Douglas Coupland’s 1812 sculpture, Toronto ‘War of 1812’ would make a great name for a bulldog. They’re irrational creatures – with misshapen jaws and butts that make them look mean, and squashed tails that easily get infected by passing fecal matter. But down deep they’re really softies with an unfortunate tendency for leg-humping, slobber and youthful deaths. The real War of 1812, incidentally, … Continue reading
More sandwiches. Last week, in tribute of National Sandwich Day, I shared my sandwich map, which prompted to write this: why the sandwich is travel’s MVP for my column with the Daily Oklahoman.
Lonely Planet recently published a book on travel infographics, How to Land a Jumbo Jet. I submitted a full-on ‘sandwich map,’ which was supposed to make it but unfortunately fell through the cracks based on intra-continental communication techniques. Alas. But here it is. History and lore of sandwich-making, just in time — a day late actually — for National Sandwich Day. While on … Continue reading
The oldest town in Cape Cod, Massachusetts is Sandwich. I’ve wanted to go for a long time — even before talking about sandwiches at Brooklyn’s Adult Education series. And, finally, I went to Sandwich last week. For 60 full minutes. Some notes. 1) It’s quite pretty. Even charming. 2) I had a sandwich. It was a ham-and-swiss with honey mustard. Not bad. 3) … Continue reading
it’s the AMERICAN dream Something remarkable has happened. A few years ago I flirted with the idea of restaging the Battle of Brooklyn, the obscure (but huge) battle of the Revolutionary War that sent scampy colonials running for the Bronx via Manhattan — a huge, potential war-ending victory for the British before the war really got started. The problem is, someone already was … Continue reading
The Civil War is 150, which means four years of particularly robust re-enactments and a lot of new Civil War books. Even a CD or two. Here are two things I recommend doing to tribute the occasion: 1. WATCH ‘SHERMAN’S MARCH’Do you know this 1986 documentary? At nearly three hours, it’s way too long, but simply impossible to stop looking at once you … Continue reading
ROBERT REID is a travel writer (Lonely Planet, New York Times), travel expert (Today Show, CNN, GoogleTalks), travel videographer (his 76-Second Travel Show) and "travel artist" (staging the Manhattan Bridge's 100th birthday, training with Mounties). Read more...
