Field Notes Premium Edition

Would you consider FedEx a big company? It’s an inane question, but I have a point to make. With a stock market value of roughly $75 billion, the overnight delivery giant ranks 105 on the list of S&P 500 companies. So, basically, I’m answering my own question to say that, yes, FedEx is big. Huge, [Read More] …

Having visited Mexico many times, one thing that constantly amazes me about our southern neighbor is the sheer scale of the country. At three times the size of Texas, Mexico is a vast land with diverse climates, cultures, and peoples. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to sample a lot of this diversity firsthand. I’ve [Read More] …

Several years back, while visiting Portugal, I used a service called BlaBlaCar to hitch a ride from the capital, Lisbon, to the country’s second-biggest city, Porto. You’ve likely never heard of BlaBlaCar since it doesn’t currently operate in the U.S., but it’s basically like Uber for long-distance travel. The key difference: Instead of paying for [Read More] …

The Lazy Susan was massive and packed with a cornucopia of traditional Chinese dishes.  A group of us had come together for a farewell dinner in Guangzhou, China after completing the adoption of our Chinese rugrats.  I reached out to ladle some soup into my bowl from a large tureen. Just as I did, someone on the other side of the oversized table spun [Read More] …

Welcome to your Weekly Digest!   First up this week…travel to Europe appears to be back on the agenda.  In a recent interview with The New York Times, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said that the fast pace of vaccinations in the U.S., along with advanced talks between the U.S. government and European Union over vaccination certificates, could see trans-Atlantic [Read More] …