Some video footage of a massive pillow war my son and I had this morning.

I just picked up this book and thought it was cool that the author gives the commenters on his blog a mention in the foreword of the book.

With gas prices up people are jumping on the bus, even in small town America. When I was a long distance commuter I tried the bus a couple times, but the price was still about even with a gas fill-up and the bus was on the same congested roads as my car. At least in my hooptie I could listen to The Ryhme.

“You can live alone for 20 years and never notice silence, but after 4 years of marriage and 3 years with kids, the silence is heavy.”

- Raul Gutierrez

I know this feeling. That’s why I try and fill the days when my wife and son travel without me.

I picked up The Best American Travel Writing 2005 on whim at a local used bookstore and it was five bucks well spent. The editor for this edition of the series, Jamaica Kincaid, based her selections on the following criteria:

Every one of them reminds me of two of the many sentiments attached to the travel narrative: curiosity and displacement. None of them are about a night’s stay in a nice hotel anywhere; none of them chronicle a day at a beach. They were not chosen to say something about the state of American travel writing; they were chosen because I simply liked them. …These essays stimulate my curiosity; they underline my sense of my displacement.

It was a good idea because it produced one of the best collections I have read. I tried to find some of the stories online to share with you:

• Trying Really Hard to Like India by Seth Stevensen
• Adrift by Bucky McMahon
• Route 3 by Ian Frazier
• War Wounds by Tom Bissell (an audio reading of the story)

One story I couldn’t find was They Came Out Like Ants! In it, the author, hunts down tunnels in Mexico that were supposed to have been built by Chinese immigrants to house illicit gambling and other subterranean activities.

If you like these stories, pick up the book and check out the rest.

photographic evidence

It’s that time of year again and fantasy football is around the corner. Just doing my duty as the commish of my league.

George Washington's gnarley teeth

From the Library of Congress by way of Wreck and Salvage.

I love this map of America’s myth’s and legends. (via)

Is this odd creature that washed up on the shore of Montauk, Long Island a strange experiment gone awry or a publicity stunt?