Lodging
"The drive from Phoenix to Sedona is about three hours. It's a little prettier than the drive from Tucson to Phoenix. You get out of the desert and into more mountainous territory. Sedona is a really unique place. You go through a lot of national forests, the Red Rocks. L' Auberge de Sedona is down near the river. It's kind of a main hotel and then a number of little cottages that are spread out. It's a quiet place. Sedona is a very spiritual place. You have a lot of different cultures that come together there: both the cowboys and the New Age gurus, hawking crystals. It's kind of a convergence. They have shuttle tours to the vortexes, where there is some sort of freaky energy. 'Believers, hop on! We're going to feel the vortex!' Of course, after a margarita or two, I'm pretty sure you'll feel the vortex in whatever part of the state you're in."

ONE SPECIAL DAY

"I sold cable-TV subscriptions while in college in Tucson. This was in the '80s, when no one was wired for cable. All I had to do one summer was go door-to-door and tell people that we would install their cable for FREE, that they would get every cable channel we carried for FREE, that they would receive service for the first six months for FREE, and if, after all this freeness, they weren't happy, they could cancel and not ever even begin paying their monthly fee of $11. I went to homes, apartments, trailers, you name it. Knock-knock. "Hello, my name is …" Slam. "Good after…" Slam. "I have an interesting pro…" Slam. Even the ones where the customer had phoned in saying he wanted cable television installed in his home would refuse me. I was a toxic salesman. I lasted three weeks in the unyielding heat and gave up, swearing that I'd never have anything to do with cable TV for the rest of my life. Eight years later, I started Talk Soup."