Cuba Travel Stories
The New York Times travel section last weekend reported that Cuba is getting more Canadian visitors every year, and Florida tourism groups are getting worried it may be at their expense. Cuba is cheaper, of course. And “with the specter of terrorist attacks hanging over flights to and from the United States, first after Sept. 11 and now with a possible war with Iraq, many Canadians have begun to see Cuba as safer than Florida.”

A friend of mine recently got back from Cuba – a trip he took from New York via the Bahamas. They skipped the via Canada route – which used to be popular – because they heard stories (unconfirmed) of U.S. Customs agents meeting all flights from Cuba – just to catch the Americans. When they left Cuba, my friend’s companion insisted they develop a Bahamas story in case they get stopped by U.S. Customs. Sure enough, they got quizzed. “Which hotel did you stay at? What did you do?” Basic stuff, but I guess it could have gotten sketchy if they hadn’t picked the name of the hotel in advance.

My Cuba travel story is a little out of date since it was in the Clinton years. Since I was working full-time as a reporter, it looked like I probably qualified for the loophole that allows Americans to go to Cuba. But I wanted to do it legitimately if possible, so I wrote a letter to the Treasury Department – which handles this stuff – and sent a letter with very specific questions. I said I’d read the rules – including the exemption for “journalists and supporting broadcasting or technical personnel regularly employed by a news reporting organization” – but I still had questions: Do I need any letter from my employer or a press pass? I’m not planning on working as reporter there – can I still go? Do I need to apply for a Cuban journalist visa? Are there limits on how much money I can spend? What do I need to show Customs in Miami to prove I qualified for the exemption?

About a month later, I got a sloppily hand-addressed letter. They included my own letter, and used a yellow pen to highlight “full-time journalist.” The only other enclosure was the complete copy of the Cuba travel law, and they highlighted the word “journalist.” That was it. I figured it was something of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. My traveling companion (later upgraded to husband status) is British, so were able to avoid several hassles since we could pay for hotels, tickets and everything else on a credit card issued by British banks. And when I came back through Miami from Cancun, it was hot and I was tired and for all I know now, maybe I forgot to mention some parts of my travel itinerary outside Mexico.
- posted by Amy @ 3/01/2003 02:31:00 PM

 

LAX Prototype Online
A few pages of the prototype for the print edition of the Los Angeles Examiner have been posted here.
- posted by Amy @ 3/01/2003 01:46:00 PM

 

Wine on Sunday
Marc Brown’s in town and we spent part of yesterday afternoon at Vintage New York in SoHo. Because it’s affiliated with a winery, it’s the only business in New York City that can sell bottles of wine on Sunday. (They also have an Upper West Side location.) Tasting is a mere $5 for five wines.
- posted by Amy @ 2/28/2003 12:20:00 PM

 

I Go Straight for the Spam
Would you believe I got spam selling subscriptions to the New York Times? It was sent by SuperEmailBargains.com, which of course claims I “opted into a third party e-mail list.” Even worse, the small type says that to be removed from future mailings, I should go to www.homedeliverynytimes.com/unsubscribe -- but what you get there is merely a form to order the paper.
- posted by Amy @ 2/28/2003 11:32:00 AM

 

Ode to a Blank Blog Page
Here’s my favorite line from Eric Auchard’s Reuters column on blogs:

Technology can do little for people who have nothing to say.

- posted by Amy @ 2/28/2003 11:15:00 AM

 

If You're Unhappy and You Know It
Kate Sullivan comes up with eight cures for mild depression. Among them:

6. Play a fun trick on your friends by inviting them over for a John Lennon Seance, with a fake medium and everything. But when the medium starts to do the channeling thing, make sure the channeler has a really bad fake Liverpool accent. That way they'll know it was just a trick.

- posted by Amy @ 2/28/2003 07:05:00 AM

 

DEDICATED to the Ones We Love
A few weeks ago I started subscribing to DailyCandy since gawker kept linking to them, making me think I was missing something. DailyCandy sends out an e-mail a day about some so-cool product you should know about. Fancy writing, maybe a little too fancy. They read like a very pretty press release. So I wondered – are they all ads or just written by out-of-work copywriters? So I wrote and asked and got this nice reply:

HI,

Thank you for your interest in DailyCandy. To answer your question, advertising and editorial are completely seperate. We have a staff of writers that scout out items to write about for our daily emails, whether it be something sent from a public relations firm or something they found on their own. We never accept payment of any kind for the things we choose to write about. Advertisers, however, pay to sponsor an email in the form of a webbanner or a sponsored link (side of email). Every once in awhile an advertiser well send out a separate dedicated email which is why (if you subscribe) you may receive two dailycandy emails on any given day. The dedicated email always says DEDICATED at the top of the email. This is how we fund the website and keep it running. I hope this answers your question.

Thank you,
www.dailycandy.com

So DEDICATED? If you have six shots of tequila, I’m sure it almost looks like the word “ADVERTISEMENT,” which is what most publishers place, at least in tiny type, somewhere on their advertorial crap.
- posted by Amy @ 2/27/2003 11:28:00 AM

 

The Dog Ate My Blog
I haven’t been blogging here much, but I have been keeping a list of things I’ve intended to blog. But since that doesn’t really count, here are a few things for the better-late-than-never file.

* The new owners of the New York Press are bringing over an ex-pat in Prague to serve as editor of their new paper. My favorite quote from the NY Times story:

"A million writers want to show there is good writing coming out of Prague," said Mr. Zaitchik, "and a million writers come to Prague, drink beer and do nothing."

* Twice in the past few days, friends of mine have remarked that even the mediocre jobs are disappearing from the media job boards. Can things get much worse?

* So NPR is doing that call for donations thing again. I noticed they seem to be asking for a whole lot more this time. In the past, they urged mostly $35 or $50. This time, I’m hearing a lot of $120, or $365. Then the Philadelphia Inquirer runs a story saying their radio personalities make salaries in the $150,000 to $200,000-range. For radio?

* Was it just me, or was it kind of tacky that no one at the Grammys even mentioned "rock's worst disaster"? I mean, they spend five minutes or so on obits from the past year and can’t even mention the fact that 97 people died last week?

* Another fire thing. The Providence Journal had an online column from a guy who barely escaped from the club. He suggests clubs be required to have lighted exit signs at ground level since the smoke there was so thick so fast, no one could see much above their ankles.

*Chris Scheer, who was an opinion editor at my college paper and had to slavishly edit loads of columns on abortion, gun control and all the –isms, has just started a blog. It’s called Blechhh. Oddly, his latest post is about Anna Kournikova, Serena Williams and their standings in a "who's the hottest" poll.

* I am still, slowly, reading blook, by Tony Pierce.

* Here's a cross between the previous two items: When I was editor of my college paper, our Back to School issue -- which was sent to students at their parents' address in August -- included a full-page guide on what freshmen needed to know about drugs at college. It was a Tony Pierce creation. I think it said which were safe, which were sketchy, availability and probably prices. And to her credit, our chancellor (we learned only months later) fielded dozens of calls from angry parents wanting to transfer their precious incoming freshmen. So with that in mind, I'm impressed with the actions of the editors at the University of Pittsburgh college paper:

Act 199 is a Pennsylvania law that prohibits restaurants and bars from paying to advertise drink specials in a college newspaper. The Pitt News has tried, unsuccessfully, to challenge the law, maintaining that it unconstitutionally violates commercial free speech.

Because more than 70 percent of this paper's readers are at least 21 years old, The Pitt News believes this law to be a disservice to the community (both local retailers and over-21 readers) and will publish drink specials semi-regularly and free of charge.

The remainder of the story is a list of happy hour specials.

* And finally one for my California friends. That blizzard here was intense, but it looks worse on TV because when the snow plows go down the street, all the snow piles up on the right so it looks twice as deep as is natural.
- posted by Amy @ 2/27/2003 01:10:00 AM

 

Gawker Knows Who Owns You
Back in January, Gawker posted a handy batch of links helpful in determining who owns what in the media world. If you like to keep track of such things, like I do, it’s worth keeping handy.

· Big Ten [a chart, from The Nation]
· Who Owns What [exhaustive listing, from the CJR]
· Media Ownership 2001 [a graphical indictment of media concentration, from mediachannel.org]
· 100 leading media companies [ranked by revenue, from Advertising Age]
· Media giants [a chart, from PBS]
· Resources [a list of other databases, tables and charts, from I Want Media]

- posted by Amy @ 2/23/2003 11:55:00 AM

 

The Return of Buzznet
Marc Brown says it’s time for the return of Buzznet, one of the first good Web magazines.

“(Y)ears later and you find me here with my blog which is averaging 69 visits per day and to my company which keeps us working. So its ai'ght. But its time to take it to another level, and the most logical way to do that is to bring it back to the beginning and regroup. Anthony and I have realized that its time for Buzznet to be reborn, I hope that those familar with what Buzznet was about will agree, and help to get it back.”

- posted by Amy @ 2/23/2003 11:42:00 AM