A Polite Society
March 16, 2022
“An armed society is a polite society,” my Uber driver tells me, unprompted, a few minutes into the nine-minute drive from the Boise airport. … More A Polite Society
Category: A Place I Went
A Borrachito in an Uber
April 23, 2021
I touched down in Guadalajara on Friday. The journey went smoothly. I had to take a fiercely expensive Uber to O’Hare, but at least I didn’t encounter any poop. At GDL, the immigration agent asked if I spoke Spanish and sent me on my way. The adventure started at customs. … More A Borrachito in an Uber
An Adventure in Municipal Government
November 14, 2020
Eight months into various levels of lockdowns, I was surrounded by recyclables. Boxes, bottles, cans, newspapers, even things that probably aren’t accepted in Chicago’s single-stream: I was swimming in it. … More An Adventure in Municipal Government
Just Can’t Get Enough
November 26, 2019
Saturday, November 23-Tuesday, November 26, 2019: Berlin, Germany Late November 2019 found me in Berlin: Fresh off of a backbreaking week at Dreamforce in San Francisco followed by two consecutive nights on a plane and sporting a murderous upper respiratory infection. Every description of Berlin seems to feature a word starting with “gr”: Grimy, gritty, … More Just Can’t Get Enough
Downtown Los Angeles
April 14, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017: Los Angeles, California
Downtown Los Angeles has not the glamour of Hollywood, the pomp of Beverly Hills and Malibu, or the edge of Venice, but it has your big city skyscrapers and what feels to a humble Midwesterner like a hint of California cool. I spent a day and a night here en route to Coachella in 2017, sun(bur)ning myself on a hotel deck, riding a slide 1000 feet above the ground, and of course, bookshopping. … More Downtown Los Angeles
Everywhere is Cold
January 17, 2017
Monday, January 16, 2017: Salt Lake City, Utah
I went to Park City, Utah to meet some friends and learn to ski over MLK weekend. My flight out of Salt Lake City (the closest major airport) left Monday night, so I headed in to check out Salt Lake, a sparse city surrounded by breathtaking mountain views with grand Mormon monuments in its center. … More Everywhere is Cold
The Bruise on my Left Hip
January 17, 2017
Saturday, January 14-Monday, January 16, 2017: Park City, Utah
Over Martin Luther King weekend 2017, I tried learning to ski in Park City, Utah . Park City is a quaint old mining town above Salt Lake City centered around two sizable, connected ski resorts and a pleasant downtown area. The friends I joined for the quick trip were all moderate-to-good skiiers, and I am not, so I spent all Sunday in lessons and fell a lot. Below are reviews of the places I hit in Park City and the time I spent there. … More The Bruise on my Left Hip
Some Days You Gotta Dance
June 6, 2016
Sunday marked my return to the continental US. I woke up late and spent almost all of it in airports. I planned to head fly from San Juan to Miami and Miami to Chicago and was ready to run from O’Hare to Tinley Park, where I would cap off a great week that started with the Indy 500 with a Dixie Chicks concert. Flight plans were not ready to make nice. … More Some Days You Gotta Dance
I Have Coffee
May 1, 2016
Tuesday, May 31, 2016: Loíza, Río Grande, and Fajardo, Puerto Rico
I started my first full day in Puerto Rico having coffee with a nice elderly couple on their porch, and finished it eating mofongo for the first time and kayaking through a bioluminescent bay. … More I Have Coffee
El Atardecer en Málaga
April 7, 2016
Wednesday, April 6 and Thursday, April 7, 2016: Málaga, Spain
Málaga is a popular tourist destination on Spain’s Costa del Sol that has a fairly built up downtown right by the beach, ruins inside and outside the city, and a claim to fame as the birthplace of Picasso. It’s also well-situated for catching a bus to Tarifa, from which major ferries leave for Morocco and which does not itself have a major airport. I came to Málaga for transportation reasons, and after a relentlessly paced few days in Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, I needed little convincing from the Argentine engineer sharing my dorm room to spend the day lounging on the beach and watching the sunset from a ruined castle. As a result, the below outline is primarily a review of what I was told I definitely should have done if I wasn’t in such a rush to get out of there, interspersed with a few things I did have the opportunity to see and do for which I can vouch. … More El Atardecer en Málaga
Gummies and Orange Soda 