Describing India

  For those who asked, a bit of descriptive prose about my India experience, round two. For anyone who has never been here, the best way I can describe India is “in your face”. It is radically different from western life in so many ways. Sights, sounds, and smells come at you full force, non-stop. By the time your mind has processed whatever oddity you have just seen, something else is zooming nearer. -A rikshaw carrying 16 people. -An ancient Hindu temple lit with multi-colored neon lights. -Chai wallas and roadside vendors of every imaginable variety. -A drunk falling down crossing six lanes of traffic, being helped to safety, and immediately ... [Read More]

New Orleans. Where Every Day is Fat Tuesday

  Days are measured in New Orleans by the number of hours it takes your stomach to digest enough to allow you to go to the next meal. At lunch you discuss, over burps, where you’ll go for dinner. At dinner, as you loosen the top button on your jeans, you ponder how much you’ll be able to shovel in your face at breakfast. And all the while you promise yourself, and anyone in earshot, that you’ll work it off just as soon as you arrive home. Of course you will. This is the unfortunate side effect of being in one of the world’s best cities for food. On ... [Read More]

Little Rock

A recent business trip took me to Little Rock for the Arkansas Economic Development annual conference. This is my 4th trip to Little Rock, a pretty river city with the welcoming people that you expect in the south. Luckily the home of the conference was the Peabody. Anyone who's familiar with the Memphis Peabody, you’d expect to walk into an historic, ornate old hotel. Not in Little Rock. It’s the complete opposite. The Little Rock Peabody is newer and very contemporary. At first that takes you by surprise. There’s no way to duplicate the Memphis one, so you have to do something totally different. Everyone at the Peabody ... [Read More]

My first conch fritter

Before I get started on this blog about the Compass Point Beach Resort and Nassau, Bahamas, I want to give you a little background. I grew up in St.Paul, Minnesota. The Scandinavia of North America. We drank milk, ate meat, potatoes and maybe some vegetables (you know, the good ones — corn, green beans and peas). Catsup added just enough spiciness to anything. Nothing too weird. I've gotten brave in my old age and now, for example, enjoy all types of wine and beer, I eat spinach salad, squash parts (at least I think it was squash, hmm), asparagus and broccoli. I know, I know, ... [Read More]