Author: ryanwwhite
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One from the road: Mobile, Ala.
Have you been reading the news? I’ve been reading the news. Anyway, here’s a photo of folly chasing death in an old cemetery in Mobile, Ala. where a man whose story blends fact, fiction and fun is buried. His name is Joe Cain. He features in Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way, out May […]
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One from the road: Pensacola
Winter, which barely ever exists in Portland, has sucked in Portland. I was warmer when I took this in 2015, on the beach behind the Margaritaville Hotel in Pensacola, Fla. “This must have been a fun book to work on,” people say. It was. Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way, the story of […]
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40 Years ago, just before ‘Margaritaville’ came to life … it was COLD
Forty years ago, as Washington D.C. prepared to welcome President Jimmy Carter, jackhammers were employed to chip ice from the parade route. Republican senator Ted Stevens invited the president-elect to move the inaugural festivities to his home state of Alaska, where it was warmer than in the nation’s capital. But the weather sucked everywhere — […]
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It’s almost a book
Two photos taken 364 days apart. On the left, the first blank page of a book as I sat down to begin writing exactly one year ago, on Jan. 4, 2016. On the right, that book–almost finished–on the far end of the year and as it arrived yesterday in the mail from the good folks […]
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Look in a Fodor’s Guide
Once, at Key West’s sunset celebration in Mallory Square, I watched a large man somersault through a small hoop. Writing a book is a little like that. You set out to accumulate as much information as you can and winnow it into a manuscript. Your editor winnows it more. In response, you jam a bunch of […]
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Bruce and the blessings of compromise on a Tuesday night
Bruce Springsteen was talking about compromise last night. Adult compromise, as viewed by the kids startled to first discover Mom and Dad had hopes and dreams. The world takes some of those away. You choose to let go of others. These aren’t easy choices. What the kids don’t see, Bruce said, are “the blessings of compromise.” […]
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Kids are smart
A few days after Christmas, my dad and I were browsing the Powell’s on Hawthorne when I noticed a copy of the first Harry Potter book illustrated. “Stell might be old enough to dig that,” I said. Then I looked at the price tag. At $40, she could wait to enjoy it. Dad being Dad, he […]
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Motorhead that one time
I saw Motorhead once, a few years ago at the Roseland. I went because it was Motorhead and I’d never seen Motorhead and I wanted to be able to say I’d seen Motorhead. I wanted to hear Lemmy roar. I wanted to lean into mythical volume. It was cold outside, sold out inside. So it was […]
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RW&A Gift Guide
Back in the newsroom days, a fun thing to do was to pass along to an editor any press release referring to The First Annual Anything. “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FIRST ANNUAL,” the editor would say. Grumbling would ensue. Before it’s too too late, welcome to the first Ryan White & Associates Gift […]
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The obscene beauty of Pac-12 After Dark
Last night I watched a team give up more than 700 yards of offense and win. The same team that, two weeks ago, rushed for 400 yards and lost. In the Big Ten, where I grew up, if you rush for 400 yards they give you the keys to the conference and a new tractor. […]
Ryan White & Associates 