Passport Ownership by State

Through Mike's great blog that is always filled with useful links I found the following map that shows how many people own a passport in each state of this country:

The article that accompanies this map explains that

States with more passport holders are also happier. There is a significant correlation (.55) between happiness (measured via Gallup surveys) and a state’s percentage of passport holders.  Yet again, that correlation holds when we control for income.

I wonder if we can use this data in the promotion of our university's Study Abroad program.

It makes absolute sense that people who have traveled to other countries would be happier. After interacting with people from other cultures, seeing how they live and becoming friendly with them, travelers are less likely to buy into anxiety-producing  mythology of besieged Americans who are envied and hated by everybody else on the planet.

Honeys, I'm Home!

Aren't they just precious?

So I'm finally back from my New York trip. Thank you, everybody, for not abandoning the blog in the meanwhile. I couldn't respond to comments as much as usual because it isn't always easy to do from my BlackBerry. Especially since our hotel room turned out to be a dead zone for cell phone connections.

I have done some really interesting things during my trip, such as:

1) walked a lot because walking is the best way to get to know a new place and feel its spirit;

2) attended a very interesting lecture by a fellow blogger Jonathan who blogs here and here;

3) visited an exhibition on the history of kitchen counter space and another one on German existentialism at MOMA;

4) visited one fantastic restaurant and one horrid one, which I'm still going to write about;

5) realized that the myth about the unpleasant and brash New Yorkers is unfounded;

6) read two thirds of Zygmunt Bauman's Liquid Modernity and wondered why I'd never read it before;

These don't look very pretty in a picture
but they are extremely comfortable to
walk in. It feels just like walking barefoot

7) bought some really beautiful and, what's more important, extremely comfortable shoes that I can now wear while teaching;

8) once again confirmed that Sex and the City misled all of its viewers when it showed crowds of women in couture clothes, insanely high-heeled shoes and elaborate hairstyles running around the streets of New York. Mostly, people dress worse than they do in the area where I live;

9) realized that Delta is incapable of getting a plane to leave on time under any conditions;

10) discovered that you can now pay with a credit card in all New York cabs and was very happy about this advance of civilization. Also wondered when this important innovation will reach Montreal;

11) realized that the best way to make sure one's blog maintains a high level of visitors while one is absent is to publish posts that contain the word "smoking";

12) had a really great time hanging out with my sister and her best friend.

Visiting St.Louis: Need Advice

So my birthday is coming up in April, and I decided that I want to celebrate it by going to St. Louis from Saturday to Monday (April 16th to 18th.) I've been living in this area for over a year and a half and I have never even been to the Gateway Arch. So now the time has come for me to discover what's fun about St.Louis.

For now, I have planned a stay at the Union Station hotel that I love and a visit to a seafood restaurant that I also really like. Of course, we'll also go to the Gateway Arch and take a river cruise. What else is there that I need to visit? Any landmark restaurants? Historic coffee-shops or bookstores? Museums? I know that there is also some international area. What is it called? Say, I get into a cab. What do I tell the driver as to where I want to go?

Any advice will be appreciated. 

In case I didn't mention it before. . .

. . . I'm going to New York next Friday. The purpose of the trip is to celebrate my sister's birthday with her and our mutual friend who is doing a PhD in Germanic Studies in Indiana. New York City is a sort of a midpoint geographically for the three of us so we are meeting there.

I have no particular affinity with New York, to be honest. I don't have anything against it but it lacks a definitive personality, in my opinion. Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco make me a lot happier. (None of them can compete with Montreal or Toronto, of course, but that's a different subject.) My sister loves it, however, so we are going.

Here is what's on the program for this trip:

1. A shopping extravaganza. And before you condemn me, come live in my little village and then we'll talk.

2. A visit to MOMA and a dinner at MOMA's restaurant The Modern. People say it's something special but I'll tell you what I think after my visit.

3. As good luck may have it, a fellow blogger Jonathan will be giving a scholarly presentation in NYC while I'll be there. So I'll even do something intellectual during the trip.

4. Three days of walking around Manhattan. I love to walk but there is no place to walk to where I live and nothing to see on the way. Walking in Manhattan will be a different thing altogether.

Of course, I will blog about everything that happens during the trip and post pictures.