Our Work

Rosemary McClure on traveling to Palm Springs

Our Rosemary McClure, an award-winning travel writer, has this in-depth look for the Los Angeles Times at vacationing in Palm Springs, California, the desert get-away site. From her piece:

The Rat Pack lives again — or at least Palm Springs, once the party pad of Sinatra and the boys, does.

The Coachella Valley city, which had devolved into a down-at-the-heels caricature of a Hollywood playground, has reinvented itself: Its retro-chic look, striking scenery and hip hotels and restaurants are drawing a new generation of visitors.

And, of course, there's always the weather, a tourist attraction on its own (in winter, anyway).

The city prides itself on having 350 days of sunshine a year, a siren song that plays loudly and clearly in Canada and other frosty North America realms in the depths of winter. That's why snowbirds swarm here during the pricey high season (January through April). Besides spending wads of cash, they double the city's size to about 100,000.

Robyn Norwood on energy drinks and the health of young athletes

Our Robyn Norwood made the cover of USAToday the other day with this revelatory piece about energy drinks and their impact on the health of children and adolescents, partocularly those engaged in sports. From her story:

From youth playing fields to major league clubhouses, caffeinated energy drinks such as Red Bull and its scores of cousins have become a familiar presence in sports.

"The bottom line is, it's a long season. You're going to do what you have to do, whether you feel like you have to jump into a cryogenic freezing tank or a hyperbaric chamber or drink a Red Bull," said Texas Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson, a World Series starter who says he has never used alcohol or drugs but consumes energy drinks socially and to prepare himself to pitch. "I see nothing wrong with drinking Red Bull."

Some athletes and industry officials compare the beverages to a cup of coffee.

But doctors and other experts increasingly warn of misunderstandings about energy drinks' contents, lax labeling requirements and the risks of high doses of caffeine — particularly to young athletes.In June, a clinical report in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, warned that "stimulant-containing energy drinks have no place in the diets of children or adolescents."

Janet Wilson looks at links between local environment and a family's illnesses

Our Janet Wilson has a deeply reported piece out through California Watch on the suspected links between persistent illnesses among members of one Maywood, California, family, and industries adjoining their neighborhood (in this separater piece Janet explains her reporting). From her story:

The Martin family lives 10 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, in a neat yellow house in a city called Maywood. 

Starting a few blocks from their home, nearly 2,000 factories churn out Southern California’s hot dogs, pesticides, patio furniture and other products. Trucks rumble off the I-710 freeway into sprawling freight rail yards. Odors of rotting animal carcasses waft through the family’s windows on hot summer nights.

The Martins also have endured years of illness. 

From the time Anaiz Martin was born until she was a toddler, her father would carry her in his arms, his big mustache tickling her baby cheeks. This simple embrace carried a haunting consequence. By age 3, Anaiz weighed just 19 pounds and could barely raise her head. Her parents said they were told by doctors that Salvador Martin’s mustache probably held sickening levels of lead from his plating factory job.

The heavy metal attacked her neurological system, permanently robbing her of critical learning skills.

Two decades later, her family's woes continue. Anaiz, now 21, her mother and siblings – Adilene, 22, and Sal Jr., 18 – have suffered irritable bowel syndrome, an ovarian cyst, skin rashes, chronic nausea, diarrhea, asthma and depression.

Their mother, Josefina, frets constantly about what she thinks are likely causes: the air they breathe, the ground beneath their home and, most of all, the gunky black, brown or yellow water that has intermittently run from their faucets for years.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Oh my God, I can’t take it anymore,’ ” Josefina, 45, said during an interview in the summer of 2010. “I try to keep myself up and going, but I am really upset all the time. I just want to know what’s going on with my family and all of this contamination.”

 

Rosemary McClure on some travel bargains in Monterey Bay

Rosemary McClure, a veteran travel writer, has this piece in the LA Times on cheap hotels and restaurants on the Monterey peninsula -- home to Carmel, Pebble Beach and other notably pricey places. From her piece: 

Reporting from Monterey, Calif.— Clint Eastwood knows how to set a scene on screen or at Mission Ranch, his strikingly handsome hotel and restaurant in Carmel.

The hotel, a historic property, has a multimillion dollar view of the sea and beautiful grounds to match. Magenta bougainvillea spills from balconies, flowering pots decorate porches, huge cypress trees shade buildings and lawns. You'd expect a room to cost $500 a night or more.

So how about $120 a night?

Hard to believe, especially in a pricey tourist area like Carmel. But that's the starting rate for Eastwood's beautiful Mission Ranch, which he rescued from a developer.Eastwood's hotel isn't the only find we discovered in the Monterey Peninsula on a recent visit. We scoured the region and unearthed five great hotels with rates beginning as low as $79 a night during the high season (summer) and $59 a night during the low season.

We also found 10 deliciously inexpensive restaurants where you can eat for $10 or less. To top it off, we list 15 free things to do, enough to keep a family happy for a weekend or a week.

Our Susannah Rosenblatt with a personal essay on engaging the world

Member Susannah Rosenblatt, a Wake Forest graduate, has this nice essay in her alumni magazine about engaging the modern world. From her article:

My undergraduate experiences overseas primed me for my most challenging trip yet: moving to Taiwan, where I just finished a year living with my husband, Aaron Winter (’02). Aaron took a job as a visiting professor of American literature at National Tsing Hua University while I worked as a freelance writer. He, too, spent a semester at Worrell House. But it was the semester before me, so the two of us began our courtship through transatlantic online chats. Since then, we have traveled to more than 35 countries, together and separately; traveling is a shared passion that has brought us closer. (Perhaps closer than we’d like at times — four showerless days hiking the Inca Trail can do that.) We arrived in Taiwan bumbling and illiterate, pointing at indecipherable menu listings and hopping on buses whose destination could only be guessed. Mandarin, a tonal language with thousands of non-alphabetic characters, is not something you just pick up. But little by little, we were able to make ourselves understood, and make friends.

True, I once asked a worker in the campus cafeteria for a job when I wanted juice. True, I inadvertently made sexual advances to strangers, not realizing the slang expression “I like fried rice” meant something quite different from what I intended.

Robin Rauzi, freelance editor, guides op-ed piece into print

We know, the headline doens't sound like much. But anyone who has ever tried to place an op-ed piece knows how hard it can be. Our Robin Rauzi, who also edits for the Zester Daily web site, edited this piece, which ran in the Los Angeles Times Op-Ed section. From the story:

This month, UNESCO is expected to designate for the first time one or more of the world's culinary traditions as an "intangible cultural heritage." The cultural category, established in 2003 as a supplement to the better-known category of "tangible heritage" (castles, cities, landscapes), was created to protect traditions in the developing world by encouraging tourism. Already the tango, Croatian lace-making and Sardinian pastoral songs have been chosen.

This year the leading culinary contenders — both repeat applicants — appear to be Italy, Greece, Spain and Morocco for the "Mediterranean diet," and Mexico for the indigenous cuisine of certain villages in the state of Michoacan. If UNESCO finally gives food the official heritage nod, it's likely that other organizations will follow its lead and make their own designations.

Should we cheer? Perhaps. It's good to see credit going to cooks who imbue a place with its identity, to make explicit what we all know — that cuisine is more than just ingredients and processes protected by denominations of origin; it's the totality of the eating tradition. And if recognition boosts tourism, which is what the heritage industry is all about, then that's good too.

At first blush, the UNESCO project for culinary heritage seems so self-evidently a good thing that only a grinch could grumble. On closer examination, though, it's plagued with problems, not the least of which is the very possibility of preserving cuisines.

Rosemary McClure: Turns out it IS your grandfather's Club Med ...

Our Rosemary McClure has this fun look in the Los Angeles Times at Club Med, the resorts that made hedonism a vacation theme, and their appeal to older tourists. From her story:

The last thing I expected to see when I arrived at Club Med's Turkoise resort in the British West Indies was a gray-haired guy balancing on a walker. Before I had a chance to blink twice, another gray-haired guy rolled by in a wheelchair.

Was this the hedonistic singles resort I remembered from the '80s? Or had I taken a wrong turn and ended up at an assisted-living facility?

Neither. Club Med, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, has matured along with its members.

"We have a lot of repeat guests here, as many as 70%," said Turkoise hotel manager Chokri Ferchichi. "They grow in age, and they still like it, so they keep coming back."

Rosemary McClure travels Scotland, and lives to tell the tale

What better way to see Scotland than through the prism of several glasses of scotch? Our Rosemary McClure in this weekend's Los Angeles Times Travel section:

In Perthshire, about an hour's drive north of the Edinburgh airport, I tried to shake off my jet lag at the Gleneagles Hotel. Gleneagles is the kind of place where croquet wickets are a permanent lawn fixture and the valet wears a kilt. I skipped golf, tennis and the indoor pool to try my hand at falconry, a popular resort activity.

"Don't worry about his beak," instructor William Duncan told me. "Worry about his talons." Easier said than done when a Harris hawk's beady brown eyes are staring at you, its beak a mere 5 inches from your eyes. He was perched on my forearm, which was covered with a heavy leather glove. I leaned away from the hawk. "You don't look real comfortable," one of the other students said.

The hawk ignored me; he was well trained even if I wasn't. When I moved my arm in a sweeping motion, he flew away. When I put my arm back out, he returned to perch on it. "OK," I squeaked at the instructor, "you can take him now. He's a nice hawk, but I think I'll go play croquet."

If I needed a little liquid courage, I didn't have to look far. The countryside is laced with distilleries, and the next day, I visited my first, Cardhu, home of Johnnie Walker (www.discoveringdistilleries.com), said to be the world's largest-selling blended Scotch. Cardhu, set in a scenic rural area and surrounded by rolling green hills, was established in 1824 and is known for its sweet, smooth, mellow malt. I joined a tour, saw the pot stills where Scotch is created, tasted a bit, and then took a stroll outside. On a hillside nearby was a famous local resident, a highland cow, which looked up at me through its fringed bangs.

Susannah Rosenblatt on Scottish-style whisky-making in Taiwan

Susannah Rosenblatt, who reports from Taiwan, landed a centerpiece story for Monday's International Herald-Tribune (the global NY Times edition) on a Taiwanese firm trying to make Scottish-style whisky. It is, she reports, a pretty good effort. From her story:

 YILAN, TAIWAN — In a sweltering, five-story warehouse on this subtropical island, T.T. Lee’s brash ambitions are ripening in 35,000 aged oak barrels.

Laboring against climactic conditions and established Western competitors, Mr. Lee, a beverage magnate, has built Kavalan, the first whisky distillery in Taiwan.

Kavalan might seem like a quixotic attempt to vault Taiwan into the $41 billion global whisky business, given that the island is about as far from the Scottish highlands as one can get. But it is producing nine million bottles annually at its facility with mountain views.

Yet to connoisseurs’ shock, the upstart brand managed to beat British labels at a blind tasting in January during a Burns Night, which celebrates the poet Robert Burns — a public relations coup that the company says has tripled sales. Industry watchers are starting to take notice.

“That place gets my pulse racing because of the possibilities of what they’re doing there,” said Jim Murray, author of the book, “Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible.”

Rosenblatt, a former L.A. Times staffer and political campaign reporter, is based in Taiwan, where she has written on a wide range of subjects, including the occasional movie review and book review, and blogs at Hsinchu Asked.

Rosemary McClure on prepping for the beach

 Our Rosemary McClure  pops up in this month's Orange Coast magazine with a summer guide to beaches in Orange County. 

We'd offer an excerpt but we're packing up the towel, the book, the beach 'brella and a cooler -- all strictly beach legal, we swear! -- and heading off to get sand in our shorts.

Oh, and the sun block. Can't forget the sun block ...