Aside

After basically 24 hours of traveling from Breda –> Schiphol (Amsterdam) –> CDG (Paris) –> SFO, I’m finally, and thankfully, home. More coming soon.

Friends: Today, I had a piece on PRI’s The World on Estonia’s nationwide cleanup day, also known as Teeme Ära! 2008 (Let’s do it!). It ran on today’s show. Sorry I didn’t let you guys know about it sooner, but I finished the piece shortly before air and by that time it was 10 pm here in Estonia and I hadn’t had dinner yet. Anyway, if you download today’s show here, you’ll find my piece starting at minute 42:51. I’ll…

ZOMG, I just shook hands and got my first autograph with a head of state! President Ilves spoke at the very beginning of a thank you concert on Sunday evening, the final day of the Teeme Ära! 2008 weekend. After speaking to the assembled crowd of a few hundred in the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds, he hopped off stage and walked toward some of the standing crowd. He had one uniformed high-ranking member of the Estonian military with him, his…

I’m here at Veljo’s dad, Vaino Haamer‘s house out in eastern Estonia near the Russian border. We were out here today to take part in the national Estonian cleanup day, Teeme Ära! 2008 (“Let’s do it! 2008”), which I’m covering for The World. After a hard day’s work, this is the view from the Haamer farm. Not bad, eh?

I’ve just arrived here in Tallinn, fresh off the boat from Helsinki. I’m sitting here at one of Veljo’s favorite bars in downtown Tallinn, Molly Malone’s, in the Raekoja Plats (Town Square). I’ve been pleasantly greeted to an American car show and outdoor concert: I kid you not, an Estonian band, Casakama, is singing “Johnny B. Goode” right now. They also hit favs like “Jailhouse Rock” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” It’s a much smaller version of what I saw…

I’m here until May 1 to report for PRI’s The World. I’m staying at the Stadion Hostel, where there’s free WiFi. So far, I met a friendly Greek student who’s studying abroad here on the bus back from the airport, and an Iranian engineer who works for Nokia and lives in Mashad, but is here to visit Nokia HQ. Small world. Off to find dinner and explore a little bit!

Friends: As my gift to you before I head out on my two-week reporting trip on The World’s dime to Finland/Estonia, I am proud to announce that I’m going to be on The World and Morning Edition on Monday, April 28. My piece on NPR is on online food maps, while my piece on PRI’s The World is about the internal dispute within the One Laptop Per Child community. NPR’s Morning Edition airs on any of these stations (and their…

I was on two podcasts that went out over the series of tubes today. (Yes, it’s 2 am on April 26, but in my head it’s still April 25.) I was on The World’s Tech Podcast Episode #192, talking about my upcoming trip to the Baltics. And I was on the latest episode of Chuck Joiner’s new podcast, The Mac Jury. Enjoy!

With origins in Mexico, a dash of Americanizations and a kitchen on wheels, taco trucks are the perfect metaphor for California. They represent cheap and quality street food that has spread from Calexico to Yreka and beyond. Anyone who loves an honest horchata, a good burrito and solid torta knows where to find these roving brigades of deliciousness. California Taco Trucks was started as a way for five Californians to explore this intersection and confluence of geography, culture, photography and,…