For so many Americans, Guatemala isn't a place per se. Rather, it is synonymous with drugs, violence, and illegal immigration, since that is what we see in the news. As a first-time visitor to the northernmost of the "northern triangle" countries - or as Fox News put it, three Mexican countries - I was curious…
What makes a neighborhood evolve? Is that evolution good or bad - or can it be both? These are the questions in my head as I stroll the streets of Over-the-Rhine, an iconic urban neighborhood just north of downtown Cincinnati. OTR, as it is known to locals, is an area in flux, an historically working-class…
I only have two weeks left in my three month France adventure, and it's a sort of scary thought. This trip has been everything I could have asked for, and I will be returning home a different, more confident guy than I was when I left. I'll write more in detail over the next several…
The sun is shining, and the wide boulevards are full of people. They walk slowly, smiling, never seeming to be in a hurry. I stroll past beautiful stone buildings, pausing to admire them, stopping here and there to watch the joggers, the skateboarders, the picnickers. The river moves past as slowly as the Bordelais themselves.…
When I announced that I would be spending a month in the Southern French city of Marseille, it was met with some disbelief and bewilderment. "But Marseille is dangerous," some said. "Marseille is dirty," cried others. As my month here comes to an end, I can safely and confidently share that I made the right…
Tennessee Ernie Ford sang it in song. "You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store." Beckley, West Virginia was a coal town, a company town, where miners worked to the…
Each year, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network measures world happiness. It takes data from 158 countries, and combines that with surveys, in order to index happiness. It's a fascinating endeavor, and one that undoubtedly leads to a good deal of subjectivity, even if the results are tabulated scientifically. For instance, let's examine the…
Ever since I was a teenager, I have struggled with depression. While my actual diagnosis is Bipolar II Disorder with severe anxiety, it largely manifests as depression. Sometimes it is just there in the background as a small voice in my head saying that things aren't ok; other times it is crippling, making small things…
I have been fascinated with the idea of the World's Fair ever since my parents read a children's book to me long ago about the invention of the ice cream cone at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. This excitement only increased when I recently read Devil in the White City about the 1893 Chicago…
California's Central Valley is nothing like the postcard pictures of the Golden State everyone imagines. There are no surfers, no beautiful people sipping designer coffees or juices. This is farm country, some of the best and most productive in the country, and maybe even the world. It is flat, it is dry, it is dusty…