BOKTRAVELTIPS: MOLOKA’I

A LITTLE WHITE LIE..OR TWO..OR THREE. “Do you have a nice suit with you here in England, Mr. O’Keefe?”  Yes. (I didn’t)    “Have you a nice pair of dress shoes?”  “Of course,” I said. (and, of course, I did not).  I was a junior in College studying overseas…in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales, halfway…

A COMPASSIONATE BUSINESS:   NICE GALS ..AND GUYS FINISH FIRST AND RUN MY WORLD It’s a moment in your career that you never forget.  I remember it like it was yesterday. Nothing really happened, though. It was more like what didn’t happen. I didn’t get to meet her. And I didn’t get “the get” she got. She…

MATTHEW J.T. STEPANEK “Put on Oprah.” “Put on Oprah right now. RIGHT NOW!” It was Chris Cuomo bellowing on the phone. “Hurry. Listen to this kid”!   “We should book him…get him on GMA”. I immediately looked at the clock. I have no idea why I looked at the clock. Like I was going to jump…

(SORRY THERE IS JUST  NO BETTER STORY SLUG) I was late.  Surprise, surprise.  But so was my plane. Chicago to LA. It was a Super 80. My favorite First Class cabin for short flights. It feels like an elevator, so smooth on ascent. Cozy, like a living room squished.  Being Platinum for life on American…

Oklahoma City…and beyond By my late twenties, already a million miler on American Airlines, I had my share of scary flights…like the DC-10s violent climb that jolted me and 250 others out of a gentle steady hum/cross country cruise (to avoid another aircraft). The co-pilot on a Delta flight in Milan who died of a…

“Ambassador Black” I was told to send her a letter…that all requests must be faxed. I had done it every few years…but this time I fumbled her name in the salutation. “Dear Ms. Temple-Black” I wrote, asking for the third or fourth time in my career for a big sit-down television interview. It would be…