AFTER THE GOLD RUSH Neil Young, 1970 The words ontological shock are the only ones I can take from their usual contexts and place before the sight that greeted me when I landed in Palm Springs and beheld the desert for the first time. After some long moments committing the sight to permanent memory storage, I grabbed my bag, got in a cab, and made my way to my final destination: Contact in the Desert. My first UFO conference. The roots of American UFO culture stretch across t

Sweet summertime! Kids are out of school, and there’s plenty of sunshine (and rain) to go around. Now is the perfect time for a quick vacay to one of the quintessential Florida destinations in our backyard or the ones a road trip away. There are fantastic places to visit in every direction, and we’ve compiled a list of some fun, educational, wacky, relaxing, spooky, and enriching summer trips. Whether you’re looking to camp and kayak, sun and swim, or milk snakes and hunt the

Some of the Sunshine State’s Most Unusual Destinations Beaches, Disney World, snowbirds, alligators, and ‘Florida Man’ are about all the space most people have in their heads for our peculiar peninsula. I’m not sure if it’s the heat, invasive pythons, or what, but we tend to attract (or create over time) a different breed of folks. My native Floridians, we are not absolved from this – we’re all a little cooky here. Some 900 people move to Florida every single day. That’s 900