings itself?
By taking the time to determine what the savings would be for, you can easily remind yourself why the goal is so important.
Savings goal suggestions in order of importance to most families:
- Emergency savings for last minute repairs, medical expenses and rainy days.
- Needed home or vehicle upgrades or renovations (it is better to save specifically for these and replace before they become an emergency expense).
- Education expenses for your children or yourself if you desire further education.
- Retirement savings or long term care savings
- Savings for unnecessary upgrades to your home, vehicle, or hobbies (this includes a dream home or new car when your current is functional and in good shape).
Create a long term plan and short term goals.
It is vital to set realistic savings goals for yourself. I prefer to make long term goals to reach for, then break those down into smaller, more manageable goals for the short term.
Larger goals would be saving to buy a new vehicle outright without financing. Smaller goals would be to set aside $20 per paycheck to reach that goal.
By breaking down your ultimate goals into manageable smaller goals with action steps, you make it possible to keep your focus to reach those goals at a faster pace.
For many people, the goal of saving for retirement may seem unnecessary in their 20's, but reaching their 40's they soon realize how fast that need is approaching. By planning early, you have plenty of time to form a habit of putting aside small amounts to reach those small goals.
Before you know it, the small goals have grown, and our long term goal is within reach.
Smaller goal suggestions:
- Establish a pattern of savings beginning with a small amount each week. An emergency savings fund is the first focus you should have, as listed above, and so this could begin with a minimum amount and be built upon in time. Aim to have a $500-$1,000 in an emergency fund.
- Weekly or monthly small increment increases in your savings to help you adjust to the change in flexible income.
- Breaking down larger savings goals into multiple parts and creating short term goals so the large number doesn't overwhelm. A $500 new washing machine goal can be broken down into 10 months of $50 savings.
Larger goal suggestions:
- Vacation goals, upgrades on appliances, remodeling or renovation budgets
- Retirement, college education for children, buying your dream home
- A new car, motorcycle, boat, or other splurge vehicle or "toy"
Navigating through the process of making savings goals for the New Year seems difficult, but it is not impossible.
These tips are just the beginning.
Start small and really figure out what you want to save for and then break it down so that you have easy to follow steps.
As you look at your long term desires and needs, you can break down your goals even more to make them manageable.
For first time budgets and savings plans, your goals could be just $10-$20 per month. Even these tiny changes throughout your budget can make a lasting impact in time.
What are your savings goals for the new year?
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This Post Has 3 Comments
I totally agree about getting real with our finances and taking the time to see what's really going on. To get our budget in order for next year, I've been combing through the past 6 months of credit card bills and looking at what we "really" spent versus what I think we should budget. There's definitely a difference!
These are great tips! I am working on my goals for the new year and getting my budget and savings back in order is on the top of my list for sure!
Your tips are spot on! For us, breaking down saving goals into manageable, smaller portions has been key to making those goals work. The other great thing about making goals is that it has helped us be more okay with sacrificing things that we love. For instance, right now we are a one car family and I find it pretty frustrating sometimes! But knowing that the money we are saving by just having one car is allowing us to buy our new home without going into debt helps give me perspective and makes it a little easier to not stay focused on the frustration that comes with having just one vehicle.


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Henry Cavill Reveals His Secret to Getting Big Arms
James DevaneyGetty Images Henry Cavill just posted another workout post to his Instagram feed—but the former (?) Superman star wasn't boasting about throwing around some heavy metal and reaching a new one-rep max PR. When you check out the post, you'll notice the same big shoulders, same massive arms, and the same beat up Kansas… Read More »

subset: commoncrawl


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I've often visited the YouTube Success Stories page looking for case studies that I could use in one of the Mini-MBA classes that I teach at Rutgers or one of the training workshops that I teach at Market Motive. And up until very recently, I've skipped over the success story at the top of the page entitled, "GoPro discovers a global audience." Now, I'd watched "GoPro YouTube Case Study," which was published April 19, 2012.
But I had never incorporated it into one of my courses because it didn't have a "teachable moment." Despite having great visuals, the closest the video comes to explaining the business benefit of using YouTube is at the 2-minute mark when Lee Topar, the director of marketing at GoPro, says, "As our views increased, we immediately saw lift in direct sales." He doesn't say how much of a lift GoPro saw.
In contrast, the Rokenbok success story lower down on the YouTube Success Stories page includes a boffo ending right out of Hollywood. I first told the story of how the Rokenbok Toy Company is using YouTube to transform into an online business in ReelSEO back on Dec. 12, 2011. Then, on April 17, 2012, YouTube published the video, "Rokenbok Toys Case Study," which features Paul Eichen, the owner of the company, who tells Rokenbok's story better than I ever could. That's why I've used it in marketing courses again and again. And after the video ends, I can reveal to the executives or marketers taking my course, "Rokenbok generates 50% of its customers from YouTube." Now, that's what I call a story worth retelling.
YouTube Success Stories
This symbiotic process worked so well that the PR people at Google started letting me know about other YouTube success stories. I'd write about them in ReelSEO or Search Engine Watch. They'd create videos about them. And I'd use these videos while teaching other courses. This series of case studies includes:
- Richard Petty Driving Experience increases fan engagement 700%, which was published in Search Engine Watch on Feb. 13, 2012.
- ModCloth helps drive 4,000 subscribers and 1M views using video ads, which was published in Search Engine Watch on Apr. 9, 2012.
- Berklee Music enrolls over 500 new students from 40 countries, which was published in ReelSEO on June 25, 2012.
- VeryPink Knits reaches new customers for 3 cents a view, which was published in Search Engine Watch on July 30, 2012.
- Revzilla triples their YouTube subscriber base in just a few months, which was published in Reel SEO on July 30, 2012.
- ShoppersChoice gets 5,000+ video views per day with Trueview ads, which was published in Search Engine Watch on Aug. 27, 2012.
This symbiotic process worked fine for seven of the 10 case studies on the YouTube success stories page. But I wasn't that interested in using "GoPro discovers a global audience" in one of my courses because it lacked hard numbers that I could turn into a teachable moment.
GoPro Goes Public
Then, on May 19, 2014, Reuters ran a very brief story entitled, "Wearable camera maker GoPro files to go public." I made a note to myself to check out the company's preliminary prospectus – not because I had any particular interest in GoPro's initial public offering of common stock, but because I'd worked on the Ziff-Davis IPO back in 1998 and knew I'd find a lot of previously undisclosed marketing information in the prospectus.
GoPro Increases Revenue by 87% Between 2012 & 2013
I finally found the time to do that over the weekend and discovered that I'd been a damned idiot for not writing about GoPro two years ago and I was a doubled damned idiot for not reading their prospectus three weeks ago. Here's what I discovered: In 2011, the company generated revenue of $234.2 million. In 2012, GoPro generated revenue of $526.0 million. And in 2013, the company generated revenue of $985.7 million.
In other words, I'd skipped over one of the top YouTube success stories because it lacked hard numbers. Damn! Double damn! If only I'd known that GoPro's revenues had increased 124.6% between 2011 and 2012. Oh, and the company's revenues increased another 87.4% between 2012 and 2013. Talk about a "lift in direct sales."
GoPro – Not a Camera Company but a New Media Company!
In the company overview of the prospectus summary, GoPro says, "To date, we have generated substantially all of our revenue from the sale of our cameras and accessories and we believe that the growing adoption of our capture devices and the engaging content they enable, position GoPro to become an exciting new media company."
Now, I'd gotten excited because the Rokenbok Toy Company was using YouTube to transform itself into an online business. But GoPro is using "leading social networks and content platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube" to transform itself into a media company. Talk about a teachable moment!
GoPro: Using YouTube for Earned Media Success
The prospectus also discloses that "Thousands of GoPro customer photos and videos are shared daily, driving awareness and enthusiasm for our customers' content, as well as for GoPro's own brand and products. In 2013, our customers uploaded to YouTube approximately 2.8 years' worth of video featuring 'GoPro' in the title. Also on YouTube, in the first quarter of 2014, there was an average of 6,000 daily uploads and more than 1.0 billion views representing over 50.0 million watched hours of videos with 'GoPro' in the title, filename, tags or description." Now, that's a story worth retelling.
GoPro's prospectus also says, "We distribute GoPro programming through what we refer to as the GoPro Network, a collection of GoPro Channels hosted on a variety of platforms, including the following:
- Facebook: over 7.2 million 'likes;'
- Instagram: over 2.0 million followers;
- Twitter: over 950,000 followers; and
- YouTube: over 450 million video views, over 1.8 million subscribers and ranked #1 on the Brand Channel Leaderboard for January through March 2014."
It adds:
As of December 31, 2013, we had not derived revenue from the distribution of, or social engagement with, our content on the GoPro Network. However, we plan to pursue new revenue opportunities from the distribution of engaging GoPro content in the near term. For example, in the first quarter of 2014, we entered into an agreement with Microsoft to develop and launch the GoPro Channel on Xbox Live. We expect to begin earning revenue from GoPro Channel advertising and sponsorship opportunities on Xbox Live and GoPro Channel advertising on YouTube and Virgin America in the second quarter of 2014.
Now, the information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. And GoPro is an "emerging growth company" as defined under the federal securities laws. So, potential investors will definitely want to read the "Risk factors" section that begins on page 17.
GoPro: Top YouTube Success Stories Rarely Told
But, internet marketers and video content producers will want to read GoPro's prospectus because it's one of the top YouTube success stories that's rarely been told – until now. As "Welcome To The GoPro YouTube Channel" says, "From the depths of the sea to the edges of outer space, experience life's most incredible moments as captured by GoPro—maker of the world's most versatile camera."
Or, as Nicholas Woodman, GoPro's Founder and CEO, says:
GoPro helps people capture and share their lives' most meaningful experiences with others – to celebrate them together. Like how a day on the mountain with friends is more meaningful than one spent alone, the sharing of our collective experiences makes our lives more fun.
All I can add is this: There are lots of lessons to learn from a company that was enabling people to make "mobile videos" years before mobile video apps came along. And there are lots of teachable moments to share with executives and marketers by studying a media company that's successfully helped its customers put selfies on steroids.


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I think the underlying and underappreciated issue in the debt limit/deficit discussion is just how far apart the ideal point of the negotiators really is. And understanding that gap is important for understanding what Barack Obama and the Democrats are up to, including why liberals are suddenly finding the merits in the Gang of Six proposals (Jared Bernstein and Robert Greenstein) or even an all-spending-cut solution (from Jonathan Chait).
The Democrats…well, it depends on exactly who we're talking about, but the median point among Congressional Democrats is probably something like this: keep spending at current levels with growth at GDP levels for most things, cut a fair bit from defense, let the Bush tax cuts expire, and fully implement ACA including the cost controls but with a public option added on. That gets the deficit under control – something that a lot of Democrats honestly seem to care about, perhaps because they're concerned with good government and believe that large deficits undermine it.
The Republicans? Without invoking the Bachmann fringe, we can just look at what they've voted for already this year: return the size of the government to around where it was before Woodrow Wilson was in office. Except for the defense portion of the government, which should be roughly where it was at the height of the Cold War at an absolutely minimum. And tax cuts. It might add up, it might not; I don't notice a whole lot of GOP concern about that (with, to be sure, some exceptions, such as Senator Tom Coburn). That was no wild bluff; virtually every House and Senate Republican voted for bills that would have implemented that agenda, including entirely unforced (albeit second-hand) votes on a Constitutional amendment this week that, title and dubious enactment mechanisms aside, was basically an attack on both the Great Society and New Deal understandings of the role of government in the US. Which they would be glad to tell anyone who is willing to listen to them.
Given that gap, it was never remotely plausible that either side would get anything close to what they wanted. Indeed, it was always likely that overall policy during the 112th would produce policies far closer to the Democratic ideal point, and virtually all of the options on the table do exactly that.
However, it was never at all plausible after November 2, 2010 that Obama and the Democrats could get through this year and next without losing on several fronts compared to what they had in the very liberal 111th Congress. And yet liberals seemed to believe that if only Obama negotiated properly he could avoid those losses. It just wasn't going to happen.
So the proper way to see the current negotiations are in the context of watching both sides surrender. Republicans, as I've argued, are having to do most of the surrendering; what they're going to get will be nothing remotely close to what they bid, and most of the drama of the past weeks has been trying to find a way to convince the House Crazy Caucus of that. But Democrats will have to surrender too. In that context, the question becomes what, exactly, they want to give up. Of course Democrats are upset about coming cuts to programs they believe are vital to the nation, and of course they're upset about what they see as nonsense economic policy, and of course they're upset, for that matter, about the possibility that they may make their best deal only to find that House Republicans who persist in believing things that are not true will still spike the who deal and send the economy into a tailspin anyway. And of course liberals should be pushing for the best deal they can get, and fighting for their priorities. But the bottom line is that whether it's associated with the debt limit or with FY 2012 spending bills, Republicans are going to get some of what they want, there's no magic way — not the 14th amendment, not the McConnell plan, not brilliant negotiating or brilliant speeches by the man in the White House — to make that go away. What we're seeing now, therefore, is Democrats coming to grips with that reality, and battling over what specific losses they should absorb.


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Ah. 2010 here you are. I figured this would happen. And being the new years resolution person that I am, I'm raring to go. In fact i purposefully hit bottom last week, so I could be all the more disguted with my 2009 self and make radical changes in 2010. Here they are:
1. start a blog. boom. that one's already done. this is easy.
2. be positive, about everything, not delusional, just positive.
3. get skinny and rich.
So the first one is all wrapped up. Thank god I didn't resolve to actually keep a blog. And i'm already feeling really positive about the 3rd one, so that is a good start on the 2nd. Oh, and about that 3rd one, before you start judging, I live in LA now and that's how we talk. and really it's just a concise way of saying 'get into shape' and 'be more fulfilled professionally'. No worries, there will be no binging and purging, or hooking of myself; i hate the taste of my own bile, and Brian (the husband) is picky about who i sleep with. Just good old fashion yoga and salads; marketing and hard work. Boring, I know.
a few more....
4. keep my car clean. I'm a prop stylist so this is EXTREMELY difficult. I often look homeless.
5. eye cream. I ain't getting any younger.
6. make the bed every morning. hi, i'm 9 years old.
all pretty doable.
just quickly, a little background: I'm from Portland, Or, went to school at U of O, where I studied comp lit and history and literally retained nothing. Lived in New York for 7 years, assisted the amazing stylist, Cindy DiPrima, married the handsome Brian Henderson, and started my grown up life and career in Prospect heights. Two years ago we moved to Los Angeles to find the fame and fortune that only Hollywood can offer (Brian is an actor - Hollywood isn't exactly impressed yet with the prop styling world). So we have sold our souls. But, we now have a dining room....oh, and it seats 10! eat your heart out New Yorkers; now to make 8 friends....
Back to the whole purpose.
Style is all relative, and this will be all about mine. It's not always perfect, I have made many a style mistake as my college roommates can attest. But instead of me keeping everything in little digital files labeled 'good bedrooms' and 'awesome vase', I'm gonna post them to the world wide webs - probably illegally, but most likely with better titles.
Let me know what you think.
One more New Years resolution, #7: post daily...er, 5 times a week, with lots of pictures of pretty things, rooms, people, many book/music recommendations, and lots unsolicited lifestyle advice.
feel free to share it with your friends, family, coworkers and lovers.
I'm tired now. And this picture is of one of my favorite bedrooms ever. It's quiet and simple, yet I feel like I know that person. and I kinda want to be that person. nunight.


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Family Motto: Spero meliora. (Loosely translated as, "I hope for better things")
And if you don't like bad language, then bugger off.
Beware. Cookies maybe lurking on this site.
I usually post several times a day about differing subjects. Do scroll down
The silly old Christmas Duffer forgot to look. That'll teach him to eat all my mince pies, drink my sherry, and block my chimney last year.
Is there a skyway code anyone?
Say what you like. I try to reply. Comments are not moderated. The author of this blog is not liable for any defamatory or illegal comments.


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I would like to thank Classic Elite, Namaste and Old Mill Knitting for their donations to the goodie bags.
The following suppliers generously donated door prizes
- Berroco
- Classic Elite
- Churchmouse Yarns and Teas
- Della Q
- Diamond Yarns
- Gemini Fibres
- Lantern Moon
- Lorna's Laces
- Namaste
- Naturally NZ
- Offhand Designs
- Old Mill Knitting
- Prism Yarns
- Rowan
- Soak Wash
- Spud & Chloe
- Tanis Fiber Arts
- Twilleys
- Vogue Knitting
- Wendy/Peter Pan
I have been receiving pictures from Camp. Here are a few.
Jared is concentrating.
Someone asked if we could take a group photo this year. It wasn't something that I had thought about doing in the past.
I wasn't sure when this was taken but now I see that Pat has a glass of wine in her hand so I am going to say that this is Saturday night during Show and Tell.


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AGC Secures Fabrication Deal for Woodside's GWF Project (Australia)
AusGroup Limited subsidiary, AGC Industries Pty Ltd ('AGC'), a leading Australian based fabrication and construction group, yesterday announced it has secured fabrication work with Fugro-TSM for Woodside's Greater Western Flank (GWF) project.
The contract is for the fabrication of post metrology subsea spools for the first phase of the project which will commence immediately for a period of 12 months.
The work will be performed in Kwinana and at the Australian Marine Complex (AMC) quay side facility in Henderson, south of Perth, Western Australia. It is expected to create work for approximately 30 new staff, based at the AMC.
Upon completion, the spools will be loaded out at AMC Henderson for marine transportation to the Greater Western Flank area, off the north-west coast of Australia.
As an expansion of the North West Shelf project, the A$2.5 billion GWF Phase 1 project will develop the Goodwyn GH and Tidepole fields.
The work to be performed is highly critical and requires tightly regulated quality procedures. AGC's systems, previous performance, and experience provide confidence with clients when undertaking such work.
"As AGC continues to support the domestic gas and the LNG sector, we are pleased to be involved in supplying key infrastructure for the first phase of the Greater Western Shelf Project," said AGC CEO and Managing Director, Laurie Barlow.
FugroTSM and the parent company Fugro support the exploration, development, production and transportation of the world's natural resources as well as providing their clients with technical data and information which is used to design, construct and maintain structures and infrastructure both onshore and offshore.
With this contract award, AusGroup's order book now stands at AU$271.1 million.
Press Release, January 8, 2013; Image: ret.gov.au


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AUTUMN RAILWAY TOUR IN NEW ENGLAND – 8 Days | September 26 & October 3
Winnipeg Departure
- Double $2,179 USD
- Single $2,499 USD
- Triple $2,054 USD
Meals Include: • 10 Meals
DEPOSIT: $750.00 per person, plus optional travel insurance due at booking. Final payment due 90 days before departure date.
** To be converted to Canadian dollars at booking.
Early Booking Bonus applies before December 29th, 2017.
Immerse yourself in New England's annual display of fall colors. Reds, oranges, yellows and more are on full display as you make your way into the heart of the fall splendor. Visit quaint New England towns and varying landscapes as you travel from the city of Boston to the shores of Cape Cod, to the heart of the shipbuilding past in Mystic, to the picturesque town of Stockbridge, MA, made famous by Norman Rockwell. You'll experience the best of New England on this incredible journey.
DAY 1 BOSTON Arrive in Boston and transfer on your own to your hotel. The remainder of the day can be spent exploring the city, taking a trolley tour or just relaxing in your room. Meet your Tour Manager and fellow travelers in the lobby at 6:00 p.m. for a short meeting before heading out for dinner at your choice of local restaurants. Overnight Boston, MA
DAY 2 BOSTON/CAPE COD One of the most influential cities in America's past, Boston is filled with historic sites and landmarks pivotal to America's history. Walk along the streets of the "Cradle of Liberty" on this morning's city tour, which highlights "Bean Town's" best. After lunch at Quincy Market, begin your journey south. After lunch, step back in time at Plimoth Plantation. Hear the complex and interwoven stories of two distinct groups – the English and the Native as you explore 17th century Massachusetts. Your journey then continues to Cape Cod. Enjoy a lobster dinner tonight before returning to your hotel. Overnight Cape Cod, MA (B)
DAY 3 CAPE COD Today, learn more about one of America's most beloved presidents at the JFK Hyannis Museum. Hear about JFK's personal life, his life before the presidency and life as a member of Hyannis' most prominent family. This afternoon, we'll enjoy a cruise around Hyannis Harbor. Learn about the history of Hyannis and view local landmarks, including the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport. Our day continues with a visit to the Cape Cod Maritime Museum, followed by free time in downtown Hyannis. Tonight, you will enjoy and unforgettable experience aboard the Cape Cod Central Railroad's elegant dinner train. Overnight Cape Cod, MA (B, D)
DAY 4 NEWPORT/MYSTIC Today finds you traveling to Newport, RI, yachting capital of the world. A trip down Ocean Drive reveals the splendor of this playground of the rich and famous. Tour The Breakers, the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages." Built by Cornelius Vanderbilt in the late 1800's, it stands as a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial prominence during the turn of the century America. Our tour continues to Mystic, CT, home of the world's largest maritime museum, Mystic Seaport. Founded in 1929, this prominent museum offers tall ships, a recreated 19th-century maritime village, and a preservation shipyard. Relax on the motorcoach as we make a short drive to Springfield, MA, our home for the night. The evening is yours to relax in your hotel room or to venture out to explore the city. Overnight Springfield, MA (B)
DAY 5 STOCKBRIDGE/MANCHESTER Today we journey to the Berkshires and Norman Rockwell's hometown of Stockbridge, MA. Here we will take some time to enjoy and appreciate the work of this amazing artist at the Norman Rockwell Museum. The museum contains the world's largest collection of original Norman Rockwell art, including his famous Saturday Evening Post covers.
After lunch, we take a short drive to Vermont and stop at the Apple Barn to explore the orchards and hear a bit about the apple industry in the state. We'll take some time to shop in the store or enjoy a slice of apple pie a la mode and a nice cup of cider before continuing to Manchester.
This afternoon you'll enjoy a visit to Hildene, the Lincoln Family's summer home. Here, breathtaking gardens meet a well-preserved estate for a beautiful overall picture. You can also tour a Pullman car, the
Sunbeam, which was built in 1888. Now fully restored, this wooden Pullman car is an example of the finest travel luxury of its time. Afterward, we will make our way to our hotel for the evening. Overnight West Dover, VT (B, L)
DAY 6 CHESTER/MONTPELIER/LINCOLN This morning we'll take a short drive to Chester, Vermont, where we will board the Green Mountain Flyer Fall Foliage Express Scenic Railroad. Sit back, relax and enjoy spectacular fall colors as we journey through southern Vermont. On our arrival back in Chester, you'll have some time for lunch and a little exploring before we continue on our journey north. The afternoon finds us at the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in Montpelier. Here, you will learn about Vermont's No. 1 export – Maple Syrup. Take some time to explore the farm and the maple products store before we make our way to New Hampshire for the night. Overnight Lincoln, NH (B)
DAY 7 CONWAY/LINCOLN Today begins with a beautiful drive through the White Mountains of New Hampshire on the way to North Conway. This morning, we will enjoy a ride on one of New England's most iconic trains, the Conway Scenic Railroad. The carefully restored railcars provide a one-of-a-kind look at the dramatic fall colors in New England. We'll take some time in North Conway to explore the quaint shops along Main Street before we continue with our fall foliage drive. This afternoon, we travel along the famed Kancamagus Highway – the top destination for leaf peeping in the United States. There will be plenty of stops for pictures along the way. Our fall foliage drive ends at Franconia Notch State Park before heading back to the hotel for dinner. Overnight Lincoln, NH (B, D)
DAY 8 END OF TOUR Our fall foliage journey concludes this morning. After breakfast, we will make our way back to Boston. Transfers to Boston Logan Airport and South Street Terminal for planes and trains departing after 1:00 p.m. (B)
- Luxury Motorcoach
- Quality Accommodations
- Passport Required


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2016 Carignan, Contra Costa County
The Taste
Boysenberry, Pomegranate, Anise
The Science
Varietal Content
The Magic
- 2–3 days cold soak
- Fermented 10–12 days in open-top bins (30% whole cluster)
- Punched down 2–3 times daily to ensure complete fermentation
- Fermented warm to 85°
- Aged for 11 months in French oak (30% new)
The Alchemists
George Troquato, Winemaker
Alejandro Aldama, Cellar Master
The Grape
Widely planted in Southern France, Carignan is also known as Carignano in Italy and Cariñena in Spain. The vines produce wines with bright acid, dark color, and rough tannins. Often used in a blend, Carignan makes for both a great standalone and food wine—especially wines produced from old vines, like our Carignan.
The Land
Sandy Lane Vineyard overlooks the Sacramento Delta near the town of Oakley. Gnarly head-trained vines were planted in the early 19th century and are dry farmed on soils as sandy as any beach, which keeps the canopy and the crop load in balance.
The Season
2016 saw more rainfall than in the previous five years, bringing some relief to an ongoing drought. Temperatures on average were warm, producing grapes that were fully ripe with above-average crop size.
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M.Opalinska-p, D.Whates-db
Opalińska & Whates. Both versatile and strikingly inventive musicians, Polish pianist Mira Opalińska and British bassist Douglas Whates have performed in many different settings, their combined output ranging from contemporary classical to European jazz. Taking inspiration from such varied genres and brought together by a shared aesthetic—particularly that improvised music should be deeper than arbitrary patterns of notes—this duo's brand of contemporary jazz is as extraordinary as it is purposeful.
Tipped as one of 2012's new bands of the year by Jazzwise founding editor Stephen Graham, and releasing their contemplative debut recording Lumière that same year, the Poland-based duo show great promise as they forge a path through 2013.


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Ahh throw back Tinder Thursday. It seeks to do two things. 1. Remind you all of the hilarity that is my dating life and 2. Remind me that it's been ages since I last posted. The bird murderer is a goodie though, isn't it? Always happy to have that one pop back up into my newsfeed. Anyway, dear readers… As promised. The last installment of the speed dating ditties.
I feel like I should probably just remind you of where we're currently at. Lets see now… we had the guy with the pink hair, the picnic guy, the deadpool guy and all manner of bogans. We are 10 men into the evening with seven more to go. At this point I've already lost the will to live. Now, I don't want to deny these new men my sunny and charming disposition, but we all know I'm a bit of an arsehole sometimes. As I'm sitting in this dingy pub, the smell of stale beer, puke and desperation hanging in the air, I'm seriously reevaluating my life. What the actual fuck am I doing here? I'm seconds from getting up and walking out when #11 sits down.
Contestant #11. Uninspiring physically otherwise I'd be able to recall what he looked like. Instead I remember what he said. The common ground: writing. I like to write things that make people laugh. He liked to write specifically about men's issues. Which is great. Society should be aware of the rising instances of prostate cancer and men's suicide rates and inequality in family law matters. All important stuff. He had such intensity in his eyes as he was mansplaining these concepts to me that I was fucking terrified. What a service this is. Dating and a formal education. Thank you sir, I didn't know what a prostate was. He spoke at me for the remaining minutes about how the women's rights movement has ruined society and that we work together more cohesively if women remember their cave man ancestry as gatherers. Not hunters. They should be deriving their leadership from the Hunters. I leaned forward just as the warning bell rang. "Women should just stick to what they're good at… baking cakes and sucking cock, right?" Unable to pick up on the scathing sarcasm, he beamed from ear to ear. "You're a little fire cracker! I hope you tick me so we can discuss this more. We have so much in common!" It was literally the whole sentence I said. Must be hard to hate women so much, believe being gay is an abomination but still want to get your end wet. What a way to exist.
Contestant #12. Poor Poor man. Straight off the back of a woman hating maniac, this guy didn't stand a chance. He politely described how he wanted his life to pan out… Married with two children living the suburban dream. I explained I was a single mother and working and studying etc. He informed me that if we were together, I wouldn't have to do any of that because wives should be taken care of by their husbands. Now, this guy had a kind face and looked like he could make a mean curry, so I genuinely believed him when he explained it was customary in his culture. I kindly informed him that was independent and self-sufficient and I was looking for an equal, not a minder. This was a confusing concept and he just stopped speaking. Just stopped. We sat in silence for one whole minute.
Contenstant #13. Next Indian guy of the nice who worked for Australian Boarder force. "Have you been on an episode of Australian Boarder force?" I asked, with WAY more enthusiasm than I should have. "What's Australian Boarder Force?" He replied. "It's a show about workers at the Australian Boarder Force… Obviously." Deadpan. Next.
Contenstant #14. Journalist. Willem Da Foe. Initially interested as he was a bit charming and we had quite a bit of common. But during the breaks he followed me to the bathroom… waited out side the bathroom for me to come out. Followed me back to my chair… attempted to follow me to my car which was down a dark alley… ah… no thank you.
Contestant #15, #16 and #17 consisted of an extra Daniel I can't recall, a real estate guy I can't recall and a chef I can't recall. The problem with taking shitty notes and not giving a shit towards the end. So there you have it. When my matches were emailed to me, 13/17 men asked for my number. Not bad considering I was openly hostile to most of them. They wouldn't have got it. No one got any ticks. Safe to say, speed dating isn't for me.


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August 26, 2011
"I'm Comic Sans, [Jerk]"
The Onion reports, "New Study Explains Why Comic Sans Font So Hilarious":
This second one contains lots and lots of profanity, so please don't give me a hard time if you listen & that's not your bag! (For reference here's the original text.)
Very good stuff, John! Wait, how do I change this font?
LOL! Great vid.
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Aga Khan University to train teachers
Monday August 4 2014
KAMPALA- The Aga Khan University, Institute for Education Development East Africa, has signed a MoU with the ministry of Education to provide educational leadership and management training for more than 800 secondary school head teachers implementing free education across the country.
The certificate programme which was signed last week, will give school heads skills to work with their teachers to motivate and engage students to make a difference in education standards.
The programme, which is funded by the World Bank, will consist of two residential periods and several weekend workshops interspersed by a practicum component at the USE schools, examination and evaluation process.
So far, some residential periods and workshops have been conducted at Nyondo Core PTC, Bushenyi TTC, Gulu Core PTC and Nakaseke Core PTC.
Prof Pauline Rea-Dickins, the director of the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development, said: "It is essential that head teachers know what quality and high standards mean for schools and how to champion this quality in their own schools."
The programme comes at a time when government is in the process of re-introducing the teachers' scheme of service to enable classroom teachers who have furthered their education and acquired higher qualification get promotions.
This means, if the scheme is re-introduced, teachers with higher academic credentials will be paid higher salary scales than their colleagues with lower qualifications.
Currently, Uganda has 160,000 teachers on the government payroll teaching in primary and secondary schools.
Out of these, 135,000 are primary teachers while 25,000 teach in secondary schools.


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If you travel by plane, I am sure you are very familiar with all the security procedures – no water or liquids in more than 100ml vessels, your laptop must be out of your bag in a tray, take off your belt, shoes, etc.
But long time ago I noticed that in many places the security precautions are not taken that seriously. Repeatedly i was going through security with bottles of water containing more than 100ml.
When I was flying from Prague to Kiev at the beginning of our trip I forgot to put my Swiss knife into the bag I planned to check in. Of course, a security guy stopped me and asked to open my bag. I totally forgot about the knife and when he asked me if I have a knife it dawned on me that it was actually in the carry-on luggage. I was quite upset to lose the knife. But for some reason (probably seeing my very upset face) the guy just put the knife back into my bag and waved me to go…..I was a bit surprised. Then a bit later I was quite shocked. I was let to pass through a security check with a knife. Of course, it is not very big, but still it is a knife. What if I decide to take pilots into hostage and demand flying to Antarctica????
Several weeks later when we were in Odessa I talked to a guy who works on an international cargo ship. He told us that we went through security training and that all the airport and similar security procedures do not really protect anybody. If real terrorists want to hijack a plane they will do it despite the existing security checks.
That is exactly what I thought for quite long time already. Pilots cabins are usually sealed and locked, and if terrorists bring in knives or even guns it will not be that easy to take pilots into hostage. I am not even talking about 9/11 Hollywood performance.
I just got more convinced after flying Isfahan – Dubai – Bahrain – Bangkok. Me and my bag containing the knife went through at least 4 security checks in airports: 1) Isfahan, 2) Several checks in Dubai & 3) Bahrain. I was dead sure I was going to lose my knife.
Well, I still have it. The picture above was taken in Bangkok. I was surprised but my knife is still with me. And I am sure that you can clearly see the blade of it (even if it is folded) on the security monitors.
Then why they all let me go through?
Are all the airport checks and security procedures just bullshit for ordinary people?
What do you think?


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Monday, November 30, 2009
Palin's Potemkin book tour
I'm a book-tour veteran. Let me tell you, those things were grueling. Today Minneapolis, tomorrow Corte Madera, the next day San Diego. Even when I was traveling by train -- my preference over airlines -- the going was tough, full of wrinkles and weariness and road-food gas.
But when the going gets tough, Sarah Palin gets jetting.
She's on a big bus tour, her book publicists claim, to get closer to the small-town voters who are her base. She travels the way they do, says the meme; she knows how Joe and Julie Six-pack feel, because she's one of them.
Yeah? The veteran investigative journalist and author Joe McGinniss (The Selling of the President, 1969) now gives us The Selling of Sarah Palin 2009 in an article revealing that far from traveling by bus, she flies in a $4,000 an hour private Gulfstream from place to place.
Palin then boards her bus at the airport for the short trip to a triumphant arrival at the target bookstore or lecture venue -- completely pressed and fresh, unlike her weary publisher's publicist, who looks as if she'd been dragged coast-to-coast on Greyhound. Because she was.
Palin's fans are completely in the dark.
Ah, dear Sarah, you paragon of grassroots authenticity.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 7:42 AM 4 comments
Labels: Absurdities
Friday, November 27, 2009
Today's factlets
Three things I didn't know I needed to know until I knew them today:
1. It would be kinder to the environment if we dug up and replanted municipal Christmas trees instead of cutting them down.
2. Smoking around your Mac might void the Apple warranty because it creates a biohazard for the repair guys.
3. PC users are twice as likely as Mac users to choose USA Today for a complimentary hotel newspaper. And Mac users are 53 percent more likely than PC users to choose the New York Times.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 6:14 AM 0 comments
Labels: Jorunalism
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Yossarian's Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving dinner Joseph Heller described in Catch-22 may be the rowdiest Turkey Day in modern American fiction, and today Mark Athitakis, who was a valued reviewer of mine at the Chicago Sun-Times, quotes it on his blog. Thanks, Mark!
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 11:10 AM 0 comments
Labels: Reading
Angell of press-box prose
Today we should give thanks for Roger Angell, the 89-year-old wunderkind of the New Yorker, whose elegant, humane and urbane baseball essays consistently belie the sandbox puerility of most sportswriters.
Let me just quote a few sentences from Angell's wrapup of the World Series in this week's New Yorker:
"I think A-Rod will always be a little beyond us. We can get used to his money more easily than his outlandish talent and his physical gifts; standing near him in the dugout at times, I've had the impression that I'm within touching distance of a new species."
Even at his advanced age, Angell still brings a small boy's awe to the battered old game.
In offering sympathies to Detroit fans for the league-leading Tigers' inexplicable choke in the last weeks of the season, Angell writes, "Many of the long-term ticket holders at Comerica Park are autoworkers, lifers on the Pontia and Chrysler and Chevy assembly lines, who experienced horrific changes in their lives in the past few months and did not expect further anguish at the games."
Now there is a rare sportswriter who looks outside the playground to the wider world around him.
"Their manager, Jim Leyland, stood in the late going with one foot up on the step of the dugout and the same gaunt Dorothea Lange expression on his face that we saw back in 1991, when his Pittsburgh Pirates team, caught up in a seven-game National League Championship Series with the Braves, scored no runs at all in their last eighteen innings of the year."
That "Dorothea Lange" image is perfect -- and no red-faced ESPN table-pounder could think of it, or even have heard of the great Depression photographer.
Of one long and tense inning in the divisional championship: "Top and bottom, that inning required forty-four minutes, and it felt like a colonoscopy."
Now that's the perfect simile from a man who's spent time on a gurney as well as in the press box.
Of Chase Utley, the Phillies second baseman: "Utley, who has slicked-back, Jake Gittes hair, possesses a quick bat and a very short home-run stroke; he looks like a man in an A.T.M. reaching for his cash."
Only a fan of classic movies could have written that.
C.C. Sabathia's "fastball-cutter-changeup assortment . . . arrives like a loaded tea tray coming down an airshaft."
That's the mark of the quintessential New York apartment dweller.
Angell also misses the the stands of the old Yankee Stadium and the "wall of noise they produced on big nights."
Speaking of giving thanks, Angell closes his essay with this lovely tribute to Hideki Matsui, who "batted .615 for the Series, with three home runs, and won the Series M.V.P. by about ten furlongs":
"I quickly needed to thank . . . Matsui -- with a bow or something, not just for tonight but for every game of his seven years of super-pro service with the Yankees. His straight-back, left-handed stance, with that almond-colored bat held still; his broad-shouldered, slashing cuts at anything up in the zone; his slightly tilted vertical style of running; the trim black hair just touching his uniform at the nape; the cracked smile -- we knew all this, certainly, but in some oddly formal and removed fashion, because he was Japanese and because he didn't speak English easily. His silence kept him old-fashioned: a ballplayer from the black-and-white newspaper-photograph days, before our heroes talked."
Reading Roger Angell is almost enough to turn me into a baseball fan again.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 5:23 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Keeping it simple isn't easy
I've been working on a different kind of writing these last couple of weeks: a formal university lecture and a workshop the next day.
This is not exactly virgin ground for me. Back in the late '70s and early '80s I taught a course called "Basic Writing" to freshmen at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. I addressed them as the students they were, while at the same time using the professional syntax of journalism.
There seemed to be no need to worry that some of them might not have the vocabulary of the craft. They were, after all, students at an elite university.
The upcoming lecture will be in January at the National Technical Institute of the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology. I'll be talking to the students and faculty about the life of a deaf writer.
Will the students be as smart and savvy as those at Medill more than a quarter of a century ago? Some folks say no, that academic standards have deteriorated over the years, that college students today are comparatively naive, ignorant and unlettered.
That doesn't trouble me overmuch. We said the same thing in the 1980s. And our professors said the same of us in the 1950s. Students, by definition, are naive, ignorant and unlettered; that's why they're in college, to learn how to be sophisticated, educated and literate.
Still I fret. Many of the students and faculty at NTID are deaf-born and count American Sign Language as their first language, English as their second. Can they be expected to have the same adeptness with English, the same vocabulary, as their hearing peers?
I don't know. Should I therefore suppress my natural tendency to use a vivid and sometimes polysyllabic lexicon rather than simple Anglo-Saxon words in delivering the lecture? Would that cheat my audience of understanding?
This is not a matter of "dumbing down." Expressing complex ideas in simple, clear and unadorned English can be damnably difficult. The result may look easy to the reader, but the best writers always struggle to make their prose seem straightforward and effortless.
On the other hand, many of these deaf students may want a career in professional journalism in the hearing world. For that they need to expand their knowledge of syntax and style as well as their vocabularies.
In addressing them, I'm trying to find a happy medium between the complex and elegant on one hand and the simple and clear on the other. It's not easy. But it's good discipline for a writer who sometimes falls in love with his own colorful prose.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 8:05 AM 1 comments
Sunday, November 22, 2009
What am I going to do for kicks instead of fly a little airplane?
No more ten-mile hikes in the mountains -- bad knees. No more gourmet meals -- am on a heart-healthy diet. And so on. Gettin' old, y'know.
So I've decided to expand upon an old passion, photography. With a bit of the proceeds from last week's sale of Gin Fizz, my old Cessna 150, I put together a tabletop macrophotography kit -- a 90mm Tamron macro lens for my Pentaxes, a $50 collapsible fabric light box and two $10 desk lamps from Office Depot for illumination. Hardly a professional outfit, but good enough for learning how to take pictures of small things.
Yesterday I experimented with a few three-inch-long locomotives preserved from an old hobby, model railroading. The first results are now on my photo blog. Not too shabby, I think, for a rank beginner.
Next I'm going to apply this technique to flower photography. The soft, even and diffuse illumination that light tents yield is supposed to enhance the detail of small blooms rather than hide them in harsh shadows, as flash or direct sunlight often does.
Hmm. Winter is almost here, so for experimental subjects I'll have to buy bouquets at the supermarket. After the camera session I can present them to the Lady Friend when she comes home. Two birds with one stone.
When spring comes, bugs. This means I will have to figure out how to stun them so they'll hold still for their portraits.
Life is a learning experience, as they say.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 6:07 AM 4 comments
Labels: Photography
Monday, November 16, 2009
Goodbye, Gin Fizz
My last view of N5859E in flight as Dana Holladay put her through her paces yesterday morning at Westosha Airport in Wilmot, Wis.
My half-century-old Cessna 150 two-seater, the one I flew coast to coast in 1995 for the book Flight of the Gin Fizz, is going to a new home in Massachusetts.
Her new owner is Bill Sanchez, an engineer at an energy company in New Hampshire who lives on a farm, grows hay and boards horses when he's not flying. He will be basing the airplane at Lawrence Municipal Airport in Lawrence, Mass., north of Boston.
I went up to my airport yesterday to prepare N5859E for her ferry flight east -- an old comrade, Dana Holladay, a veteran certified flight instructor, will fly her out today if the weather improves.
Saying goodbye was not easy.
Half the time during the 15 years I owned Gin Fizz, I thought of her as an assemblage of fragile and expensive aluminum parts flying in loose formation. (She is named in honor of Vin Fiz, the historic Wright Model EX that Cal Rodgers -- also a deaf pilot -- flew from Brooklyn to Long Beach, Calif., in 1911.)
The other half the time I considered her a living, breathing being full of affectionate idiosyncrasies, a good friend who took as much joy as I did cavorting in the air and going places low and slow. She is so light and responsive on the controls that sometimes it seemed that she had a soul.
But now it is time to cast off sentimentality and face reality, after a heart attack last August and consequent bypass surgery. My aviation days are not necessarily over -- I can still fly under the FAA's Light Sport Aircraft rules -- but owning an airplane is no longer practical.
Bill Sanchez and his son Bill Barker, who soloed on his 16th birthday last Sept. 24, will keep old N5859E warm, well fed and content.
That's good enough for me.
TUESDAY: Dana delivered N5859E to Bill at Lawrence Municipal last night at 7:30 p.m. after a 9.5 hour flight, with three pit stops. All is well.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 12:01 AM 11 comments
Labels: Aviation
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Langewiesche flies again
William Langewiesche is one of our very best journalists (as well as a superb prose stylist), especially on matters of aviation. He knows whereof he writes; he was for a long time a "freight dog," flying cargo in drafty, crapped-out, barely airworthy airplanes from one godforsaken airfield to another, and the experience leached the treacly romance of aviation out of him. He sees blind hero-worship of pilots for what it is.
Today in the New York Times, Dwight Garner reviews Langewiesche's newest book, Fly By Wire, a revisitation of Capt. Chesley Sullenberger's storied landing of that Airbus 320 in the Hudson without loss of life.
It was a professional performance by a superb pilot, Langewiesche declares, but he also argues that the Frenchman Bernard Ziegler, who long ago devised the fly-by-wire system that really guided the Airbus to the river, may have been the greater hero -- if "hero" is the proper term for someone who executes the job he was painstakingly trained to do.
Garner sums up the book as "prickly and uneven but plainspoken."
That's good enough for me. I'm off to Barnes & Noble to get a copy.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 6:07 AM 0 comments
Labels: Aviation, Journalism
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Omt ndlss vwls
Away back in the 1960s when I was a journalism student, I had to learn the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, the little booklet beloved of city and copy desks that dealt with stuff like capitalization, numbers, punctuation, hyphenization, proper terms of address, grammatical rules and other housekeeping tasks without which a newspaper would have looked like the town dump.
I hated it. I never could remember the difference between "that" and "which" and how to mention the Queen on second reference. ("Her Majesty," I think it was. Or not. It's been a long time.)
But after wrestling with the stylebook for months, I knew where to look things up quickly while batting out a news story or editing one.
The journalism students I taught hated it, too, but eventually came to see its value as a kind of Army field manual for the news infantry, a statement of principles and standards. When they got jobs they were ready to go out and report or stay in and edit, perhaps after mastering their new employer's stylebook, almost always based on the AP version but reflecting local conditions and idiosyncrasies.
Sometimes a newspaper's stylebook difference reflected nothing but an individual's whims. The Chicago Sun-Times, my former employer, had an editor-in-chief from Australia, one of Rupert Murdoch's minions, who forbade the word "gay" in reference to same-sex orientation long after it had passed into common usage. "Call them homosexuals, for that's what they are!" he thundered.
We also had a copy desk chief, a staunch atheist, who changed the manual to stipulate that the deity be called "god," in lower case. His argument was that god was a figment of the human imagination, not a real entity, so did not deserve capitalization. Neither was tom sawyer, I said, or huckleberry finn, but they were proper names, just as God was. The chief was adamant. After he either quit or was fired (I can't remember which), the rule was immediately thrown out.
The style manual is so ingrained in the American journalist's hide that when some enterprising newsies started batting around imaginary AP Stylebook rules on Twitter in the last month or so, there was such a huge explosion of interest that the perpetrators are close to landing a book contract for their "Fake AP Stylebook." The story is here.
Some examples:
While it's tempting to call them "baristi" because of the Italian roots, the plural of "barista" is "journalism majors."
Do not change weight of gorilla in phrase, "800-lb gorilla in the room." Correct weight is 800 lbs. DO NOT CHANGE GORILLA'S WEIGHT!
Dr Pepper doesn't have a period in it. An easy way to remember this is "Doctors are dudes and dudes don't get periods."
Breasts should not be referred to as "jugs" unless you need it to rhyme with something else in the article. See also: cans, sweater puppies.
Always capitalize Satan. You don't want to get dead goats from those people.
It almost makes me want to un-retire. (Or is that unretire? Where did I put that Stylebook?)
With thanks to Jim Romenesko for the heads-up.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 1:46 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The wisdom of Stanley Walker
As the Lady Friend worked on cleaning out the attic today, she found in the boxes of my accumulated crap a brittle, yellowed sheet of copy paper punctured at the top by a dozen tack holes. On it was neatly typed:
What makes a good newspaperman? The answer is easy. He knows everything. He is aware not only of what goes on in the world today, but his brain is a repository of the accumulated wisdom of the ages.Walker (1898-1962) was the celebrated city editor of that old writer's newspaper, the New York Herald Tribune, from the 1920s to the 1940s, and was a culture hero to two generations of journalists, including mine. In that passage he captures what newspapering once was, in all its humor and pride and ego -- and nails its reality.
He is not only handsome, but he has the physical strength which enables him to perform great feats of energy. He can go for nights on end without sleep. He dresses well and talks with charm. Men admire him; women adore him; tycoons and statesmen are willing to share their secrets with him.
He hates lies and meanness and sham but keeps his temper. He is loyal to his paper and to what he looks upon as his profession; whether it is a profession or merely a craft, he resents attempts to debase it.
When he dies, a lot of people are sorry, and some of them remember him for several days.
-- Stanley Walker, "The City Editor"
Today Walker, too, is forgotten. There isn't even a Wikipedia entry on him. Only one of his famous books remains alive, The Night Club Era (1933), in a ten-year-old Johns Hopkins University Press reprint.
There is, however, a roadside historical memorial outside Lampasas, Texas, his birthplace.
Sic transit gloria scriptor.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 5:58 PM 1 comments
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Another for the bucket list
A shot from the front porch of the Station Inn at Cresson, Pa., by the noted railroad photographer J. Alex Lang, taken from the hotel's web site. Click for larger view.
One of my enduring passions is staying at old railroad hotels by the side of the tracks where one can sit on the front porch with a camera and long lens and watch the trains go by while debating the relative merits of this locomotive model and that with fellow rail buffs all the livelong day.
This is generally a pastime for old-guy trainiacs, but spouses often come along and discuss choo-choo widowhood among themselves. Trainwatching ("trainspotting" in Britain) is a hobby for a certain kind of person, one who is not exactly a Luddite but perhaps an aficionado of a historic old technology kept alive with modern innovation.
In my particular case railroad hotels are a fine place to get some writing done -- I'm actually more productive in a small room by the tracks that I can leave from time to time to watch a fast freight go by. The thunder of locomotives and the aroma of diesel exhaust somehow inspires me. (Don't ask how.)
My preferred railroad hostelry is the Izaak Walton Inn at Essex, Montana, on the transcontinental High Line of the old Great Northern Railway (now Burlington Northern Santa Fe), reachable on Amtrak's Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle. (See here, here and here).
I've also taken the Southwest Chief to the newish Depot Inn at La Plata, Missouri, on the Burlington main from Chicago to Los Angeles. (See here.)
Last weekend the New York Times' travel section reported favorably (although with barely suppressed amusement) on another rail buff's favorite, the Station Inn Bed & Breakfast at Cresson, Pennsylvania, on the old Pennsylvania Railroad (now Norfolk Southern) main line from Pittsburgh to New York City.
One can get there from Chicago by taking Amtrak's Capitol Limited to Pittsburgh, laying over for a couple of hours, then boarding the Pittsburgh-to-New York Pennsylvanian and debarking at Altoona, where one can rent a car for the 18-mile, 21-minute drive back down the line to Cresson. Alternatively, the time-challenged can fly to Pittsburgh and rent a car for the 100-mile, 2-hour drive to the hotel.
Gonna do it next spring. The Lady Friend wants to go, too.
Posted by HENRY KISOR at 7:14 AM 2 comments
Labels: Railroading
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Recently, I had been asked by a friend to contribute to a site she is creating. We decided to call my contribution a WIP : Work in progress.
Why…because aren't we all a WIP. Next week I turn 58 and having been downsized I am faced with reinventing myself…still a WIP.
Reinventing oneself is hard to do at any age. I have already done it when I moved to Georgia in my 40's, only knowing 1 person and without prospect of a job. I've been here 15 years and have had 2 different careers so far. So….not impossible. Just gets a little more difficult as we get older.
I have learned over the years what I do not want to do…but have yet to figure out what I do want to do and how to get there. I do like working with people and finding solutions to their needs. I do like to help people and do things that make a difference in someone's life. I do like managing projects from start to finish and managing accounts. And most of my jobs included many of this. Some of my jobs were taken out of necessity…the mortgage company does like to be paid. Some were taken out of curiosity and some were taken thinking the grass was greener on the other side.
In the meantime until I figure it all out. I have been keeping myself busy, I started to draw and paint and am taking an art course which is soon to end. So I put it out there in the universe that I want to create a meetup like situation to continue the process of art. It won't get me back to work. It won't make me rich (I am not a prodigy…I am not that good..yet ) but it is keeping me busy. It gets me out of the house and I get to meet some really nice people.
I really like painting and I really like watercolors…which of all the paint mediums to me, is the most challenging. Colors run into each other and bleed…Watercolor paint moves in all directions, sort of like life and all the bits of us running into each other…bleeding, blending and clashing.
The challenge of life, like painting is figuring out how to make it all work and create a fine piece of work. Below is a new WIP. I am really proud of this one.


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The images on the Breadalbane Gallery page are grouped geographically: Glen Lyon; Glen Lochay; Loch Tay; Glen Dochart and Strath Fillan; Balquidder and Strathyre; Strathearn.
Glen Lyon
We start with the glen said to be the longest and one of the most beautiful in Scotland. From the the headwaters of Loch Lyon on the north slopes of Ben Challum to where the River Lyon enters the Tay is a distance of 32 miles. It is possible to drive all but the uppermost 8 miles of the glen.
The Lawers Range, Meall nan Tarmachan and Meall Ghaordaidh from Beinn Mhanach (953m) above Loch Lyon
The Glen Lochay and Bridge of Orchy hills from Stuchd an Lochan (960m) above Loch Lyon
Pack-horse Bridge, River Lyon MacGregor's Leap, River Lyon
Glen Lochay
Glen Lochay is a sparsely-populated glen to the south of Glen Lyon. From the Bridge of Lochay Hotel to its headwaters it has a length of 14 miles. It is possible to drive the lower 7 miles but the road is single track all the way.
The head of wintry Glen Lochay from the south flank of Meall Ghaordaidh with the conical peaks of Ben Challum (L) and Creag Mhor (R) in the distance.
Loch Tay
Loch Tay is the sixth largest loch in Scotland and has been a focus of human habitation for thousands of years. It is 14 miles in length and has a pronounced northeast-trending bend between Ardeonaig and Fearnan where the glacier that scoured the loch basin exploited the line of weakness created by the Loch Tay Fault. At this point the loch has a depth of over 500 feet.
One of the finest views of Loch Tay is from Sròn a Chlachain (521m), the hill above Killin.
Excellent views of Loch Tay and the Lawers Range can also be found from Creag Garbh (637m) on the south shore of the loch, opposite Morenish


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A Chiropractic Specialist Training Natural Healthcare Professionals to Run a Successful Practice
Dr. Jonathan Hyslop is a chiropractic specialist, and the owner of an online business solution that trains natural healthcare practitioners. The online consultancy firm is known as Nexus Executive Academy. This Academy conducts online programs and workshops that have helped people to get a better understanding on how to run a successful practice in the field of natural healthcare. Both doctors and practitioners in this field can benefit from the programs offered at Nexus Executive Academy.
The doctor who specializes in chiropractic utilizes a number of approaches to teach practitioners and doctors on owning a natural healthcare business. The programs integrate all the best practices of running their business. First, participants are taught on how to concentrate on the areas of their business which require the most attention. By doing this, they are able to experience and increase in production and also ensure they are giving their patients value for money.
Dr. Jonathan Hyslop has come up with very effective programs for doctors and practitioners after 15 years of experience in the natural healthcare industry as a student, trainer and business person. Some of the models that are used in the program have worked wonderfully for Dr. Jonathan in the many years he worked as a natural healthcare provider. He has an ambition to educate fellow doctors and practitioners on how to run a business that is successful while fulfilling their calling.
Some of the features offered by Nexus Executive Academy include online workshops, videos, a blog and a call center service that schedules new patient appointments as a done-for-you service.. All these resources provide participants and those people who are interested in joining the programs additional information regarding the programs offered by the Academy. Based on the many reviews written by beneficiaries of the NEA's programs, the learning methodology is highly effective for every natural healthcare doctor or practitioner.
The Academy even allows participants access to a call center which they can use to increase their customer base without spending resources on hiring their own staff. The Academy also offers members other benefits like insurance billing services. Each one of these services is aimed at reducing the stress and resources natural healthcare practitioners spend money and time on, and instead allow them to focus on what is important to run a successful practice.
Dr Hyslop, a chiropractic specialist, has witnessed success in this field and introduced this online consultancy firm to help other professionals like him move to greater heights. People who have been through this program maintain that it has given their business a structure that will guide it to be successful in the long term. Natural healthcare businesses are not easy to run and attain success. However, programs like this have made it possible for doctors and practitioners and any dedicated practitioner who is also a business owner can benefit.


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oct 2016
Good morning Nadia
We met Marc but I am sorry we did not get to meet you as well. I just wanted to say it was one of the most incredible camp sites we have ever stayed at. Thank you so much for what must have been a massive effort to get the place established to the high standard that it is.
We will definitely be back and have already sassed out that number 10 looks as if it is going to be a great sight (almost finished) and the new one will also be amazing.
Once again many thanks.
Kind regardsJenny and Chris
Hi Nadia
A million thanks to you and Marc for letting us use the Secret Falls camp last week.
It was a wonderful experience – just what we needed.
The view across the valley at all the various times of the day was fantastic.
The site has been very cleverly carved out and set up and the facilities (embankments, trees, lawns, watering, lighting, ablutions, not to forget the pool) make this probably the best campsite we have used. In the last ten years we have driven some 130,000 km around and across southern Africa camping wherever possible so we have seen a few
We were able to walk to the Secret Waterfall and the big one on the other side – must be impressive after rain. Walking in the cool of the forest among the big trees (increasingly rare these days) was great. We also hiked up Kleinpoort to look down that valley – the path does not seem much used (which is both good and bad!). On our way back we caused much consternation among the baboon troop who live near the waterfall as the wind was blowing in our faces and they did not hear us coming. Lots of youngsters – conditions must have been good for them the last year or so.
We have spent years looking for what we regard as the ideal camp – nice site with a view, water to swim in, places to walk and/or ride, remote from other people. Secret Falls is a great fit and is quickly and easily accessible for us too!
Many thanks again
Awesome place to go camp with friends/family. It is peaceful, quiet and has of the best views I have ever seen from a camping site - even while you shower you look out over the town. Hiking trails is also decent and if you decide to go climb the mountain you won't regret it. Alberto
Hi Nadia and Marc,
It has taken me a week to write this, but I just wanted to say thanks again for letting us camp at Secret Falls last weekend. We had an amazing time, and it just reminded us what an incredible spot you have created there. We will be back again soon!
August 2014
Thanks Marc, Nadia and Kai for a super location, excellent facilities, and your positive attitude.
We had a very happy time!
Warm regards,
Alan and Tessa
May 2014
Guest comments:
Morning Nadia
Just a small note to say that your camping site is absolutely beautiful, the view spectacular, the hike to the waterfall amazing.
A fantastic break from the City.
Thank you for accommodating us.
Kind regards
Noreen G.
Dec 2013
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Dear Marc and Nadia
Thank you both so much for another wonderful stay at Secret Falls over New Year. It was the most relaxing and peaceful way to spend New Year and we really enjoyed ourselves. Three of our friends took Fig Cottage on Isle of Skye over the same period and it worked out so well being able to spend time together.
We wish you everything of the best for 2014 and hope to be back soon!
Kind regards
John F
Communication Guru
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MRS HAMMAN - January 2013
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Hi Secret Falls,We had a very relaxing last weekend at your campsite no 9. It rained, but was a special experience for us.
Add your comments here:
We were a group of "three old farts" who had the pleasure of spending a couple of days during the mid week. For anyone thinking about it I promise you you will not find a camping site with better views in the entire world, my opinion anyhoos.... You have lovely grass campsites with ablution facilities also with a view. We see Nadia and mark are developing about 2 or 3 more sites and would suggest that a second ablution block will become necessary. Service was great. We had a bathroom plug get jammed. One call to Marc and Willie was up the hill on his quad and had it sorted in just a few minutes. However please take care. When they say 4x4 needed they are not telling porky pies. You need a good one with low range. You will struggle if not fail with a soft 4x4. Also we had 2 x off road trailers and 1 x off road caravan. We managed just fine however I would advise that in wet or snowy weather this will not be as easy task. So be careful. Take a book and just chill out. If you ou ballies like our group I suggest you consider mid week. It seems very quiet. Regards B. Hall
If you believe in fairies or angels you could actually imagine they live here--Secret Falls
B. Skinner


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About Us
The Corry House, a historic home near Union Point and located on the Ogeechee Plantation is an event facility for weddings, parties and entertainment. The house is located approximately three miles east of Union Point and was built in the 1860's. The house is named after the family who settled on this plantation in 1798. Since that time, ten generations of the Corry family have made this land their home.
The home sits on an expanse of five hundred acres named Ogeechee Plantation in Greene County. The Ogeechee River, which has headwaters in Union Point, runs through the acreage. The home was actually built by a Confederate soldier for his betrothed after returning home from the Civil War. Ogeechee Plantation was once a cotton plantation and later was used for farming and forestry.
The Corry House offers unlimited parking, privacy, and beauty. Events may be held inside the home or on the expansive lawns, gardens or under the live oaks. There is also a gazebo for outdoor weddings and events. New this year is the magical, one of a kind, forest site. Erin Porter, event planner and director states, "We want to offer a beautiful setting with reasonable prices. We have a varying array of services which would allow a group flexability and convenience. For instance upon renting the Corry House, a bride can have access to the home the entire day for decorating and set up, or we can handle all the details for her." There is even a discount for "local brides".
Owners Bo and Ruby Cheves are excited to bring this business to Union Point and Greene County.
Key Words: Barn, Barn Wedding, Barn Weddings, Barn Reception, Barn Venue, Wedding Venues, Venues Wedding, Wedding Receptions, Wedding Packages, Wedding Destinations, Wedding Site, Wedding Sites, Wedding., Weddings., Wedding Halls, Wedding Places, Wedding Packages, Outdoor Wedding, Dream Wedding, Magical Wedding, Forest Wedding, Rustic Wedding Venue, Rustic Wedding Site


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AT&T PARK — As newcomers Tim Hudson and Michael Morse work through lingering injuries, many returning Giants players were quick to praise the anticipated contributions of their newest teammates.
With the addition of a power-hitting, everyday left fielder in Morse — and the commanding Hudson filling Barry Zito's spot in the rotation — the Giants addressed two key issues in their roster with free-agent signings.
Hudson and Morse are the only free agents signed to the team who weren't a part of the 2013 Giants.
Morse may be a new name for many this offseason, but manager Bruce Bochy admitted that he has had his eyes on the slugger dating back to his time with the Seattle Mariners.
"I've seen this kid for a long time, going back to when he was a shortstop for Seattle … he's just gotten better and better as a hitter. He had to deal with a lot of adversity last year, but he's healthy now so I'm excited about having a bat like this in our lineup and also some help out there in the outfield."
Some fans may feel let down by the Giants inability or general disinterest in acquiring marquee free agents such as Jose Abreu, Jacoby Ellsbury, or Masahiro Tanaka.
But the signing of Morse and Hudson represented classic Brian Sabean moves, a general manager with has a history of preferring tested veterans for low-risk, high-reward type of signings.
Giants Media Day
SFBay photos by Scot Tucker and Godofredo Vasquez
SFBay photos by Scot Tucker and Godofredo Vasquez


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The largest flower garden in the world
About this activity:
- Discover the Keukenhof gardens at your own pace
- The best photo opportunities
- Enjoy the 70's with this year's Flower Power theme
Only the best for you:
✔ Simply enter with the e-ticket on your phone
✔ Visit whenever you want within the season
✔ Skip the line at the Keukenhof entrance
Important info
- Opening hours:
Daily at 08.00 - 19.30 h.
- Last admission:
18.00 h. (1,5 hour before closing time)
- Period:
From March 21st – May 19th, 2019
- Location:
Stationsweg 166A, Lisse
- Important:
Transport to Keukenhof not included
The Keukenhof 2019 has ended. Have a look at our other Holland Tours here.
Keukenhof 2020: March 21st - May 10th
Keukenhof (entrance only)
The beautiful Keukenhof gardens are the largest flower gardens in Europe. Every spring, from mid-March to mid-May, the Keukenhof gardens open their doors to reveal a spectacular landscape of vibrant colors and flowery scents. Due to the limited opening times of the Keukenhof gardens, tickets are in short supply. By booking here, you'll enjoy fast-track admission to Keukenhof gardens, which means you can skip the queues at the entrance. Make your reservations now to ensure availability and discover this world-famous attraction!
Discover the beautiful Keukenhof gardens
The famous Keukenhof gardens attract more than a million visitors every year. The design of Keukenhof gardens is also different every year, which offers a unique experience on each visit. There are more than seven million flowers of all colors, shapes and sizes. The Keukenhof gardens are located just outside the town of Lisse in the Netherlands, about 37 kilometres away from the center of Amsterdam. They are surrounded by long, colourful strips of tulip fields, which are one the country's most photographed landscapes. Escape the city and unwind as you experience the beauty and tranquility of this world-renowned flower park.
A brief history of Dutch tulips
The history of tulips in the Netherlands goes all the way back to the 16th century when they were first introduced to Europe from Turkey. Very soon, the flower's bulbs became a luxury item in high demand. Such was the demand that it caused what is now considered to be the first recorded economic bubble in history, dubbed "Tulip Mania", as prices for bulbs rose dramatically through speculation and the market suddenly collapsed. Nowadays, Holland is still the number one exporter of tulips in the world.
Book your Keukenhof tickets online!
Keukenhof is one of Holland's most iconic points of interest. Avoid the queues and buy your Keukenhof tickets online. Keukenhof tickets are in short supply, so make sure you book in advance. If you need transportation from Amsterdam to Keukenhof Gardens, we also offer tours by bus, as well as several other combinations and trips. Don't miss this spectacular attraction during your next holidays in the Netherlands and get your Keukenhof tickets now!
About Tours & Tickets
Tours & Tickets, situated in the very heart of Amsterdam, has over 35 years of experience as a flexible incoming tour operator. We are specialized in offering excursions in The Netherlands and Belgium. And we offer various tickets for museums, attractions and all kinds of canal cruises. We also offer an exclusive range of combination deals.
- Holland Tours
- Canal Cruises
- Hop on Hop off
- Amsterdam Light Festival
- Small Group Tours
- Belgium Tours
- Attractions
- Museums
- Amsterdam Walking & Bike Tours
- Amsterdam Red Light District
- Amsterdam Nightlife
- Amsterdam for Kids
- Combi Discount
- Holland Pass
- Selected by Locals
- Amsterdam off the beaten path
- Blog
- Your One stop shop for all tours and museums
- The cheapest tickets you can find them with us
- Skip the Line Tickets no more waiting in line
- Multiple languages so we understand each other


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Instead of going back to Miami, I decided to venture to a city that I have never visited. Everyone I know that had visited this city would talk about how great the food is so I had to experience it for myself. And yes, New Orleans is everything they say it is and more.
I am going to take you on a visual tour of the restaurants I experienced in NOLA:
DayTWOThe Original Pierre Maspero's
DaySIXMr. Ed's Oyster Bar & Fish House
I could go on about each dish and each restaurant; but I won't. I wish I would have saved Kingfish for last. The flavor combinations & creativity blew my tastebuds away. The unique Crabmeat Cheesecake at The Palace Cafe and the Pecan Crusted Gulf Fish (served with roasted mirliton, sweet potato andouille hash, and sauce meunière at Pier 424 Seafood Market did not disappoint either. Every meal I ate was great.
What was very interesting also is that three of the restaurants I walked into because I liked the menu, are owned by Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts. Go figure. The three restaurants are: Kingfish, Piere 424 Seafood Market, and The Original Pierre Maspero's. Each restaurant has its own style while offering great food and good service (The Palace Cafe wins the best service award for this visit.)
And yes, I ate pralines. There are so many company's that sell pralines in New Orleans. My favorite of all the pralines I tasted is Pa Pa Praline located in the outlet mall located along the river walk named (The Outlet Collection at Riverwalk).
And to cool off on the super humid & hot days, I went to The French Market for snoballs.
And no I didn't skip DayTHREE. Number three will be part two of my foodie vacation 🙂


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Local Grocery Stores Offer Organic but at Different Prices
COLUMBIA - Organic food is commonly more expensive than non-organic due to a longer, more tedious production process. But can organic quality and price vary from traditional grocery stores to all-natural stores?
Hyvee at West Broadway offers a hefty range of organic produce. Customers can scan the baskets of organic apples, oranges and pears and find everything from organic lettuce to celery hearts on the shelves. Produce manager Dan Elston said the store holds its organic items to a high standard, accepting only products that have been grown free of pesticides in natural fertilizer. He said the higher price overall is because of this specific type of production.
"It costs more because it's grown in smaller crops, it's more susceptible to pest damage due to the lack of chemical pesticides," Elston said.
Across town is locally-owned Clover's Natural Market, a store that sells only organic products. Patty Clover and her husband have owned the store for 20 years now. She got into the organic produce business originally with a part-time job about 28 years ago. Then when she had her children, she realized how important it is to consume naturally-grown food. Shoppers may be under the assumption that all-organic stores have steeper prices, but that's actually not the case. While both Clover's and other corporate stores, like Hyvee, both strive for high quality, customers will see a variation in price. Here is a sampling of produce from each store with its respective price:
- Honey crisp apples- Hyvee: $3.99/lb Clover's: $3.49/lb
- Gala apples- Hyvee: $2.68/lb Clover's: $1.69/lb
- Fuji apples- Hyvee: $2.68/lb Clover's: $2.25/lb
- Green leaf lettuce Hyvee: $2.69/lb Clover's: $2.49/lb
- Celery hearts Hyvee: $2.99 ea Clover's: $2.89 ea
- Baby carrots Hyvee: $3.99 32 oz Clover's: $3.30 32 oz
Clover said her store tries to get all of its produce from local farmers. She said since it's a smaller store, she doesn't have the same buying power as a franchise like Hyvee. If she wants to maintain customers, Clover said she must try to keep prices as low as possible.
"The things that we feel most strongly about, which is local food, can be an iffy supply. That we can afford to price lower because it hasn't come over trucks and things like that," Clover said.
Nonetheless, both stores maintain high standards for their organic produce. Even though market forces are bound to influence price, Clover said she believes everyone should be able to buy organic products and price shouldn't be a factor in deterring people from going the natural route.


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Downtown area guide
Get to know Las Vegas district by district—the best local restaurants and bars, arts and entertainment and things to do in Downtown
North of the Strip, Downtown Las Vegas is another world. Sure, there's been a splash of paint here and an outrageously uninteresting electronic canopy there, but Downtown hadn't changed much in spirit for decades.
In the 1930s and '40s, hotels and casinos dotted Fremont Street, then the city's main commercial drag. But the rise of the Strip and suburban expansion drew trade away from Downtown. The construction of the Fremont Street Experience in 1995, which turned a five-block section of the road into a pedestrian-friendly gambling mall and covered it with a canopy that screens light and sound shows, succeeded in luring some tourists back to Glitter Gulch. Then a 21st-century Downtown began to sprout in 2006. Huge cranes and land-movers arrived, bringing steel beams, glass panes and concrete. With them came entrepreneurs armed with small-scale business plans and modest amounts of capital.
Now there's never been a better time to discover Downtown, an amorphous amalgamation of things gone right and wrong. By turns sleazy and chic, downcast and upmarket, desperate and enthusiastic, it's a section of town in which constant and concerted efforts to make something incredible have failed only in specificity. Something wonderful is emerging, just not quite as originally intended.
Downtown restaurants and bars
Carson Kitchen
Opened downtown in the midst of the area's redevelopment, this gastropub from beloved Vegas chef Kerry Simon—who died in September 2015 of MSA—signaled a shift in the neighborhood's dining scene. Finally, there was a place for creative comfort food and potent cocktails, a place to meet friends for a bite or head on a first date—if, that is, you could get a table. Since opening in 2014, Carson Kitchen has been packed with locals who come for the lively vibe and clean-your-plate cooking. Make a reservation in advance and get down on that bacon jam and bourbon fudge brownie.
Pizza Rock
We could list Pizza Rock chef Tony Gemignani's credentials, the many awards and titles he's won. But we'll just say this: The man knows his way around a pie. And there are plenty on the menu at this downtown restaurant, where the pizzas are listed according to their cooking temperature and type of oven. Purists will want the Margherita Napoletana (baked in a 900-degree wood-fired oven), while more adventurous types might opt for the Cal Italia with gorgonzola, prosciutto and fig preserves (650-degree gas brick oven) or one of the Romana varieties (700-degree electric brick oven)—long, thin pies with three different sets of toppings. The decor is unfortunately more focused on the rock than the pizza, but the food is worth the view of a decorative truck parked in the dining room.
Le Thai
Leading the Fremont East culinary charge, this restaurant from local chef Dan Coughlin predates most of its gastronomic neighbors. It's no longer the only table on the block, but it still has loyal fans and for good reason. The brief menu is full of casual, tasty Thai fare with Coughlin's own spin, like three-color curry, "awesome noodles" (that are pretty damn awesome) and waterfall beef—strips of tender, marinated meat served with sticky rice and addictive waterfall sauce. Really want to indulge? Four words: short rib fried rice.
Things to do Downtown
Las Vegas Natural History Museum
This small, enthusiastically run museum doesn't offer much in the way of bells and whistles. The Marine Life Room features small sharks in a large tank, the Wild Nevada Room has exhibits on the flora and fauna of Nevada and the Young Scientist Center has some interactive displays. However, the big draw is five roaring, robotic dinosaurs, among them a vast T-rex. Combine a visit with a trip to the nearby Lied Discovery Children's Museum.
Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort Historic Park
Built by a group of Mormon missionaries in 1855 and then left to become part of the Las Vegas Ranch, this is Vegas's pioneer settlement site, the oldest Euro-American structure in the state and an example of what Vegas was like before the railroad arrived. Though only remnants of the original structure remain, restoration and reconstruction have brought the compound back to life, and guides are on hand to answer any questions you may have.
Casino highlights in Downtown
Golden Nugget casino
The Nugget's elegant marble lobby may seem out of place on Fremont Street, and the high minimums (mostly $10 for craps and blackjack) in the nicely renovated casino are unusual for Downtown. There's a segregated pit for players with larger bankrolls who want to play baccarat and blackjack without the hoi polloi; it's the only high-limit pit Downtown. However, there are also good selections of slot and video-poker machines from low to high denominations.
El Cortez casino
Boasting slots "41%" looser than the Strip, El Cortez is the place to go if you're short on cash and high on hope. Here you can also still find coin-operated slots, an all-but-extinct animal everywhere else in Las Vegas. Craps minimums go as low as $3, but 10x odds are continuous. Test your luck at roulette for a measly 25 cents. The poker room also has one of the last seven-card stud games you'll find in Vegas outside tournaments. Games: Blackjack ($3–$500); craps (10x; from $3); keno; mini baccarat ($5–$1,000); poker (3 tables); roulette (double zero).
Hotels and resorts in Downtown
Downtown Grand
Downtown Las Vegas has seen numerous improvements over the last several years, but attractive lodging options have lagged behind. Yes, there is the affordable and somewhat upgraded El Cortez as well as the Golden Nugget, but these are a small percentage of rooms when measured against all the hotel options on the Strip and elsewhere. Enter the Downtown Grand, formerly the Lady Luck Hotel & Casino, which opened in late 2013.
El Cortez
While not particularly amazing, the rooms have been remodeled and are considerably nicer than they were a few years back. The Ogden House, across the street, has been renovated in an attractive modern design and renamed the Cabana Suites. Recommended if you're staying Downtown.
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
This hotel and casino is 20 minutes' walk from Fashion Show Mall on the Las Vegas Strip. The hotel offers a full-service spa and 9 on-site restaurants.Planet Hollywood features 2 outdoor swimming pools and hot tubs that overlook the Strip. Guests can use the fitness center or browse the on-site shops. Evening entertainment is also available.
Downtown music and nightlife
Beat Coffeehouse & Records
Part coffeehouse, eaterie, bar, vinyl record store and music venue, the Beat is Las Vegas's epicentre for all (anti-establishment) things Downtown. Local musicians play on the stage-less floor at the front of the store, while their fans and friends spill out on to the sidewalk of Fremont Street. Cheap food and strong coffee is available during the day; after 7pm even cheaper beer is served.
Bunkhouse Saloon
This former country bar closed in the summer of 2013 for a makeover. While that wasn't welcome news to Bunkhouse fans, who liked the taxidermy-and-cowboy decor, the management promised the redo wouldn't sacrifice BH's charm. It's still too early to tell, but as long as the Bunkhouse keeps up the steady diet of fabulous music nightly, we'll be OK with it.
Downtown Shopping
Gamblers General Store
This well-stocked shop is packed with gift ideas for that special gambler in your life. There's gambling-related merchandise here to suit all budgets, from a single casino chip costing a couple of coins to vintage video poker machines. Along with the collectibles are pretty much everything you need to play any of the casino games, including a library of "how to" gaming books.
The Arts Factory
Located smack in the centre of the 18b Arts District, the cavernous Arts Factory – a former warehouse – is home to more than 20 commercial-art tenants. Inside you'll find the 25-year-old Contemporary Arts Center (382 3886, www.lasvegascac.org), which showcases exhibitions of working artists, as well as studios, a bar and eaterie, and a store (with items created by co-owner Debra Heiser's design company, www.heiserdesign.com). Exhibitions change monthly, and if you want a sneak peek at what's coming up, visit on Preview Thursday, which, of course, falls on the day before each month's First Friday.
Retro Vegas
What happens in Vegas doesn't have to stay in Vegas—especially if you take a piece of it home with you. This offbeat little shop traffics in Sin City's ephemera, stocking everything from furniture to curios to vintage ashtrays.