Maxine Cass’ latest book, Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in California History (Globe Pequot Press), provides a rich background for readers who travel—and readers who are enamored with California history. Its 16 stories of historic bad guys—from the pirate who burned Monterey in 1818 and raised...

In his inimitable style, Gary Singh reports he “recently infiltrated Switzerland for nine days. Two communiques have already surfaced. The Esoteric Traveler found inspiration in the Rosengart Collection: http://www.travelingboy.com/travel-gary.html, while the anti-man-about-town performed self-analysis...

You’ve heard of Tax the 1%—well, John Montgomery and a group of like-minded citizens created a clear message at Ocean Beach, spelling out the slogan in a human banner—which John photographed from a helicopter to get the full effect. The photo made the City Insider, www.sfgate.com (the San Francisco...

Member Bob Ecker had a St. Louis travel/baseball related story, published in his San Francisco Examiner.com travel column, extensively quoted by the New York Times during the recent World Series. http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/squirrel-mascot-flying-in-for-game-6/. Times “Bats” blogger...

Carolyn Koenig, freelancing for Smart Meetings, her former domain, published “Trend Spotting: Insights from the Trenches” in the November issue.

Jules Older has just published/edited/helped write his first ebook, SKIING THE EDGE: Humor, Humiliation, Holiness and Heart. The planet’s best ski writers take readers to a throbbing altitude headache in Bolivia, a night in the Whistler jail, getting run down by an avalanche in Washington; the stories...

Susan Cohn’s column, Susan’s Travels, Trips & Tours, in the San Mateo Journal recently covered “What’s Cooking at The Ahwahnee (Yosemite)” and “Road Scholar” (formerly known as Elderhostel).

The mood was manic, the message was monetary, and the scene was magical: BATW’s November 19th meeting at the Dressed Up for the Season Hyatt Regency in San Francisco. Glittery, gorgeous, gracious: the setting demanded the most laudatory adjectives. So did the program, organized by Erin Caslavka and...

BATW’s November meeting: The saga continues… For Active Members of BATW, the finest gifts of all were those provided by the 17 Associate Members (and potential Associates) who turned out for the Media Marketplace to supply information about their clients: facts, figures, and other essentials...

Tom Wilmer, a contributing wine columnist for 805 Living Magazine, published a wine feature on J. Lohr Vineyards & Winery and their philanthropic endeavors in the November issue. The magazine is targeted to 805 area code residents (basically, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County). Tom...