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Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True®
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Travel Archives
Hit the Road, Jack
The True offices will be closed October 8-23 while I take a trip. This is True will still be coming out, so don't worry about getting your fix!
Where to? Eastern Europe. When I first started True, part of my plan was to do once-a-year trips to interesting places to immerse myself in a different culture ...and collect the local newspapers to do special issues of True. I got the idea on a trip to Canada, of all places. You might think that Canuck newspapers would be pretty similar to those in the U.S., but no: there are clear differences. I can't imagine how different other, non-English cultures, might be. By going there and collecting the newspapers, I can not only (perhaps!) work to sell True as a column to those newspapers, but also be in the culture so I can ask questions of locals in order to best understand what I read, and understand the context of what's "news" to the people there. And, of course, what's "weird"!
Live Free or Whine
After seeing my note from last week, and then seeing a paid ad for the Free State Project in True, Tim in New Hampshire wrote to complain:
Your constant crowing about just how terrific it is aside, I am unlikely to ever become a Premium subscriber to 'This Is True' for the following reasons:
- Your hiring of an assistant, which you announced last week*. If you are making enough money to hire an assistant to help you provide a service which many others provide for free, you can surely live without my $20.
- Your trumpeting of your upcoming trip to England, which you announced this week. Once again, if you can afford a trip to England, something which is well beyond my means these days, you most assuredly can live without my $20.
- But the true icing on the cake is accepting paid advertising from the Free State Project, whose stated goal is to move 20,000 Libertarians into my home state of New Hampshire. To my mind, this is the most unforgivable reason of the lot and I know my $20 would be much better spent helping any Libertarian who wishes to move to Colorado instead of New Hampshire rather than on your upkeep."
Separated by a Common Language
It's been 27(!) years since I was in England, but I vowed "I shall return" and I'll be wading ashore in mid October. As some of you know, I'm writing a book for the True Stella Awards about the loss of common sense in our civil courts, and I think there's no better way to see how our court system got started than to visit the place where Anglo Saxon Common Law began.
Moonlite Bunny Ranch
Last week I spoke at yet another Mensa "gathering" (convention), this one a regional affair hosted by the Northern Nevada chapter. I happen to know several Mensans in Nevada: some are readers, several are relatives of good friends here in Colorado. They really begged and pleaded for me to come and talk at the first Regional Gathering they were doing, and I finally relented.
I have to admit that something on the sign-up form intrigued me: the group was planning to sponsor a brothel tour. Nevada is well known for its casino gambling, and it's perhaps less known that several of its more rural counties also license houses of prostitution -- the only state in the U.S. where brothels are legal. And yes, the cathouses have billboards pointing the way to the front door.
Visiting the White House
I mentioned in my post last week that being in Washington D.C. was "more surreal than usual" because it was election time. Well, imagine being inside the White House just two days before the election! Because indeed, that's where I was.
Library of Congress
I had a pretty full weekend -- I'm writing this while sitting in the airport, waiting for my plane to get me the rest of the way home. I had a very interesting trip to Washington D.C.; election time makes the town even more surreal than usual. My report next week will get into that a little bit more.
On Stage with Penn & Teller
This is the sordid tale of my having been exposed to Teller's bodily fluids.
