Need a jolt of jocularity? Then subscribe to Steven Frederick Shundich’s Where’s the Funny? (WTF?) travel blog newsletter, which is delivered via email straight to your in-box. Here’s why you want to sign up:

  1. It’s full, of incredible insight as well as utter nonsense.
  2. It’s fair, meaning content is devoid of all advertising, sponsorships and, most refreshingly, politics.
  3. It’s funny, written with satirical wit and a sense of wonder. 

And did I mention that it’s also absolutely, positively FREE? And you don’t even need to be a family member to subscribe!

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Here’s a taste of what you get:

  • Where’s the Funny? A personal essay or original travel humor piece, from the United States or anywhere on the globe.
  • In Practicum: Useful information on a specific topic, such as credit card car rental insurance or the Global Entry customs program. 
  • Listicle: A “Top 10” or “Best of” type list generated from a recent trip.
  • Quick spins: Up to three snippets on just about anything travel related (e.g. a book, author, news item, survey result, etc.).
  • BLIP: The funniest cartoon you’ll never understand!
  • Go!: An occasional high-level review of a piece of trip gear (e.g. camera, luggage, adapter etc.).
  • Photastic! A few of my favorite photos, from near and far.

Each newsletter features a fabulous, travel-related quote. And there may even be a horror story or two about my interactions with Instagram influencers. Check out the newsletter archives below:

2021

Librarian, biologist and tech educator Amy Maggi holds a dragon made with the 3-D printer in the Boundary County Library's Fab Lab

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 9, March 2021: From the editor: The (COVID) Road Less Traveled • Cartoon: BLIP • Article: LIBRARY 3.0: Fab Labs + Maker Rooms Spark Young (and Old) Minds • Listicle: COVIDETOUR2020 Fun Facts • In Practicum: New Balance X-Wide Trail Runners: My Feet Thank You • Quick Spins: PORTABLE POWER: A Cure for the Camping-with-Sleep-Apnea Blues; WEARABLE WORKHORSE: Garmin’s Solar-Powered Instinct Series Watch • Photstic: The Hiawatha Trail, near Wallace, Idaho

2020

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 8, June 2020: From the editor: Murderland: Why does Australia want to Kill Me? • Cartoon: BLIP • Listicle: 5 Things I Will Never Eat (Again) • In Practicum: Road Trippin’: There’s an App for That • Quick Spins: DIGITAL NOMADS: Barbados and other cures for COVID-19; Travel in Turmoil: The latest … ; and, Birders go berserk for watch data website • Photos: Old City of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Israel

The author with a cutout of Swedish hero Sven-Göran Eriksson, ironically coach of England's national team

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 7, May 2020: From the editor: (Inappropriate) Laughter is the Best Medicine: 50 Minutes on a Jam-Packed Train from Tokyo • Cartoon: BLIP • Listicle: Favorite Beach to Swim While Surrounded by a Raging Inferno … and 3 more … • In Practicum: Future of Travel: Curated COVID-19 News from (So-Called) Industry Experts • Quick Spins: Walter De Maria’s world and It’s a Wrap: Christo is Dead • Photos: Edinburgh, Scotland

A closer look at one of the enormous Andean condors from the Cruz del Cóndor overlook at Colca Canyon

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 6, April 2020: From the editor: Anxiety Arc: 30 Steps to Wellness (Right) • Cartoon: BLIP • Listicle: 5 Free Things in Chicago • In Practicum: Airlines 2.0: Carriers do what they do best – make air travelers miserableQuick Spins: Turrell’s Roden Crater in Arizona; “Hotel of Doom” in Pyongyang; and, Unfinished Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota  Photos: Colca Canyon, Peru

Giant and rare, intact petrified log at Blue Mesa inside the Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona.

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 5, March 2020: From the editor: Travel and Fear  WTF? in Chanute, Kansas  Meet Osa and Martin Johnson: The first travel influencers • 10 Things: From a 4,983 mile road trip  10 Things: From Arizona • In Practicum: Why I still bother to carry a real camera  Quick Spins: The America the Beautiful annual pass; Hotel Rez Redux: Is anything better than Booking.com Photos: Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Penguin and chic at Stony Point in South Africa

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 4, February 2020: From the editor: Destination woo-WHO Wuhan  WTF? in Corruption: 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index  Listicle: Things to do in Québec City • Trip Planner: How to rent a minivan … for a month?  Presto Christo: Art on a grand scale • Airplanes / helicopters vs Cars: Transportation mode death index  Live like Royalty: Rent a Scottish castle  Photos: Jackass penguin colony at Stony Point in South Africa

Overlook of Squam Lake, New Hampshire, from the Armstrong Natural Area trail

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 3, January 2020: On the road: Never be afraid to ask questions • WTF? in Plymouth, New HampshireHoliday listicles from the Queen City of Charlotte (and Cincinnati) • Rental car credit card insurance 101Where the wars are: Your guide to global conflict • My airline favorite: Stroopwafel Dutch treats • The second most expensive spice: Vanilla beans • Photos from Fish Creek, Wisconsin in Door County

2019

Montmorency

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 2, December 2019: Essay from Uruguay 1989 • What else to do in Cooperstown, New York • How to apply for a Real ID driver’s licenseInterNations expat best/worst place survey results • Reader’s Digest’s worst tourists behavior • Vintage See the USA and new Little Passports games • Photos from a bike ride to Parc de la Chute-Montmorency, Québec, just outside Québec City

Rooftop view of San Miguel de Allende

WTF? NEWSLETTER, Volume 1, November 2019: Inspiration for the WTF? travel blog newsletterLa Catrina, life and death in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico • Redux: the Global Entry Trusted Traveler program • UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the USA • Author Paul Theroux’s On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican JourneyInsta-DAMNED spousal bullying from Instagram influencersPhotos of fabulous San Miguel de Allende