What’s my Effing problem?

Has this happened to you lately?
You’re approaching the door to a public building, a bank, say, or the library.
You hold the door open for somebody, and they barge on through, without grunting an acknowledgment, much less a thank you.
But once in a while, you’ll encounter someone who really looks grateful, someone who beams, flashes a [...]

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Travel tell-all? Or just another ego trip…

Writer, pioneering English teacher abroad and former magazine editor Chuck Thompson promises to lift the lid on the travel writing industry in his new book, tantalizingly titled Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer.
Things start out with a suitably appalling anecdote set in a greasy Thai bar, involving an ex-pat Australian – [...]

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Between the covers: cars and cooks

I recently read No Reservations by Anthony Bourdain. He makes chefdom sound cooler than Rock n’ Roll, only with more drugs and larger egos. Heed his warning about ordering fish on Mondays.
Currently on the bedside table: Phil Edmonston’s Lemon-Aid used and new car guides. He thinks VWs are totally overpriced lemons because they don’t last [...]

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