The collection includes DFW’s childhood and college writings, handwritten drafts of “Infinite Jest,” and his heavily marked-up copies of books by Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, John Updike and others. The university press release includes links to high-res images of a few items from the archive. (Via Kottke ) David Foster Wallace was, of course, the author of one of our favorite travel stories: Shipping Out .  Read More →

Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder is cruising Southern California in a Buick, making an eclectic series of roadside stops. His latest ? The very quirky Museum of Jurassic Technology.  Read More →

Matt Gross is in Italy, where his role in the family household apparently makes for a great punchline .  Read More →

The country is pushing to get travelers to experience the island beyond its beaches. From the Wall Street Journal : From the tourism minister on down, Jamaican officialdom has embraced a plan to market the nation’s Jewish history as a way of wooing a new segment of travelers. Tourism officials admit that Jamaica’s Jewish history has been a “well-kept secret,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not rich. For instance:... 

Robert Reid looks back at the origins of the annual pilgrimage, and offers tips for meeting people on the road  Read More →

In Ethiopia, people who have no one to drink coffee with have no friends. Jenny Dunlop explains why you must stay for the third cup.  Read More →

Writer Steve Almond dissects the classic travel tune, Toto’s “Africa.” I’ll never hear the song the same way again. (Via @KelseyTimmerman )  Read More →

Not just any tour guide. Wayne Curtis passed the drug test and is now officially licensed in New Orleans. You are now required to believe everything he says — even that bit about Brad Pitt.  Read More →

The prolific author explores the meaning of place and home in a piece for Smithsonian magazine . Writers, particularly novelists, are linked to place. It’s impossible to think of Charles Dickens and not to think of Dickens’ London; impossible to think of James Joyce and not to think of Joyce’s Dublin; and so with Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor—each is inextricably... 

Eva Holland I loved driving from Vancouver to Seattle on Monday, and from Seattle around the northern portion of the Olympic Peninsula on Wednesday. It’s my first visit to Washington, and it’s a tribute to the state’s scenery that I’ve found myself dropping uncharacteristically below the speed limit at times to try to take it all in. Here’s a shot I took not far southwest of Port Angeles: Photo by Eva Holland  Read More →

And the people of Arizona are pissed off . From the New York Times: Arizona has the largest budget gap in the country when measured as a percentage of its overall budget, and the state Department of Transportation was $100 million in the red last fall when it decided to close 13 of the state’s 18 highway rest stops. But the move has unleashed a torrent of telephone calls and e-mail messages to state lawmakers, newspapers and the Department... 

With the Oscars on the way, Eva Holland picks the year’s travel highlights on film  Read More →

The Onion has an exclusive first look: (Via Kottke )  Read More →

Loved this aside in Joshua Green’s terrific story in The Atlantic about the Grateful Dead’s business prowess : It can be only a matter of time until Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead or some similar title is flying off the shelves of airport bookstores everywhere. Turns out the members of the Dead were business visionaries and masters of social networking. The band knew a little something about travel, too.  Read More →

Photo by monkeytime via Flickr, ( Creative Commons ) Call me crazy, but I never tire of Thomas Friedman’s shots at the sad state of America’s airports. This week: LAX. Zing! It’s worth noting (and Friedman doesn’t) that a major upgrade of the airport’s Tom Bradley International Terminal is underway. That’s at least some good news.  Read More →