A bit of paradise...with gravy

Tyler may be in paradise. Whereas we had to leave Manhattan and head to Brooklyn (gasp!) for some biscuits and gravy, Tudor's Biscuit World in Beckley has ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT biscuits and gravy for $3.19 (about the price of my almost-daily tall soy latte).

We knew we'd like it here.

Waiting on the Gas Line

So it wasn't a tornado or a hurricane, but yesterday's storm left an incredible amount of debris around the town. Huge trees lay defeated on the sides of the road, no working traffic lights result in an interesting social experiment, and the one working gas station is making a killing.

And so we wait on line, one hour and counting...

Day 2: Coal Country

All talk of solar and wind energy feels worlds away.  We're in Beckley in Southern West Virginia, in the heart of coal country.  Of course, it's a bit ironic that we wake up to no power at all -- a consequence of last night's freak storm ("there's been nothing like this in the history of Beckley!") with 75 mph winds, leaving 300,000+ people with no power -- and none expected until at least Monday.

We head to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, but find that it's closed because of the power outage... a real bummer considering that's why we came here in the first place (the mine here opened in 1890 and closed in 1910).  But no matter.  If there's anything India has taught us, it's that things can't be planned.  

We end up exploring anyway and spending a good chunk of our morning speaking with Sonny, a retired coal mine worker who begins sentences with phrases like: "I do declare".  A logger in the 1940s, he started working in the mines in 1949, retired nineteen years ago, and has been giving tours of the mines ever since.  When we tell him we're from New York, he replies with a drawn-out charming Southern drawl, "Well, I s'ppose y'all can't help that, can ya?"  We experience Southern hospitality and charm, as the center opens its doors for us and gives all sorts of advice for what we can do today.  

But the first stop: get gas.

West Virginia, Mountain Mama...

It's the end of Day 1 and we've driven (ahem, Tyler has driven) 555 miles.  We check into our hotel in Beckley, West Virginia, founded in 1838 and with a current population of approximately 17,000.

After a delicious dinner (spaghetti and meatballs; fried oysters), we decide to check out Main Street.  Along the way, we're met with the most intense winds that literally shake the car.  It feels a bit like the Wild West, with garbage flying everywhere.  Needless to say, Main Street is a ghost town, with none of the traffic lights in the city working.  Intense rains come moments later, and I wonder whether a tornado has blown into town...

Day 1: Hershey Happiness

The theme of our road trip is "Americana" and Hershey, Pennsylvania seems a good place to start.  Hershey is also the story of American innovation and good 'ole persistence: Milton Hershey started two failed businesses before generating his (still secret) formula for milk chocolate (not even the employees in Hershey Chocolate World know the percentage of cacao in the Hershey milk chocolate bar).  He was also one of the first social entrepreneurs, developing one of the first company towns in Pennsylvania, in the heart of cow country (Tyler and I still have the jingle: "It's the milk chocolate" in our head, sung by singing cows).  Milton Hershey was actually a case study in my "Innovation" class in business school, and innovation can be seen throughout the company (my personal favorite was the invention of Reece's pieces during WWII; sugar was rationed, so Hershey's head of dairy (Mr. Reece) thought of using peanuts in the mix.

Highlight of our Hershey trip was the chocolate tasting, where we sampled five pieces of chocolate to taste "earthy", "nutty", and "caramel" tones.  We even left with a diploma for a "Masters Degree in Chocolate Tasting" (no joke).

The Great American Road Trip Begins!

Sitting at (where else, but a...) Starbucks in Bernards Township, a cute New Jersey town chartered in 1760 with the most charming strip mall we've seen.  Who knew that just an hour and a half and 70 miles from Old Westbury, we'd find ourselves in a town where people greet one another by name at Starbucks.  Just a quick pit stop on our way to West Virginia...

A coffee high

With Starbucks set to open in India this summer, it's been interesting thinking about what their strategy might be in building the market there (where, currently, coffee places don't even open until 10:30am, and the up-scale ones serve hookahs and thai food).

After the last few weeks of being back in New York, one thing is clear: Starbucks doesn't sell coffee.  But despite what its baristas are trained to have us believe, Starbucks doesn't sell "community" either.

Starbucks sells office space.  

At least in Manhattan.  Case in point: the Starbucks on 9th and 15th in the Meatpacking District, pictured below.  It's small, like all pieces of prime Manhattan real estate.  There's one long table, with multiple outlets distributed below.  Along the windows are small work station desks, meant just for one person and their computer (note: the photo below might also be an Apple commercial, with every piece of equipment being either a MacBook, iPad, or iPhone).

Perhaps more for opportunism than anything strategic, I'm sure a sub-theme of our upcoming road trip will be Starbucks (and I even got an iPhone app to support this).  Let's see what Starbucks sells across the great American highway, 'cause I'm sure it ain't coffee.  Internet for sure.  A respite from driving.  And maybe a comfortable chair, some good 'ole patriotism, and a reminder of home -- wherever home happens to be.

Dinner at the MacManus's

Fun times with Renee, Ian, Leah, and Gabriel!  "Good night moon!"

Wanderlust

Just when I began to relish saying: "We have no international trips planned for the foreseeable future", a photo montage of the National Geographic Traveler photo contest is up on the Boston Globe's "Big Picture": click here.  Absolutely stunning.  My favorites are the ones of Cuba, the swirl above Manhattan, and the always stunning Taj Mahal (but I'm not biased).

My new favorite pizza joint

New York native Colin Hagendorf made headlines earlier this year when he completed his quest to eat at every pizza joint in Manhattan to find the best in the city. Pizza Supremo near Penn Station was the only place to receive a perfect score.

Tyler and I were never so happy to miss a train...

(Thanks for the inside scoop, Kris!)

Olivia's Wedding

A beautiful day for a wedding!  The Wheatley gals headed to the Ritz downtown to celebrate the wedding of Jason and Olivia, who was my very first friend at North Side Elementary School (we met at summer rec after second grade).  As an added bonus, The Touch played at their wedding as well -- an amazing "almost-first-anniversary" treat.

Just before the cake-cutting ceremony, Olivia changed from her beautiful Vera Wang dress to a stunning traditional Chinese dress, adorned in jewelry passed on from generations (including her grandmother's wedding necklace and her mother's two wedding bracelets).

Fun times!

Let the good times roll...

What happens when you pit Moet & Chandon, Piper Heidsieck, and Bollinger head-to-head?  We stage a fierce competition to find out... It's a tough job, but in honor of Father's Day, we seek our answer.

The competitors...

Getting ready for the throw-down...

Our fierce judges rate each competitor on effervescence, aroma, flavor, texture, and after-taste...

While our trusty waiter keeps us honest...

Final score: Bollinger (five stars); Piper (four stars); and Moet (three stars)... though Dad claims a perfect tie between Bollinger and Piper with five stars each.  A re-match is surely in order...

Home Sweet NY

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

- T.S. Eliot

Reason #203 I love NYC

I love how there's always something happening, and you can decide two hours before that a show sounds like a good idea.

Last night, Tyler and I headed to These Seven Sicknesses, at the Flea Theater downtown.  A New York Times critic's pick, the show is an adaptation of all seven of Sophocles' surviving plays -- timed at just under five hours.  As people regularly known to leave 3-hour Bollywood movies at intermission, we were a bit wary.  But as the NYT review notes, one of the most note-worthy aspects about the play is just how short it feels!  Of course, it helps that dinner and dessert are served during the two intermissions (much like ancient Greek performances).  Throughout the performance, the energetic cast engages with you and it feels like one big party... with a lot of blood and Greek tragedy for good measure.

The show is out until July 1st; highly recommend it! (and I'm not just saying that because my cousin John works on the set :)

A little bit of India in Washington, DC

A Sunday stroll through Kuala Lumpur

From British colonial houses to the sparkling Petronas Towers... and the blend of religions and the confluence of nationalities... Kuala Lumpur is a delight to lazily explore on a Sunday...

Eating my way across Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur

Can you pass the tissues?

I have a confession.

I cry on airplanes.  Like, a lot.  I watch movies I would never pay to watch down on the ground... movies like "The Vow", "New Year's Eve", and "No Strings Attached"... and have the tissues ready.  The worst in recent memory was watching "The Notebook" on my flight back from the Bahamas during business school, where I was literally convulsing and the flight attendant had to ask if I was okay.  My face dripping with tears, I sheepishly nodded and just pointed to the screen.  I noticed that the stranger in the middle seat had squeezed as far away as possible from me.

Over a pitcher of sangria in a charming Jakarta bar the other night, I found out I wasn't alone.

One colleague confessed she always had to sit apart from her (mainly male) colleagues at Microsoft whenever they boarded a flight.  Another told about her breakdown on a cycle rickshaw in India, thus not limiting this phenomenon to 30,000 feet.

As it turns out, it seems one way to separate the population is those who cry on airplanes vs. those that don't.  I read an article showing that 44% of American men surveyed cry in airplanes versus 58% of women.

There are lot of theories for this.  The one I like best, perhaps because it sounds the most "scientific" is that studies have found a linkage between long-term high altitude and changes in the oxytocin receptor.  Oxytocin is often dubbed the "love hormone" (released in large amounts during childbirth) and apparently is also one of the hormones that makes us cry.

My other favorite theory (which seemed sheer genius with my third glass of sangria) is this: for people (especially women) who are moving 24/7, juggling multiple priorities, and always on the go, sitting on a plane at 30,000 is often the only time we're truly still.  Lots of emotions that we probably should have been processing flood all at once, and need the most trivial of triggers to set off.

Then there are lots of other theories I've read about - none of which really resonate, such as: we're all subconsciously aware that our plane can crash at any point and our lives aren't in our hands (um, a bit dramatic); we're stressed and emotional about leaving loved ones (although I cry even flying with Tyler); there's nothing else to do (um, I'd like to see correlation on that one).

In my highly academic google searches of this phenomenon, I came across an incredible program on "This American Life" (audio here; transcript here).  In it, the speaker says:

See, my name is Brett and I cry at movies on airplanes. Not sometimes, always. And not some movies, all movies. Don't believe me? Here's a by no means complete list. Bend It Like Beckham, 101Dalmations, What A Girl Wants, Daredevil.

Let me be clear. I am not afraid of flying. I like flying. And I'm not a crier, at least not on land. Like many men I know, even sensitive ones who know that having a cry can be healthy and good, I passed some invisible line in adolescence where I simply stopped doing it. There have been many times in life that I probably should have cried, actually tried to cry, and wasn't able to. Because, of course, I didn't happen to be at 30,000 feet.

One of my favorites is Steven's story:

Steven

And they were just running this loop of commercials and in-flight programming and stuff. They hadn't started the movie. It was very early on. And there was this AMEX commercial. A man traveling through Europe, and you know, I think it was nighttime. I want to say it was raining or something. And this kind of haggard traveller, this businessman, is walking briskly through the street. And then they close up on a wallet, clearly his, that he had left behind unknowingly.

And then you see, cut to the hotel where he's checking in. And the woman asks for a credit card. And then he pats himself down and realizes he doesn't have it. He goes into a state of panic. I think that's when I started choking up.

And then he gets American Express on the phone. They explain it'll be OK. He'll have a credit card in the morning. And then I start to relax a little bit. And then he says wait, I'm not going to be in this city. Tomorrow I have to travel. And then I started chocking up again. And then they said, oh, we'll have a waiting for you in that city. And then I just started crying after that. I was so happy for him, and relieved. It was a pretty tense situation there for about 15 or 20 seconds.

I'm right there with you, Steven!