Kentucky Fried Chicken, Japan Traditional Christmas dinner among millions of Japanese—most of whom are not Christian—is not turkey or ham, but a bucket of KFC. This offbeat custom is the legacy of a 40-year-old marketing campaign wherein the fast-food chain successfully convinced would-be customers that fried chicken is the traditional American yuletide feast. During the run-up to Christmas, Colonel Sanders… Read More
Snowball Express, Elf University, and Santa’s Toy Invention Hall of Fame
North Pole Experience–in Arizona! You can help elves build toys in Santa’s workshop. During the North Pole Experience in Flagstaff, Ariz., visitors board a trolley from The Little America Hotel, then travel through a magic portal aboard the Candy Cane or Snowball Express trolley to reach the workshop. After attending Elf University and seeing Santa’s Toy Invention Hall of Fame,… Read More
Balloon Ride to Outer Space (or at least the edge of it)…
There’s a new player in the bustling world of “commercial space,” although the “space” part in this case is a matter of definition. A Tucson-based start-up plans to use a helium balloon to lift big-ticket customers in a pressurized capsule to nearly 100,000 feet. That’s a journey to the edge of space, if not into space as traditionally defined. The… Read More
Biggest Fall Concert Tours
If you’re wanting to hear some good music and willing to take a road trip, here are the best bets this fall: Depeche Mode (August – Oct 11) Blondie (Sept 5 – Oct 9) Queens of the Stone Age (Sept 10 – Oct 13) Nine Inch Nails (Sept 28 – Nov 25) Fiona Apple & Blake Mills (Oct 3 –… Read More
How Would an American Airlines/U.S. Airways Merger Change the Way You Travel?
Yup, the airlines just keep on changing names. More than a decade of bankruptcies and mergers has left us with a smaller field of competitors—we had 10 major carriers in the United States in 2000, now we have five—and the familiar brand names are disappearing or getting hyphen-happy. Northwest? It’s now part of Delta. Continental? That’s United-Continental to you. So,… Read More
More on the World’s Largest Yardsale
Okay, I told you all about the World’s Largest Yardsale a few weeks ago. It extends across FIVE states and covers more than 690 miles and includes THOUSANDS of vendors. Alabama alone boasts more than 1,000 vendors! For more on that see the 6/27 post in my blog archive or visit www.127sale.com. But I promised another post letting you know… Read More
Terrance Zepke studied Journalism at the University of Tennessee and later received a Master's Degree in Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina. She has studied Parapsychology at the renowned Rhine Research Center. She began her career as a freelance writer and photographer, ... 
