I wrote '33 Men' in eight weeks. Not only was it a combination of simultaneously writing and interviewing, but as I dug deeper into the miners' story, I found the key to their success was the ability to place their individuality on the back burner and bring forward the sense of a collective group responsibility.
My father Tom was a workaholic who never missed a single one of my sporting events for nearly two decades, and imparted in me a sense of risk and adventure. Being the one in the middle, I had more room to drift, and after college, I left the U.S. for Chile.
I have interviewed Hugo Chavez, Tim McVeigh, and hundreds of fascinating characters in South America, where I have lived for the past 15 years.
I have lived in Chile since 1996 and reported from Chile since 1989, so I know the nation better than my native Massachusetts.
Many foreigners imagine that Latin American cuisine is spicy, but Chilean food, on the whole, is extremely bland: salt, vinegar, mayonnaise, and more salt are the four basic condiments. Black pepper is conspicuously absent, and not only from the food - it is also rarely available even on request.
The global embrace of the Chilean miners had as much to do with the state of the planet as it did the fate of the trapped men. Every year, thousands of miners are trapped and die. Hundreds more are rescued. The world's press has no shortage of global good-news stories. Heroes abound if reporters and editors take the time to search.
In the U.S. and much of Europe, the sale, distribution, and use of offset printers are watched closely by anti-counterfeiting units. In Peru, however, the offset industry is a free-for-all.
In Peru, awareness of fake currency is so high that retail shops regularly provide cashiers with hole punchers. When a fake bill is received, the cashier quickly pops out a few holes before curtly returning the bill to an oft-surprised client.
Seven daughters was never part of my plan.
It is a gift to be a teenager, and I see a dad's job as lifeguard, not chaperone.
When all else fails, I am comforted by the fact that when I am ill or old, I will never be on my own. After all, you'd have to be a pretty terrible father if not one of your seven daughters was willing to take care of you at the end.
Environmental activists in the rough Antarctic seas have launched a new tool in the fight to stop a Japanese operation to kill hundreds of whales: remote-controlled drones.
Andean skiing offers an unforgettable combination of beach-style weather, great snow and exotic travel. There are many attractions. Here on the fringes of the Andes, skiers will find few lift queues, tickets 50% cheaper than France, and unique scenery that includes condors and Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak outside the Himalayas.
Getting to Valle Nevado is half the fun. A serpentine road from Santiago wriggles up the spine of Andean peak for an hour, then traverses a valley and finally up again. The hotel is perched on a rugged mountain crag at 3,000m: no other sign of human development is visible from this spot, which is close to the Argentinean border.
Style-wise, Valle Nevado is what can only be described as 'hip international.' Brazilians, Chileans and Europeans make the place seem like an electronic music festival transported to an remote Andean valley. Huge speakers blare out thumping, bass-heavy music, while promotoras stalk the staircases selling everything from Red Bull to mobile phones.
There's nothing very exotic about classic Chilean street food. Imagine a hot dog hidden beneath an explosion of mayonnaise and ketchup. Cost? Twenty-five to 30 pence. This is the completo, an all-purpose solution to breakfast, lunch or, once, the curiously English teatime snack enjoyed by Chileans of all ages.
Vegetarians are doomed in the Chilean street-food scene, though if they are willing to ingest small quantities of lard, they can enjoy the ever-popular squash, salt and lard biscuits known as sopaipillas.
I would like to be remembered as the reporter who snuck back stage to all the off-limits shows, be it the Vatican dressing room, the Pentagon war room, or the Celtics locker room. Some curtains ought never to be pulled back; others deserve to be ripped down. When appropriate, I want to be the curtain remover.
Anyone who reads '33 Men' will be brought into a world that was practically a textbook case of sensory deprivation and torture.
I could have been a top notch spy. People confess the most amazing secrets to me, even when I am not fishing for those nuggets. I must look trustworthy because I sit there with a video camera or a tape recorder while the stories pour out.
