Marilyn Terrell
Biological mother of five kids and office mom to numerous others. Chief researcher for National Geographic Traveler and copy editor for Intelligent Travel. Frequently writes the Weird But True column for National Geographic Kids magazine.
Grew up rollerskating the sidewalks of New York and walking barefoot around Block Island.
She spent a summer writing checks in French and Flemish in Antwerp; lived in an ashram in western Massachusetts; tap-danced in a performance of Peter Pan; cross-country skied in Pontresina, Switzerland; backpacked with mules for three weeks in the Wind River Range in Wyoming; has been awakened by donkeys and church bells on the island of Hydra, Greece; collected wild orchids in the Costa Rican cloud forest with the New York Botanical Society; gasped upon emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel at the unexpected appearance of Pittsburgh; watched the sun set from the steps of the mysterious Sea Organ in Zadar, Croatia; slept in her car in the Black Forest; eaten Smith Island cake on a sailboat traveling up the Chesapeake Bay; house-sat in Bermuda; toured Loire Valley chateaux with an architect; soaked in hot springs at night in an indigenous village in Taiwan; gotten lost in a snowy forest in Lake Placid; hunted crabs in the moonlight in the Florida Keys; gone spelunking in an abandoned mine in upstate New York; taken overnight trains from LA to Chicago and NYC to White River Junction, Vermont; run out of money at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia; fallen asleep in an Ikea store; giggled uncontrollably during a TSA secondary screening at LAX until the agent finally gave up trying to pat her down (she's very ticklish). Co-wrote a feature story about Taiwan (with Traveler senior editor Jayne Wise) that was nominated for a Pacific Area Travel Association award in 2007.
Began her career answering letters to the editor at TIME magazine during the Late Cretaceous Typewriter Era; spent 20 years doing freelance research and writing for more than 60 volumes in various Time-Life Books series on such topics as garden design, post-WWI barnstormers, the history of the Palio in Siena, Portuguese explorers, Greek pottery, the rise of the SS, westward railroad expansion and the Harvey Girls, Japanese landscape painting during the Edo period, the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, ritual uses of Kwakiutl masks and styles of Ojibwa porcupine quillwork, attitudes on childrearing in 17th century Holland, and the Apollo space program, while raising five kids with her husband, selling ads for a parents newspaper in the DC area, doing thousands of loads of laundry and attending roughly 1,200 youth sporting events. She uses public transit, is left-handed, refuses to wear a watch or own a cellphone, delights in the absurd, finds her children hilarious. Activist member of the Apostrophe Protection Society and admirer of Improv Everywhere.
Sites she loves: Neatorama, BoingBoing, Dark Roasted Blend, Nothing To Do With Arbroath, Living the Scientific Life (Interrupted), Three Quarks Daily, Grow A Brain, Nag on the Lake, Dinosaurs and Robots, Banterist, World Hum, Gadling, Jaunted, MatadorTravel. Can often be found trolling the blogosphere under the commenter name Travelina, and would love for you to follow her on Twitter at Marilyn_Res.
Grew up rollerskating the sidewalks of New York and walking barefoot around Block Island.
She spent a summer writing checks in French and Flemish in Antwerp; lived in an ashram in western Massachusetts; tap-danced in a performance of Peter Pan; cross-country skied in Pontresina, Switzerland; backpacked with mules for three weeks in the Wind River Range in Wyoming; has been awakened by donkeys and church bells on the island of Hydra, Greece; collected wild orchids in the Costa Rican cloud forest with the New York Botanical Society; gasped upon emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel at the unexpected appearance of Pittsburgh; watched the sun set from the steps of the mysterious Sea Organ in Zadar, Croatia; slept in her car in the Black Forest; eaten Smith Island cake on a sailboat traveling up the Chesapeake Bay; house-sat in Bermuda; toured Loire Valley chateaux with an architect; soaked in hot springs at night in an indigenous village in Taiwan; gotten lost in a snowy forest in Lake Placid; hunted crabs in the moonlight in the Florida Keys; gone spelunking in an abandoned mine in upstate New York; taken overnight trains from LA to Chicago and NYC to White River Junction, Vermont; run out of money at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia; fallen asleep in an Ikea store; giggled uncontrollably during a TSA secondary screening at LAX until the agent finally gave up trying to pat her down (she's very ticklish). Co-wrote a feature story about Taiwan (with Traveler senior editor Jayne Wise) that was nominated for a Pacific Area Travel Association award in 2007.
Began her career answering letters to the editor at TIME magazine during the Late Cretaceous Typewriter Era; spent 20 years doing freelance research and writing for more than 60 volumes in various Time-Life Books series on such topics as garden design, post-WWI barnstormers, the history of the Palio in Siena, Portuguese explorers, Greek pottery, the rise of the SS, westward railroad expansion and the Harvey Girls, Japanese landscape painting during the Edo period, the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, ritual uses of Kwakiutl masks and styles of Ojibwa porcupine quillwork, attitudes on childrearing in 17th century Holland, and the Apollo space program, while raising five kids with her husband, selling ads for a parents newspaper in the DC area, doing thousands of loads of laundry and attending roughly 1,200 youth sporting events. She uses public transit, is left-handed, refuses to wear a watch or own a cellphone, delights in the absurd, finds her children hilarious. Activist member of the Apostrophe Protection Society and admirer of Improv Everywhere.
Sites she loves: Neatorama, BoingBoing, Dark Roasted Blend, Nothing To Do With Arbroath, Living the Scientific Life (Interrupted), Three Quarks Daily, Grow A Brain, Nag on the Lake, Dinosaurs and Robots, Banterist, World Hum, Gadling, Jaunted, MatadorTravel. Can often be found trolling the blogosphere under the commenter name Travelina, and would love for you to follow her on Twitter at Marilyn_Res.
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