It’s that time of year–when, for a week, thanks to the Today Show, I can’t seem to get that Carmen Sandiego ditty of my PBS-watching youth out of my head. Today marked the first day of Matt Lauer’s 10th “Where in the World” trip, and he revealed his location to be the Skeleton Coast, Namibia.

Noted for its “haunting beauty and unconfined space,” our own Patricia Schulz describes the Skeleton Coast as “a little explored desert paradise of wide-open spaces–undeveloped, unpeopled, and far from civilization” in the new 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Its name btw, refers to the treacherous, barren shoreline, where shipwrecks and whale bones litter the fog shrouded beaches. But what else? There’s seal breeding ground (pups arrive in late November or December…maybe Matt should extend his stay!), awesome flocks of pink flamingos, and massive shifting dunes around granite shelves and veins of schist (if you saw the segment this morning, you saw Matt skiing down a sandy dune!).

Only Matt (and probably his producers) knows where he’ll end up next, but here’s the itinerary that Patricia Schultz would have recommended for his week on the go. (And, hey, maybe he’ll show up at one of these hot spots tomorrow!)

5 suggested destinations in various regions of the world where Matt has not been:

1) Lake Bled, Slovenia An emerald-green glacial lake, Bled was the favorite getaway of Tito, former president of Yugoslavia. The restaurant at Tito’s former residence is one of the area’s best (and you can spend the night) — with views of the Julian Alps, and the tiny island with an 11th century castle at the lake’s center.

2) Hanoi, Vietnam In the narrow, crowded tree-lined streets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter — one of the city’s most charming neighborhoods — flag down a cyclo (a pedal-powered rickshaw) to navigate the enjoyable chaos. Streets are lined with hole-in-the-wall merchants stores, food stands, traditional cafes and the occasional centuries-old temple.

3) Sepik River, Papua New Guinea An expedition down this mysterious river leads to the world’s last unspoiled reservoir of nature, culture and tribal art. In villages reachable only by boat, life has only just emerged from millenia-long isolation.

4) Bruges, Belgium The “Venice of the North” is a romantic stuck-in-time city of medieval architecture and willow-lined canals was once a prosperous trading hub — today a beautifully preserved city of important small museum and atmospheric inns and restaurants.

5) Iquitos and the Peruvian Amazon Brazil may get most of the attention, but Peru is one of the best places to experience the incredible biodiversity of the Amazon — at the point where they claim the river originates, 2,400 miles from where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

I don’t know about you, but I would gladly hop a plane to any of these destinations (I’m just saying, if anyone’s offering), but what about you? Where do YOU want to get your next passport stamp?

And, did you know that every place that Matt has been over the past 10 years is one of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die? (That’s an impressive checklist he’s got going — though he might want to step up the pace from just 5 places each year!) Check out this gorgeous slideshow of destinations via the Today Show, of highlights from Matt’s past trips.

This fall, a brand new edition of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die will hit shelves. As the book makes its way to publication, we’ve been working hard to dot every i and cross every t (not to mention double-dotting some vowels and crossing some o’s in those tricky European countries), and today we took a break to celebrate with some cookies.  Because we eat, sleep, and breathe 1000 Places, they’re 1000 Places cookies: sugary little ones and zeros.  And they’re in bright colors too, just like the photos in the new 2nd edition.  Thank you to author Patricia Schultz for a much appreciated treat.

Having realized that June and July have come and gone and I’ve still not left town, I recently decided to round up a few friends and hit the road. Where to, you ask? Miami? Montauk? No, the Nantucket Whaling Museum!

I understand that a repository of cetacean mammals might not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but I’ve been fascinated with belugas, humpbacks, and sperm whales ever since I read Moby Dick in 7^th grade. However, I would have never known there was an actual Whaling Museum if I hadn’t come across the following entry in Patricia Schultz 1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the United States & Canada:

A Remote World All Its Own

Nantucket

Massachusetts

The island’s Wampanoag Indian name means “faraway land,” and Nantucket seems just that. It’s only 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, but the 49-square-mile island floats in its own insular world of time and space. Some 10,000 year-round residents accommodate more than five times that many visitors each summer, yet the island retains an unspoiled atmosphere. Here the descendant of the practical Yankee sea captain meets the cultured offspring of New England old money—and increasingly, new money. They bond over their shared affection for the windswept island, with its abundant salt marshes and pristine beaches.

Stringent zoning laws help maintain the traditional New England appearance of the “Little Gray Lady of the Sea”—so named for the color of its cedar-shingled houses muted by exposure to the sea air. Movie-set-perfect Nantucket is one of the country’s finest protected historic districts, with more than 800 Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival Houses and Quaker sea captains homes, constructed between 1740 and 1840.

Nantucket was once the whaling capital of the world and the small but interesting Whaling Museum preserves Nantucket’s eminence in the “blubber boiling” industry. Displays include a skeleton of 46-foot finback whale, a whaleboat, a collection of 19^th century scrimshaw, and artifacts from the Essex, sunk by a sperm whale in 1820, inspiring the story recounted in Moby-Dick.

Where: 70 miles southeast of Boston. Ferries from Hyannis and Harwich Port on Cape Cod. Visitor info: Tel 508-228-1700; www.nantucketchamber.org.

Whaling Museum: Tel 508-228-1894; www.nha.org When: mid-May—mid-Oct.

***

Don’t feel sorry for my buddies. I’m sure we’ll get some beach time in between all the scrimshaw and baleen.

Hi again! It’s Jennifer, friendly intern and your eyes-and-ears into the Workman office. By now you’ve heard about my time in sales and at Algonquin Books. My next stop was the Workman editorial department.

I’ve had a great time sifting through “slush,” which is a colloquial publishing term for the unsolicited proposals sent in by people without agents. At first, I was armed with just the guideline that Workman does not accept fiction or memoirs (that’s the domain of Algonquin), so my “Maybe” pile soon towered above the “Yes” and “No” piles. However, after sitting down with one of the editors, who patiently pointed out the reasons why proposals would or would not be accepted, I gained a better understanding of what it takes to be published. It isn’t often that a proposal from slush is actually realized as a published title, and there are several reasons for that. For example, calendars, which I saw a lot of, usually do best when they already have a brand or book behind them. My Gift Sales boss has been talking about how popular LEGO: The Calendar is going to be; its success will be based on the timeless appeal of LEGOs.

That model of the Taj Mahal is made entirely of LEGO bricks.

The proposal also has to be well researched and backed with the proper credentials. Perhaps more importantly, the idea has to be original and innovative, and should not be too similar to titles Workman already publishes or is thinking about producing. There were some picture book proposals in the pile, but generally, the children’s books that Workman publishes are more than just picture books—they are machine-washable and “indestructible,” or interactive, or fun to touch; they are more than just a story. Submitters should take heart in knowing, however, that their proposals are not left to languish in a corner. Every proposal is looked at by a real person (and, no worries, not just an intern—proposals are screened after I look at them, too).

I’ve also done some fact-checking for 1,000 Places to See Before You Die and The Obits: The New York Times Annual 2012. For 1,000 Places, fact-checking has involved determining hotel rates with more calling (but fewer abrupt farewells, because hotel staff can’t really hang up on someone who might be a customer). Most people seemed unfazed by or indifferent to the fact that the hotels they work at are being featured in a well-regarded travel book, but it was nice when people, such as one woman at a hotel in the South, maybe one of the Carolinas, asked which book I was fact-checking for and expressed pleasant surprise when I told her. (The woman I’m talking about answered, “Who doesn’t know about it?” when I asked if she knew of 1,000 Places.) Fact-checking for The Obits has been more computer-based, but it’s still fascinating to read these posthumous celebrations of people’s life accomplishments. I especially enjoyed reading the obituaries for the distinguished Elizabeth Taylor and for Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run as a Vice Presidential candidate for a major political party, about whom I learned in US History class this past year.

I can’t believe I’m nearly finished with my internship. I could work here forever and may attempt to do something like that, as my experiences so far have really piqued my interest in working in the publishing world. I would love to do this as a career, although I am a little sad that I would have to choose a department and stay there instead of floating around to different ones.

Thanks for reading!

—Jennifer

Though no one likes a to-do list (until everything is checked off, or you lose the list), there is a certain joy in keeping lists. And we at Workman couldn’t agree more. After all, we do claim a few rather extensive lists ourselves. Like The Wish List. And 1000 Places to See Before You Die. And 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. And Dream It, List it, Do it.  Why, just look at that list I’ve come up with! But it’s all in effort to get to talking about a charming little book called The List: A Love Story in 781 Chapters whose innovative short chapter form came well before its time (well, hello there, Twitter).

Its “an honest, funny look at the way we love, like, lust, and…list” (says Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada). And here’s an excerpt, to give you a taste:

1. You will dream about meeting Mr. Right.
   1. You’ll be eleven.
   2. Twelve.
   3. Forty-six.
2. Your first Mr. Right will be a rock star.
3. Your first Mr. Wrong will be a musician.
4. You will not learn from this.
5. You will get advice about men from your mother.
   1. “It’s as easy to love a rich man as a poor man.”
   2. “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
   3. “Good luck.”
6. You’ll decide your mother has no idea what she’s talking about.
   1. Until you’re her age.
7. You’ll go out with a girlfriend, hoping to meet Mr. Right.
   1. You’ll be twenty.
   2. Thirty.
   3. Your mother’s age.
8. You’ll meet a man in a bar.
   1. The bartender.
   2. The bouncer.
   3. A banker.
   4. A man who’s wearing a T-shirt that says: Eat Me.

AND, To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we invited seven members of the Workman staff to each write “The Short List”–his or her own love story in just 5 to 7  numbered “chapters.” Stay tuned today as we post one original story each hour!

We’re having a party!

Follow along at http://tweetchat.com/room/wkmnshorts

RSVP below!

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Everyone loves a rousing round of bar trivia—and employment at Workman, where you’re surrounded by books proffering their rich knowledge of everything from vino to babies to mouthsounds, certainly gives you an edge over the competition. And it was a Workman title that gave me that edge last week, culminating in a thrilling cash win for my team!

Composed of my roommates and our friends, our team has just begun competing in the weekly game at a bar in our neighborhood. We weren’t among the top three point-earners last week, but we still had an opportunity to win cold, hard cash if we answered the “instant gratification” question correctly. For a $100 pot, our trivia host began his query: “Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Disneyland is partly modeled after a castle in…”

He didn’t even have to finish. I knew the rest of the question and the answer. I started bouncing up and down in my seat, whispering frantically to my friends: “I know the answer! It’s Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany!!!”

We wrote it down on the response sheet (our spelling was a shot in the dark, I’ll admit), turned it in, and broke into celebratory hoots and hollers when our host confirmed that Sleeping Beauty’s Castle was, in fact, partly modeled after the fairy-tale-like Neuschwanstein. We raked in $50 for our braininess (unfortunately, another intellectually well-endowed team turned in the correct response, too).

My friends were incredulous. “How did you know that?” they asked. How did I know that?, I wondered. Then it slowly came back to me: Hmm, I bet I read it in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, Patricia Schultz’s behemoth, best-selling compendium of the locales and experiences that should occupy a space on every traveler’s bucket list.

So when I got home, I looked up the castle in the index (I still couldn’t fathom the spelling, though I had a Germanic hunch that it began with the letters Neu). There it was, on page 154: “Neuschwanstein was one of three castles created by [eccentric king] Ludwig [II], and by far his most ambitious and theatrical extravagance. Set on an isolated rock ledge amid heart-stopping scenery, it is the turreted prototype that inspired the castle in Sleeping Beauty and later at Disneyland.”

With last week’s trivia coup under my belt, I think the next step is obvious: It’s time to hop a plane to Bavaria and see Ludwig’s ostentatious digs for myself!

You know it’s  a good day when platters of cookies inexplicably present themselves. Author Patricia Schultz sent several of these (exhibit A, right) over to congratulate us on surviving our annual Fall sales conference! And, bonus: she commissioned the treats from our colleague-turned-baker at the Community Baking Co.!

What’s the difference between these two books?*  Look carefully because it’s a matter of hundreds of hours of painstaking work! Our bestselling travel guide has just been updated with current information for 2010–including prices, web addresses, and phone numbers. We went through each entry with a fine-tooth comb to make sure everything is as accurate as possible. The new edition is now in stores, and we’re ready to hit the road and start exploring!

*The change is in the “sticker” on the top right, where in addition to mentioning that the book is a # 1 New York Times Bestseller, it notes the updated prices and websites.

Meet Patricia Schultz, author of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die series, at the Adventures in Travel Expo in New York City, October 10 at 2:30 PM. The Adventures in Travel Expo is located at Jacob Javits Convention Center and runs October 10-11.

There will be a presentation with Patricia Schultz followed by a book signing. For more information, visit adventureexpo.com

To purchase tickets to the expo, visit http://www.adventureexpo.com/newyork. Use promo code: SCHZ for $5 off the ticket price.

Click here for a preview of 1000 Places to See Before You Die