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New '1,000 Places to See Before You Die' list for USA & Canada
Travelers love lists -- and nobody does lists like Patricia Schultz. Her "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" has sold more than 2 1/2 million copies. Now she's back with "1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die."
We recently visited with Schultz in Chicago. Some highlights:
What brought about the second book of '1,000'?
Since we started with world travel, the only natural next step [was] to bring it down versus expand -- as long as we weren't intending to do intergalactical travel. … I love America. I've been traveling in the back seat of the family station wagon since I was 2.
How many of these thousand places have you been to?
I need a rainy Friday afternoon someday with my pencil and pad, checking them off to see where I stand. But my gut feeling is probably 80 percent.
You've been quite generous to Chicago (with 13 'places')
I know you're thinking I'm saying this because I'm standing here in Chicago [but if I couldn't live in my hometown of New York] … it could only be Chicago. Because this to me has all of the great energy and attributes of a city like New York City without a lot of the negative things . . .
The standout points, I think, to the world are your heritage of architecture, your importance on the international eating scene, your heritage in the world of comedy, because what is the world if we cannot laugh? And hot dogs [laughs].
So what do you put on your hot dogs?
I know better not to ever think about putting ketchup on my hot dogs. It is a sin, and I bow to you. Even as a New Yorker, I don't think one does. Are there Americans who do? I don't know. Poor misguided souls. They didn't get the memo, did they?
What are you going to do next?
I'm sure that something is up here [pointing to her head], but I think I need a vacation. As a travel writer, you really don't want to sit in front of an illuminated screen any longer than you have to.
 Should we take offense, order a drink, or what? That depends, of course, on where you think these words turned up. |
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