5 min read

September 1961. We were at my grandmother’s apartment in Brooklyn. But something wasn’t right. For one thing, my father hadn’t finished dinner with us. He had to rush off to a special meeting of his army reserve unit at nearby Fort Hamilton. This was unusual - not planned and predictable like all the other countless visits with my grandparents. Also, the grownups seemed tense and as the hours went by, my mother told me to take a nap on my grandparent’s bed. I never had to do this before. What was going on? 

5 min read

Say ‘road trip’ and you think adventure. Even if that adventure is only: “Come to Ramada for our all-day breakfast!” But say ‘road trip’ in India and you can pretty much expect anything: maharajas, carnivals, sandstorms, jungles, monkeys, riots, beggars, nirvana. They don’t call it ‘Incredible India’ for nothing. Our India road trip landed us breathless, in a gaggle of elephants, giraffes, a princely entourage and dancing girls… and this was before lunch.

4 min read

Do you know what a lovey is? Maybe you remember your own or the one you purchased for a child. A lovey is that blanket, doll, rag or toy that was ground zero for happiness and comfort. Without it a young child won’t make a move, much less set out for a day at the office… or Gymboree. The lovey’s soft touch and familiar smell was the touchstone for a content young life. Way before there were cars, clothes, jewelry or iPhones, there was… the lovey. And woe to the parents of a child who loses her lovey in the tumult of a family vacation. Hell, hath no fury like a lovey lost.

4 min read

What’s the most luxurious perk you can imagine? A boat? A plane? Your own masseuse? For me I can’t conceive of anything that would place me in the top tier of the pampered more than having someone else call the cable company for me.

4 min read

She stood at the helm of our ship, her gun cinched tight around her waist. As she faced down a mass of wild animals, they edged ever closer. The sun’s light reflecting off the nearby alabaster cliffs almost blinded us. Ok… on closer inspection we were actually sitting in a small boat and the encroaching wild animals were 500 barking seals. The alabaster cliffs? A rock tower splattered with a hundred years of guano or bird droppings. But… she was the real deal, one of the President’s special security force. Her weapon snug against her t-shirt - the ultimate lethal fashion accessory. 

4 min read

We were on a slow boat to China… actually it was a slow boat in China. Me and the guys were on deck, taking in the steady parade of river traffic - cruise ships like ours, barges and freighters. China was overflowing with the surplus of life. That was when one of the guys spotted the body in the steel grey river. Its human form and face unmistakable. It moved past us with a speed that made no sense, like it had someplace to be. But nobody seemed to notice. Shouldn’t we tell someone?

 4 min read

The first time it happened, I didn’t even know there was a problem. But why should I? I was a TV producer, not a helicopter pilot. There were no flames or anything like that to induce hair-on-fire panic. But something tipped the pilot off – maybe one of his gauges or perhaps he sniffed the smell of burning chopper. Whatever – one moment we were getting beauty shots, the next we were diving for the river bank. Being a little slow, my only thought was, “What the… he ruined our shot!” 

4 min read

Family vacations and car trouble. Does that bring up anything for ya? For our family, sometimes the trouble was mechanical. Sometimes it was intestinal. We’d take off for places with names like Fort Ticonderoga or Blue Sky Lodge. Sometimes we got there. Sometimes the vacation ended thirty minutes later on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn – the car wheezing with a flooded carburetor.

3 min read

This plane was so small it could barely fit three people. Squeezed up front were the pilot and the director. Then the fuselage tapered to a congested cubicle, into which I was stuffed. I had never been in such a tiny plane. It was like a doghouse with wings.

5 min read

Things haven’t gone so well for air travelers lately. These days you can’t open Facebook without seeing a video of a passenger being beaten with their own stroller, dragged down the aisle by their feet or subjected to waterboarding in the rear lavatory. (“ALL RIGHT! I’ll take the next flight!”)  I recently got a taste of this new economy-class terrorism. By the time we touched down in L.A. I had been involved in a scrap that included my fellow passengers, my ex-mother-in-law, Mr. Frank Stallone and the FAA. But at least no one lost any teeth.

4 min read

Who is the world’s most traveled man? Phileas Fogg? Pope John Paul II? James Bond? I’d put my traveling money on Stanley…. Flat Stanley. I don’t believe anyone’s clocked more miles than this diminutive road warrior. And why not?  He’s small, he’s flat and he’s fun. Plus, kids love him. Maybe that’s why he hitched along with me on trips to France, South Africa and Jordan. Flat Stanley is one travelin’ man.