Sheron Long's Blog, page 20
January 9, 2017
New Year’s Travel Inspiration
Paul Salopek in eastern Turkey (2014), nearly two years into his walk around the world
© John Stanmeyer/National Geographic Creative
The Out of Eden Walk Around the World
If I had made New Year’s resolutions, “walking around the world” probably would not have been on the list.
A get-off-the-couch, 10,000 steps a day? Maybe. 10 million steps? Not a chance. That would be travel inspiration of the monumental kind.
The 10 million number is not random. Ten million steps is an important milestone for Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Paul Salopek.
Why? He is walking around the world.
And he just reached the ten millionth step of his 21,000-mile journey. Millions more steps will follow.
In January 2013, Salopek began at the beginning—The Great Rift Valley in Ethiopia—one of the
world’s oldest human fossil sites.
© AL-Travelpicture/iStock.)
...
January 3, 2017
An Idiom Abroad
Trafficking in high fashion, Glasgow style.
The Duke of Wellington monument at the Gallery of Modern Art.
© Joyce McGreevy
A Wordplay Stitch in Time
Sew, a funny thing happened on the way to a textile exhibition. One morning in Glasgow, I stopped at a café to write. The assignment: draft a column about the wordplay of clothing idioms.
I’m no smarty pants, but I hoped to leave readers in stitches so I put on my thinking cap, booted up my laptop, and buckled down to work. As cellphone users aired their dirty linen in public, I felt hampered and wished they would put a sock in it.
Then the barista buttonholed me with a shirty question.
“Wherever do you writers get your material?” he asked starchly.
His remark needled me, but surely I could pin down a sharp reply. A stitch in time saves nine, but darn it, the next ten minutes unraveled as...
December 27, 2016
How to Publish an Essay
The 1st and most essential part writing a brilliant background article is to recognize the query. Composing Frankenstein article becomes a problem for these pupils as they are not capable enough to manage the difficulties of composition writing particularly the dissertation statement. Personal storyline to begin article. Composing a suitable protect for an essay which you’ve created is not a very tough endeavor whatsoever, however it really is the many discounted. A good deal of preparation ought to go into your essay before you begin writing it. The first thing you ought to realize would be to contemplate what it is which you are likely to perform in your article. Stop it using something that may add a little world to your own essay. Prior to beginning to write the dissertation assertion, make an abstract of your own article subsequently take the principal idea which you will...
December 12, 2016
You Say Potato . . . I Say Pomme de Terre
Potatoes taking their rightful place on French market shelves
© Meredith Mullins
How France’s Parmentier Changed the Cultural Heritage of the Potato
Imagine . . .
a world without mountains of crispy French fries,
a holiday dinner minus fluffy clouds of mashed potatoes,
a steak without a baked potato dripping with sour cream,
a plate begging for a huddle of new potatoes with a hint of parsley and butter that launches pomme de terre into the strata of haute cuisine,
silence instead of the crunch of a potato chip while watching a ball game.
The wonderful world of food would be quite different without the versatile potato.
The overstuffed baked potato
© Bruskov/iStock
French Roadblocks in the Potato’s Cultural Heritage
As we savor the delicious variations of potato, we don’t often think of its lineage—its cultural heritage.
...
December 5, 2016
Creative Thinking in Copenhagen
Cycle from one island to another in Denmark’s capital city.
© Copenhagen Media Center/ Thomas Høyrup Christensen
The Danish Design of Everyday Life
On a map, Denmark’s 400+ islands resemble a dropped plate. It’s a fitting symbol, considering how Danish design breaks the mold. To the east spanning several islands is Copenhagen—arguably, the Capital of Creative Thinking.
“Danish design” connotes minimalist beauty—Arne Jacobsen’s famous “Egg” chair, Poul Henningsen’s pendant lamps, and other streamlined functional objects.
It doesn’t take a tour of Designmuseum Danmark to recognize that Copenhageners appreciate sophisticated simplicity.
Danish design is known the world over.
© Copenhagen Media Center/ Morten Bjarnhof
But Danish design also encompasses creative ideas for everything from transportation to work-life balance, making Copenhagen...
November 28, 2016
The Awe-Inspiring Monterey Bay Aquarium
Travelers embark on a journey to another world.
© Sam Anaya A.
Worlds Connect Through a Sheet of Glass
The sea is as near as we come to another world.*
Imagine entering a forest of moons, alien ellipses all floating and pulsing with color in a dark blue environment. Their long arms extend, overlapping like tangled branches in a floating forest. Welcome to the world of jellies, one that seems light-years away from our own.
Watch these jellies long enough, and you will be transported to another world.
© Sam Anaya A.
We often travel to discover a world different, distant, and new. We search for surprise, intrigue, and awe from foreign landscapes. But here at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, an awe-inspiring world is just on the opposite side of the glass.
Plunge Right In
In travel, jumping right in to a new place often reveals immediate and eye-opening...
November 22, 2016
The Pull of Pushkar
The Pushkar Camel Fair
© Meredith Mullins
Travel Adventures in Rajasthan
The naïve traveler might say that if you’ve seen one camel fair, you’ve seen them all.
Not true.
Those looking for real travel adventures know that there is no such thing as too many camel fairs, especially when it comes to one of the largest camel fairs in the world. The Pushkar ka Mela is different.
A bounty of color
© Meredith Mullins
The annual Pushkar festival in Rajasthan, India, is the ultimate blend of camels, dust, color, cattle, horses, music, smoke and spice, camel bling, acrobats, more dust, snake charmers, dancers, temple bells, more camels, carnival rides, competitions, and endless market stalls.
The mela has the added layer, however, of also being a sacred pilgrimage site.
The dusty camps of the camel traders
© Meredith Mullins
Entering an Ancient and Timeless...
November 14, 2016
Have You a Party Piece?
Sharing our gifts turns strangers into friends; Kiaran O’Donnell and Rick Chelew had just met.
© Joyce McGreevy
What an Irish Tradition
Can Teach Us Today
It was known as the party piece, a “bit of an auld song” or spoken word. Would we have called it an Irish tradition? Probably not. As students in Galway, sharing songs, stories, and poems was just something we did on Saturday nights.
But the tradition goes back centuries, notes Irish historian P.W. Joyce. Ancient Irish sagas depict hospitality to travelers as a social virtue, and guests reciprocated with music or spoken word. “Like the Homeric Greeks, the Irish were excessively fond of hearing tales and poetry recited . . . Every intelligent person was expected to know a reasonable number.”
Thus it continued, into my “ancient” college days. Go on now, give us your party piece,...
November 8, 2016
Inherited Wanderlust
A family legacy can begin anywhere. My brother and I inherited our travel inspiration hiking through Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.
© Peter Boynton
Traveling Families—At Home in the World
We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. —Anonymous
Do adventures need to end when a family begins? “Absolutely not!” say families who choose to spend months or even years connecting and learning as they travel the world.
What does it take to get the show on the road?
Share the wanderlust. Make travel a priority by putting value on the experience; if it’s important to you, then it’s important to show your kids.
Meet two traveling families, who share the kind of “Oh, I See” moments that can happen only on the road. They may inspire you to create your own family legacy of wanderlust.
The Bicycling Family...
October 31, 2016
Aha Moment: Halloween!
In 19th century France, Madame goes batty for Halloween.
Goblin Day Goes Global
What’s as changeable as a costume shop and has more frequent flyer miles than a witch’s broom? Halloween, of course.
An ancient tradition that’s as new as this season’s marketing trends, the popularity of Halloween around the world is soaring. An agile shapeshifter, it both adapts to and changes the way cultures celebrate.
Halloween’s treats can be tricky!
But just when you think you’ve captured the essence of Halloween—solemn, scary, crass, or silly—it surprises you. Read on for an aha moment or two on global Halloween trends, tricks, and treats:
1. Even the “re-branding” of Halloween is ancient.
“There’s a popular misconception that Halloween is a modern American invention. Not so,” says Irish educator Brendan Smith. Its roots are firmly in Celtic...
