This blog has ended. My commentary has moved to Facebook, where you can find it at http://facebook.com/henry.kisor.

Our first interview

In the Chicago Tribune online edition Nov. 14, here's an interview:

On the promotion trail . . .

A brief 'mention in dispatches'

Traveling with Service Animals has snagged a nice little notice in Midwest Living magazine. It may not seem like much—it's not exactly a review—but this small item will catch a lot of eyes.

Midwest Living, one of the mighty Meredith Corporation's many regional magazines, has a circulation of more than 960,000, chiefly in heartland America's small towns and suburbs—dog people country.

Co-author Chris and I are heartened.

"A winner," Booklist says

Booklist, the American Library Association's review organ and one of the top four advance review media in the United States (the others are Library Journal, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews), is making nice on Traveling with Service Animals in its upcoming Sept. 1 issue. Today we saw the uncorrected proof of the notice. It follows:

"The number of trained service animals (not including therapeutic and emotional-support anmals) has exploded in the U.S. and Canada, and many of these animals' handlers are avid travelers. But how does one approach a vacation with a service animal? In wonderfully practical language, Kisor and Goodier, both of whom use hearing dogs, walk the reader through all forms of travel with their partners. Mainly concerned with travel within North America, the book covers airline travel, long-distance trains, automobile and bus trips, cruises, and what documentation is required and/or advisable. Each chapter discusses the basis, such as how to ticket the service animal, choice of seats, when and how to toilet the animal, and concerns such as passing through TSA checkpoints, travel needs on cruise ships and trains, dealing with Uber and Lyft, and how to address the inevitable meetings with other animals. The final chapter on required and recommended paperwork is extremely thorough. Enlivened throughout with first-hand anecdotes of the authors and other service animal handlers, this long overdue handbook is a winner.—Nancy Bent"

Heartening.

Our first media review

Library Journal's verdict on Traveling with Service Animals: "A highly recommended resource for anyone who travels with a service animal, as well as for anyone who works in transportation, hospitality, or any business with public accommodations."

We won't post the link to it, because Library Journal is a subscription-only review publication for library professionals, and you wouldn't be able to see the entire review. (We can't, either, but when the full review appears, we'll see if we can post it.)

We're heartened.

Getting shut of encumbrances

We'll soon be moving into a two-bedroom apartment in a retirement village called Three Crowns Park in Evanston, Ill., and are having to downsize once again.

The new digs are a third smaller than our present condo, whose square footage was in turn smaller than that of our old three-bedroom house. So it's crunch time for excess furniture and stuff, most of which we'll give away to charities.

We got a head start last spring with my papers, accumulated over a 56-year career as a journalist and author. For weeks I rearranged the messy pile and then donated it (24 bankers' boxes) to the Newberry Library, which hosts a large collection of papers and memorabilia from the old Chicago Daily News.

Now the library has organized everything into neat boxes on shelves and has posted a guide to the material.

They say old journos are praised at the wake and forgotten after the grave. I hope my legacy, such as it is, might hang on a little longer.