It’s hard to believe that the hotel industry is threatened by glamping. For two reasons: one, it feels like a fad, a flash in the pan. And two, even though the media finds it a catchy subject, not that many people are going to give up the Super 8 or Hyatt for a night in...
Young people hate old people for many reasons, most of them justifiable. This time of year they hate us because there is no obvious gift for us. We have most of what we want. What we don’t have we can live without. If we are going to get something more, we very particular about what...
As we speed toward the fiscal cliff—with its radical cuts in spending and steep tax hikes and, if you believe the press, the recession that combo will inevitably cause—the bipartisan Bowles-Simpson Plan has been getting a lot of renewed attention. (Including an interesting Atlantic article today, which notes that report of the National Commission...
And then give them what they want. That’s one conclusion found in City Cycling (MIT Press 2012), which the Rutgers Focus calls “a guide to the urban cycling renaissance underway in most countries of the western industrialized world.” The book, co-edited by professors John Pucher (from Rutgers ) and Ralph Buehler (Virginia Tech), contains...
Young snowboarders were once considered the saviors of the ski industry. Without that influx of stoked shredders (the reasoning went), the mountains would have reverted to empty, windswept wastelands. Abandoned chairlifts rusting in the thin mountain air. The Boomers who had built the industry in the 60s and 70s were now too old and feeble....
The National Park Service is like your cool aunt who can never quite get it together. Despite all her great beauty and abilities and the consensus that life just wouldn’t be the same without her, she’s eternally on the edge of a collapse. Lipstick on her teeth, one corner of her deck railing is loose...
CNN is running a collection of articles about Baby Boomers. They are calling it “Boomers: Age Against the Machine.” We assume it’s a play on the name of the rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, a group that formed in the early 1990s, which is long after most Boomers stopped paying attention to new...
Remember after 9/11, when George Bush advised America to go shopping? For the good of the country and the economy. Because purchasing power is power, after all. And power should be exercised. Against the terorists. (Sidebar: You don’t need Don Draper to sell this message; most Americans accepted it intuitively. If your way of...
Ski season is here and with it the risk of altitude sickness. You know the drill: you start in Chicago (elevation 579 feet) or New York (which averages around 30 feet of elevation when it isn’t swamped by a hurricane). You fly a few hours west, rent a car, drive to Summit County and a...
If you love your car, you need to ride a bike. I have a slightly complicated rationale for this position, so you to have to pay slightly more attention than usual for a Recreati story. It begins with Superstorm Sandy and our human need to know the cause of horrible things. If we have...
We feel like this dog on Election Day. We want to go outside—let’s say, to take a nice walk—but we have an obligation to do something else. Something we really should do but we’re just so done with it all that we want to crawl under the bed. That said, we’re crawling out from under...
If we hated election season anymore, we would advocate for monarchy. We would trade this rancorous debate for no debate. We would replace distortions of political ads for the relative integrity of other ads. For chiropractors and mattress stores. But we aren’t there yet. We still pay grudging attention to what the sides are...
Shoulder Season 2: (Supposed) Best Hikes in the U.S.
Mar 4, 2020
Shoulder Season 1: It’s soon time to hike
Feb 25, 2020
Klaus Obermeyer is a 100-year-old beast
Feb 22, 2020
The Soft Bigotry of Age Brackets
Feb 19, 2020
Ski North Korea! Also, Again: Climate Change
Feb 17, 2020
When obsessions collide: Pensions, skiing and climate change
Feb 15, 2020
Vail Speaks! Vail Speaks! (And More About Crowds)
Feb 14, 2020
Ski Passes Suck But Also Don’t
Feb 12, 2020
A mid-season reminder that (some) seniors ski free (or cheap) in (some) places
Feb 9, 2020
Every ski hill is Disney-fied
Feb 6, 2020