Word: tours
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There's a particular thrill in seeing an amateur attempt your job. Especially when that job is comedy and the amateur is a Fox News personality. So when I heard Glenn Beck was doing a weeklong, six-city Common Sense Comedy Tour, my funniness ranking went up without my having to do anything. Beck, after all, is known for ranting, and sometimes crying, to a massive audience about how our country is approaching the End of Days. This is less the stuff of comedy than the stuff the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives likes to keep tabs...
...really glad Beck is doing this tour. While I may not agree with him that Theodore Roosevelt destroyed our nation, I'm glad that someone with a sense of humor is leading the lunatic fringe. Joseph McCarthy didn't make fun of his weight, and Father Coughlin never wondered what the deal was with anything. Making fun of yourself implies that you know your message is imperfect. So I hope Beck, who does have the tunnel logic of an extremist, keeps going on these tours. Especially since writing material for him is so easy...
...Gauguin was a revolutionary," says my tour guide Tim as we drive through the rainforests of Hiva Oa. "He fought against the local church, he fought for the rights of us Marquesans. He lived according to his own values, and we appreciate him here still...
...Ayutthaya, one of the world's most splendid capitals three centuries back, gets lost in the modern Thai glitter. Aside from two museums and a famed crafts center, this UNESCO World Heritage Site offers too many temples in every which way. Less diligent tour groups never make it beyond the emblematic columns of the Wat Phra Si Sanphet to the many parks strewn with headless statuary and palace foundations. But Wat Mahatat, with a stone head emerging from gnarled bodhi (or fig tree) roots, is as good as historical rummaging gets. And the reclining Buddha, speckled with fresh squares...
...Kashmir each year to worship at a local cave-shrine. More than 60 people were killed in the protests that followed that policy. Incidents like these take both a personal and an economic toll: Hundreds of Indian and foreign tourists were driven out of the Valley this week, and tour operators say that many bookings for tours and weddings - a big business in this scenic spot - have been cancelled. "More or less, three thousand marriages have been postponed or cancelled over the past one week," says Farooq Ahmed Bhandari, a chef who caters traditional wedding banquets. (Read about...