A rare look into everyday life during Iraq’s transitional period.BOMB-DODGING is still a big part of travel here. So is the tangible fear that blankets the country. Foreigners, moving on the highways that join southern Arab Iraq with the northern autonomous Kurdish region chance roadside bombs and, more likely, incarceration and a beating by Iraqi authorities on the lookout for al-Queda, for the threat, for anything suspicious.

You’ve heard of beach bums and river runners…but lake lovers?Lakes have a lot to offer: You get all the benefits of a refreshing body of water without having to worry about tides, currents, rapids, great whites, or that scummy coating of salt.That must have been what the folks at the Brilliant Tips blog were thinking, anyway, when they published a snapshot of 10 Unique and Fascinating Lakes Around the World.

THE FREERIDE is one of the most versatile boats I have ever been in. Strong down river and just as fun surfing and playing. Here is a little low-water Sacramento, playing and enjoying all that the Freeride has to offer.Here’s what LL has to say about the boat:“The design concepts of the Freeride 57 and 67 allow the paddler to take full advantage of the total play potential of any river or play park with complete comfort and confidence.

After a few weeks blending in with tourists in London, Josh Heller passes through New York City on his way back to LA.RETURNING HOME, I spent a few days with old friends that I hadn’t seen since I’d last lived there.I jumped between late-breakfasts, and espressos, and brunches, and beers, and late-lunches, and overpriced cocktails, and dinners, and house parties in neighborhoods that I’d never really spent time in before.

My father, Roger Prior, died on 27 December 2009. This piece, written before he died (originally in present tense), is about a road trip we took together shortly after I moved from Northern Ireland, where he lived, to California. This is how it goes in past tense:WE SPENT CHRISTMAS in a hotel in San Francisco.

“So it’s like a quasi-vegetable byproduct paste that you smear on your toast for breakfast,” Obama said of the stuff. “Sounds good, doesn’t it?” Editor’s note: The following Matador Community blog was chosen by editors to be republished here at the Network. ACTUALLY MADE FROM SPENT YEAST from Australia’s breweries (you can’t get more Aussie than that), the mere mention of Vegemite is enough to not only draw a chorus of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi’s,” but can inspire feigned retching sounds from those unlucky sods yet to acquire a taste for it.