Day 349: Badger Heads & Forevertrons – Roadside Wisconsin

originally published December 14, 2012 In researching ideas for my daily grind, I meander through numerous small towns, unincorporated communities, French communes and Polish Voivodeships, seldom ever finding one worth writing about. But something slowed me down in the village of Birnamwood, Wisconsin, population 818. It was this sentence: “Birnamwood was home to the world’s […]

Day 325: The New Magnificent Seven

originally published November 20, 2012 What is the eighth wonder of the world? For years, people have been slapping that label on all sorts of things, from the Houston Astrodome to the Empire State Building to West Edmonton Mall (up until recently, the Mall contained three McDonaldses! How magnificent!). That’s an argument I’ll shelve for […]

Day 296: The World, Coast To Coast

originally published October 22, 2012 I promised my wife I could make an article about geology interesting. In my defense, I’d downed two delicious pints of Alleykat’s Chili-Pepper lager, and where some men get beer muscles I tend to get a beer writing ability. Plate tectonics? Hell yeah! This shit’ll be riveting! Now that the […]

Day 294: Serbia’s Natural Seven

originally published October 20, 2012 Last month I wrote an award-winning* article about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In doing so, I discovered that there are a stupid amount of lists of various Seven Wonders, and decided to see if I could make a regular feature out of it. Today’s kilograph is the […]

Day 265: Ear-Marking The Confluences

originally published September 21, 2012 One of the greatest things about the Internet is its vast repository of seemingly inane and/or insane projects. I tell myself this in the mirror every morning; sometimes this is the only way I can get through the day. There is a metaphorical plate of warm, crispy bacon in my […]

Day 264: The Seven Ancient Big-Shots

originally published September 20, 2012 With so many things (Disneyland, West Edmonton Mall, Christina Hendricks) being billed as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’, you’d think the unspoken first seven should be branded on the surface of our collective brain. But the average person would trip over their garbled memory if they tried to list […]

Day 259: A Drive Down 50th Street

originally published September 15, 2012 Today I feel like Sam Beckett from TV’s Quantum Leap might have felt had he finally made the leap home. Wikipedia splashed a familiar landmark on my screen: 50th Street in my hometown of Edmonton. I’ve got some great stories from this street. Sure, it cuts its seam through the […]

Day 229: A Drizzle Of Sap

originally published August 16, 2012 Over the course of the past 229 days, I have Wiki’ed my way through hundreds of European villages. Once I actually paused to pen a kilograph on one of these villages, but that was back on Day #5 when I actually feared I might run out of subject ideas. Today […]

Day 216: So Many Menhirs

originally published August 3, 2012 Until Ms. Wiki packed me in her Magic Wayback DeLorean and sent me back into humanity’s pre-history, the word ‘menhir’ was not a part of my vocabulary. Even now – though you won’t see this – I’m observing that the word is not a part of Microsoft Word’s vocabulary either. […]

Day 141: Places To Visit If You’re Bored – Nauru

originally published May 20, 2012 For those of you looking to escape the world, I may have found the place for you. It’s cozy, out of the way, and you can pack light. Just remember to bring your satellite internet uplink or else that box set of West Wing seasons you’ve been meaning to catch […]