|
Where in the world do you want to go, either in your armchair or really? VirtualTourist is a worldwide travel community where real travelers and locals share real travel advice and experiences. Nearly a million members have posted information and photos about just every place you'd ever want to visit, with what to see, what to avoid, where to eat, where to shop. And if you can't find what you're looking for, you can post a question on the forum and get answers from locals or people who have been there. From This is True for 28 October 2007 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: John Yokoyama List Price: $13.95 Amazon Price: $9.99 Editorial Review: The magic of Pike Place Fish (PPF) is a dynamic example of what a group of people can create when they are aligned and living a powerful vision. Although simplified prescriptions of PPF have been offered in prior videos and books, nothing has explained how to create a workplace where employees can "have fun" or "choose their attitude." WhenFish Fly is a cohesive strategy for achieving world famous results for owners, managers, front-line workers, and customers alike. If PPF can achieve world fame from a small storefront, with zero advertising, in a smelly, physically arduous profession, then the same is possible for every small and large business in America. Once they understand and commit to PPF's generative principles, they will develop a culture that leads to excellent customer service, legendary employee morale, and a fun and energized work environment -- and ultimately makes a "World Famous" difference in the lives of those they serve.  By: Carl Hiaasen List Price: $9.95 Amazon Price: $9.95 Editorial Review: "Disney is so good at being good that it manifests an evil; so uniformly efficient and courteous, so dependably clean and conscientious, so unfailingly entertaining that it's unreal, and therefore is an agent of pure wickedness. . . . Disney isn't in the business of exploiting Nature so much as striving to improve upon it, constantly fine-tuning God's work." --from TEAM RODENT TEAM RODENT How Disney Devours America "Revulsion is good. Revulsion is healthy. Each of us has limits, unarticulated boundaries of taste and tolerance, and sometimes we forget where they are. Peep Land is here to remind us; a fixed compass point by which we can govern our private behavior. Because being grossed out is essential to the human experience; without a perceived depravity, we'd have nothing against which to gauge the advance or decline of culture; our art, our music, our cinema, our books. Without sleaze, the yardstick shrinks at both ends. Team Rodent doesn't believe in sleaze, however, nor in old-fashioned revulsion. Square in the middle is where it wants us all to be, dependable consumers with predictable attitudes. The message, never stated but avuncularly implied, is that America's values ought to reflect those of the Walt Disney Company, and not the other way around."Let's get one thing straight: Carl Hiaasen doesn't like the Walt Disney Company. Whenever the giant entertainment conglomerate stumbles, as it did with its proposed Civil War theme park in Virginia, Hiaasen cheers. When a rhinoceros mysteriously dies at Disney's new theme park, Animal Kingdom, Hiaasen secretly hopes for the worst, because, as he writes, "no scandal is so delectable as a Disney scandal." A native of Florida, author of such thrillers as Lucky You and Strip Tease, and a journalist for the Miami Herald, Hiaasen comes by his dislike for Disney honestly. He has witnessed the relentless success of the Disney machine firsthand with the development of Disney World and other properties around Orlando. In Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World, Hiaasen paints a witty and sarcastic portrait in this nonfiction account of a company who can control the press, manipulate local governments, and because it's Disney, get away with it. Team Rodent is a quick, entertaining read that even the most loyal Disney shareholder (except maybe Michael Eisner) will find enlightening and amusing. --Harry C. Edwards  By: Steven KolpanBrian H. SmithMichael A. Weiss List Price: $65.00 Amazon Price: $40.95 Editorial Review: The wide world of wine between two covers "There is not another book that simultaneously serves both the public and the profession?Exploring Wine makes that leap with grace and style."?Martin R. Shanken, Editor and Publisher, Wine Spectator, from a review of the first edition "The nation?s most influential training school for professional cooks."?Time magazine The experts who train today?s leading chefs and wine professionals take readers on a grand tour of the wines of the world. Written for culinary professionals, as well as experienced and beginning wine enthusiasts, this lively guide covers everything you ever wanted to know about the history, culture, romance, science, and business of wine. From the basics of wine production to the nuances of wine service, from the science of proper wine storage to the art of wine tasting, from the knack of reading wine labels to the subtleties of matching wine with food, from the compelling histories of the most renowned wines to the key personalities in the wine world today, it covers all the fascinating facts and practical knowledge to enlighten for food service professionals and novices alike. Revised to reflect the many recent changes in the worldwide wine industry, this Second Edition of the critically acclaimed guide features an expanded American wines section, with an entire chapter dedicated to California wines; coverage of the latest developments in Italian wines and the new face of the German and South American wine trades; an expanded wine and food pairing section; an updated wine and health section; additional vintage wine charts; and more. Steven Kolpan, Brian H. Smith, and Michael A. Weiss (Hyde Park, NY) are leading wine educators at The Culinary Institute of America. They have traveled extensively in virtually every wine-producing region of the world.  By: Bill Barich List Price: $25.00 Amazon Price: $15.48 Editorial Review: Seamlessly blending history and reportage, Bill Barich offers a heartfelt homage to the traditional Irish pub, and to the central piece of Irish culture disappearing along with it. After meeting an I rishwoman in London and moving to Dublin, Bill Barich?a ?blow-in,? or stranger, in Irish parlance?found himself looking for a traditional I rish pub to be his local. There are nearly twelve thousand pubs in Ireland, so he appeared to have plenty of choices. He wanted a pub like the one in John Ford?s classic movie, The Quiet Man, offering talk and drink with no distractions, but such pubs are now scare as publicans increasingly rely on flat-screen televisions, rock music, even Texas Hold ?Em to attract a dwindling clientele. For Barich, this signaled that something deeper was at play?an erosion of the essence of Ireland, perhaps without the Irish even being aware. A Pint of Plain is Barich?s witty, deeply observant portrait of an Ireland vanishing before our eyes. Drawing on the wit and wisdom of Flann O?Brien (the title comes from one of his poems), James Joyce, Brendan Behan, and J. M. Synge, Barich explores how I rish culture has become a commodity for exports for such firms as the I rish Pub Company, which has built some five hundred ?authentic? Irish pubs in forty-five countries, where ?authenticity is in the eye of the beholder.? The tale of Arthur Guinness and the famous brewery he founded in the mid-eighteenth century reveals the astonishing fact that more stout is sold in Nigeria than in Ireland itself. While 85 percent of the I rish still stop by a pub at least once a month, strict drunk-driving laws have helped to kill business in rural areas. Even traditional I rish music, whose rich roots ?connect the past to the present and close a circle,? is much less prominent in pub life. I ronically, while I rish pubs in the countryside are closing at the alarming rate of one per day, plastic I PC-type pubs are being born in foreign countries at the exact same rate. From the famed watering holes of Dublin to tiny village pubs, Barich introduces a colorful array of characters, and, ever pursuing craic, the ineffable Irish word for a good time, engages in an unvarnished yet affectionate discussion about what it means to be Irish today.  By: Joe Diamond List Price: $24.95 Amazon Price: $9.99 Editorial Review: "Joe Diamond is the Gulliver of sex travels." ?Larry Flynt As globalization erodes national borders and the Internet spawns online communities for every conceivable interest or fetish, sex tourism is surging. Around the World in 80 Lays is the first book to explore the emergence of the online sex tourist subculture and its mounting impact on the world's flesh trade. The author, Joe Diamond, is himself an enthusiastic sex tourist, and an expert. In this groundbreaking travelogue, he traverses the globe to put sex tourism under the microscope. Through colorful anecdotes and solid research, "Rio Joe" takes readers to the world's most notorious sex havens: Brazil, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, and many more. Around the World in 80 Lays provides an insider's view of a fascinating and lurid world that has never been exposed to the American public. |
About the Site
About This is True About the Authors
Prev: Read This To Me Next: Wacky Uses |