I’ve mentioned before my disagreement with John Steinbeck about the reading requirements for a long trip.  Let me say here that he also exhibits a gross neglect with respect to the costume trunk.  On that score, I have augmented my own pack.  Unfortunately, and although I meant to pack them, I forgot to pull my [...]

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. –J. E. Steinbeck, Travels with Charlie My apologies if I’ve talked with you about visits that haven’t yet happened.  I am married to a truck which was: towed once in November after being too cold to start. The [...]

Earlier this year, fellow Chicago traveler Cristina Moon sent me an email about her new gig at Global Zero.  She opened by calling up a deep cut from the memory archives–she replayed for me the scene several years ago when I was fresh in my disappointment with U2′s (then) latest release, How to Dismantle an [...]

I’m making a clearinghouse round of repairs on Bess as I prepare to depart the Driftless region of Wisconsin to sail for Chicago, the cities of the East Coast, and to help my parents move house in Georgia.  After a solid two years of remodeling and repairing this truck, I’ve come up with some rules [...]

Many businesses, non-profit organizations, and entrepreneurs find themselves in the very unsweet spot between needing a web presence that’s professional but not having enough income to invest in hiring a programmer/designer. The designers I know and respect usually don’t take on projects with a budget less than $2000-$3000 (considered a very small site by enterprise [...]

This week, the lovely and painterly Josephine Ferorelli will be celebrating her birthday.  On the invitation, I noticed a new email address, a new domain.  I followed the trail and found that she has put some of her art up! Josephine, the book-stories you make remind me of an interior corner of my head that [...]