Hometown Debrief: New Orleans by St. Coffee on St. Claude

NEW ORLEANS – The prostitutes, the drunks, and the gutterpunks begging for dollars make for the best people watching ever.

On the Road: Tel Aviv, Day 3

HOLON, Israel – Architectural marvels, new museum wings, and the next generation pop-up shop.

On the Road: Mexico City, Day 1

MEXICO CITY – But I wanted to see piles of food, and I'm stubborn and intrepid and a New Yorker and I beat altitude sickness and really how bad can it be? So in I went.

On the Road: Tel Aviv, Day 2

TEL AVIV, Israel – My ears pop as we make our way down, down, down, below sea level, to the lowest point on Earth. It's nearly impossible to sink.

Norman's Place

STOCKBRIDGE, Massachusetts – It was time explore some culture. Because it was raining and there was no laser tag emporium. So we headed to the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Day of the Dead. It's a Party.

OAXACA, Mexico – An American visiting Oaxaca this week discovers that Dia de los Muertos is a cause for raucous celebration.

Chance Encounter at Anne Frank House

AMSTERDAM, Holland – She was struggling to keep it together. She remembered reading Anne's diary when she was young, longing for a happy ending.

In Praise of Happyness

STONE TOWN, Zanzibar – Under red and gold tarps stretched across the bazaar, the temperature doubles, the crowd triples, and you lose your escort. A reader story.

Expat Chronicles: Halloween Turnips

ZURICH, Switzerland – No, mommy, you're not carving a pumpkin. You're carving a turnip. The Swiss Family Cuthberton faces the high-maintenance holiday root vegetable.