Have Neuroses, Will Travel

Matt Gross wrote a piece for the NYT’s Frugal Traveler feature on his oddly needy trip to bourbon country here in Kentucky:

Hoping for more camaraderie, I moved to the dining room, but that stone-walled, wood-beamed space was nearly as desolate. A mother and her child ate cheeseburgers, and three older guys sipped sweet tea. In the corner, however, was a likely candidate for conversation — a single woman in her early 30s, whose accent indicated she wasn’t from Kentucky.

But how do you approach someone at random without seeming like a weirdo? I chewed over the question as I chewed my pork chops, but no answer emerged.

This is one of the strangest travel pieces I’ve ever read. Someone get Gross a partner, stat. Is Emma Peel available?

6 thoughts on “Have Neuroses, Will Travel”

  1. Did you see where he compared the Bear Bryant museum to the Stalin Museum in Russia? Bet he had his Alabama passport revoked after that one.

  2. Isn’t that what being a journalist is *for*, approaching people at random and not having to worry about seeming like a weirdo?

  3. So, how does a guy who obviously doesn’t know how to talk to people get a job for the NYT as a travel writer, when part of the job as a travel writer is to talk to people??
    He couldn’t figure out how to approach people in a bar? Wow.

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