Conor Grennan's Blog, page 9
November 1, 2011
The Evolution of Halloween
There are more than a few differences between my current hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut, and the city of New Orleans, but I don't know that those differences are ever more pronounced than they are on Halloween night. I was on a flight at the crack of dawn, leaving Toronto after several days spent at [...]
October 24, 2011
Nepal: Strategy and Negotiations
Everything is negotiable in Nepal, though I've never found myself on a tarmac, knocking on the cockpit door of a recently landed plane, in an attempt to convince the pilot to change his destination. (Now that I say that aloud, it sounds remarkably like "hi-jacking.") Our strategy began with telling him that one of our [...]
October 21, 2011
Humla, with Donkeys
"You think you can arrange it, Gyljan?" Farid was asking our house manager, Gyljan, to find us porters to carry our stuff. We had decided to camp that night up the mountain, on the road to Tibet. Even the word "road" in the remote region of Humla was misleading in our current definition – it [...]
October 19, 2011
Touchdown, Humla
Nine of us flew to Humla on a tiny charter plane – it was the only way we could be sure to secure a flight. This was high season, after all, and most of these 15 seat prop planes were on their way to tourist destinations like Lukla, which is the start of the Everest [...]
October 10, 2011
Nepal: Reunions
When you find yourself in a heated negotiation, demanding to know whether the proprietor of a shop takes you for a fool because he is charging you the equivalent of a $1.25 for a product you know is worth only $1.10, well, my friends, you know you're back in Nepal. Fifteen cents. That's what we're [...]
October 8, 2011
En Route to Nepal: A Final Burger
If Qatar wants to spend its natural resources on its national airline and its airport, well, that's just fine by me. Liz and I are flying to Kathmandu. It's a grueling flight. Thing is, it's usually made worse by transit through Delhi, which either keeps you in some tiny transit lounge for thirteen hours or [...]
September 14, 2011
Envy and Yogurt Covered Pretzels
Friendly's has six menus, and one of those menus is dedicated to appetizers and entrees whose principle ingredient is melted cheese. Why they need the other five is beyond me, but my best guess is that we need other food items to help us understand how the absence of melted cheese can sadden and dismay [...]
August 30, 2011
Me, Myself, and Irene
Unless you had a wedding planned for the weekend, you can be forgiven for getting sort of excited about Hurricane Irene. What is it about these impending natural disasters that makes us so giddy right before they arrive? We pretend – we do – that we're all really worried about it. And again, if you're [...]
July 13, 2011
Irish Family Vacation
There's something about Irish pilots that they never want to tell you the weather. They dance around it, hinting but never coming right out and saying it, as if they were trying to describe an embarrassing procedure that they had, or inform you that your dog just pooped in their fireplace. "We're getting reports that [...]
June 23, 2011
General Anesthesia
I don't remember the first time I ever heard the term "general anesthesia," probably because it's not the kind of phrase that raises any red flags. "General" is, almost by definition, about as generic a word as you can get. And "anesthesia" had only positive implications. You want anesthesia. Anyone who's hung out with a [...]
