The Slovak Yankee

Out Loud

subscribers: 14,100

This is the newest channel by couple Jon and Brian.  They are a great and engaging couple with an age-gap which they acknowledge.  Brian is about my age (more or less) and Jon is thirty years my junior (more or less).  They are also a long distance couple for now while Jon is in graduate school.  They make great and fun videos.  They also like to vacation in Fort Lauderdale so we all had dinner this year.  They were fun.

Highly encourage people to subscribe.  I have to admit it's nice to see someone my age on Youtube.  Generally everyone is in their 20s or 30s.

Flying the Nest

Subscribers: 1,050,000.

These are two (now three) Australians who travel the world.  Steve and Jess are married (destination wedding in Greece) and now have a baby girl Hunter.  Steve actually studied media and videography in college so his Youtubes are a mark above the rest in cinematography.

But sadly, after the pandemic, these two  pivoted to van life and are now making a loop around Australia. That is more interesting that the U.S. which I've seen, so it's not too bad, but it's still camping.  They are in the Northern Territory now and there's a place I'd like to visit.

I generally don't like children but Hunter is very cute. Of course, they edit out all the meltdowns, tantrums, and diapers, so she's idyllic on Youtube.  Still wouldn't want to be a parent.

Generally when they travel internationally, they stay at airbnbs and hotels that I would stay in.  Our budgets aline and I enjoy following them for  hints and examples.

 

Raya and Louis

Subscribers: 83,800

This is a relatively new channel and made up from two engaged individuals who have solo channels.  I subscribe to Fun with Louis (subscribers: 2,000,000) and I'm aware of Raya's channel, RayaWasHere (subscribers 187,000). 

Louis and Raya are travelers and I was very engaged with Louis when he made his around the world trip on a Cessna airplane.  Raya's channel is also travel but with a slant towards wellness.  Louis and Raya are vegans and show great vegan places to eat.  Right now they are in van life.  Louis converted an old schoolbus and they are taking that around North America with the goal of ending up in Costa Rica.  For the summer they are in Europe with a van going from England to Bulgaria.

I would describe them as hippies in the modern sense.  I like their attitude toward travel and I like their relationship with each other.

 

Tom Daley

Subscribers: 954,000.

Tom Daley is the British diver and since Monday, the reigning Olympic champion of 10 m. platform synchronized diving.  That was a great moment and one that stands out for courage and tenacity.  He had an up and down performance in Rio in 2016 but trained hard for five more years and his drive was rewarded.

I follow Tom because he is gay and now in a marriage (to Oscar winning screenwriter Lance Black) with a son.  Tom has an inordinate amount of patience as a father. I watch him, PJ and Thomas, Matt and Blue and Flying the Nest, with awe at their patience and love as parents.   It reaffirms to me that I was correct in not having children of my own.

Tom cooks, knits and parents on his Youtube channel. All good entertainment.  Tom will probably retire from diving now and will likely have kid #2.  It should be fun to watch.

And that accent.  What's not to love?

 

Oskar and Dan

Subscribers: 22,500

Oskar and Dan are two Swedish young men who are traveling to 100 countries before they turn 25.  Their ultimate goal is to visit every country in the world.  Dan is half American and has flawless English but so does all Swedish Oskar (with no accent).  They love nature and provide good details on travel.  Dan's other Youtube channel is NonStopDan (Subscribers 442,000). 

They are vegan so they provide good details on where to find vegan food.  I like them alot and would travel with them next April but for the fact I'm already booked and I've been to Marrakesh already.

Again, have to support  the gay boys.

PJ and Thomas

Subscribers: 117, 000

I have a love/hate relationship with PJ and Thomas.  They are two of the nicest guys on the planet and they are currently adopting three children that they've been fostering for two years.  Those are the luckiest children in the state of Tennessee.  I look forward to watching them continue their parenting journey.

PJ and Thomas primarily started off as a house flipping/decorating pair.  Watching them over the last five years, I think they've redone their living room twice a year every year.  They have two houses (one on a farm) and 4 dogs, 1 cat, a herd of sheep and a gaggle of geese.  I think they are batshit crazy doing what they do and taking on farm animals on top of 3 kids. And little kids aged 5 and less.

But I do resent them at the same time.  Thomas is  30 and when I was 30, I was burying my friends week after week during the AIDS  crisis. I don't think this generation knows how  good they've got it and what a high cost was paid for  them to have it.  If I didn't marry in 2004 in protestation, there would not  have been a Supreme Court case allowing everyone to marry.  Especially people who live in  dark red states like Tennessee.  The only reason they can be married and raise children is  because  people like me marched, protested, and died for those rights.

Also, they make their living by being pretty boys.  They are both handsome and have great bodies, PJ showing  his off with some frequency.  Now I leveraged my intelligence into an elite college, but intelligence is not valued half as much as good looks.  Already, they've flown business class to Europe for free thanks to KLM.  I've been to Europe 25 times and always in coach and always paid for it myself.   PJ and Thomas will sell anything  for a brand deal. Sometimes you're  looking forward to catch  up on their lives, but you get a commercial instead.

But I want to support them as the new  gay generation, so I watch all their videos, so that Youtube will pay them money (which they will need with three  kids).  Lastly, my favorite part of PJ and Thomas is Alastair the cat.  They rescued this cat from a trip to Florida.  And what a lucky cat.

 

 

 

Kara and Nate

Subscribers: 2.45 million

I  found Kara and Nate when I was researching my trip to Lisbon in 2017.  They had been there the August before.  They were trying to get to 100 countries before their 30th birthdays.  They are so personable and friendly, you can't help falling in love with them both.  Not to say our  traveling mindsets are the same, they're not, but they do some extraordinary things.  At first I watched their videos out of nostalgia as they went to places I had already been.  But as they passed 40 countries all their videos  were new to me and fascinating to watch.

They made it to 100 countries (not by their 30th birthdays but close enough).  Since then the world shut down and they have  pivoted to van life.  They are now trying to see all 50 states something I've already done.  This is not unique.  With the shutdown of international travel, Fun With Louis, RayawasHere, Hey Nadine, The Endless Adventure, The Travel Beans, and Flying the Nest all bought vans/schoolbuses/RVs and made the change to domestic road trips.  I hate all of it.  My childhood in the 1970s was camping and RVs across America on several trips.  I have a theory that you either run away or towards your childhood.  I am running away from mine.  So the idea of being back in an RV camping is just not appealing to me in the least.  I am waiting for all those channels to go back to international travel.

As influencers, Kara and Nate have turned me onto Away Luggage.  I also signed up for their website FareDrop a place to see when airline flights get cheap.  I used it to go to Barcelona round trip for $300.  I think it is a good thing for younger people who can travel at the drop  of a hat.  I find that to get a real bargain you can't travel nonstop (sometimes 2 to 3 stops) and you can sometimes only stay 5 days despite traveling 20 hours to get there.  I may sign up again at some point, but for right now I have enough planned travel that I can't fit in unplanned travel.

Nate is a superior businessman and has built this Youtube channel up from nothing to several million viewers.  This has been done partly because he guards his brand.  They are never controversial.  It is all wholesome fun and travel.  I find it a bit cowardly that they haven't mentioned the coup in Myanmar at all, despite having  gone there twice and once with a travel group.  Some solidarity with the Burmese people would be nice.

I also love that Kara and Nate are truly in love.  You know they are going  to make it in the long haul.

But we are of different generations and I like museums and they don't.  So they missed the world class Gulbenkian museum in Lisbon and although they've been to Paris, I don't think they've been to the  Louvre.  Can you really say you've been to Paris if you missed the Louvre?

I highly recommend subscribing to Kara and Nate.

Youtube

I think I've said all that can be said about genealogy.  I don't think there are any breakthroughs in my future.  So, I'm going to digress from genealogy and go into another area.

When reality TV started, I was aghast.   Who watches this stuff?  I never watched an episode of  Survivor, American Idol, The Voice, The Housewives of Wherever, the Kardashians, or any reality show whatsoever.  Not even Queer Eye.  Then about six years ago I discovered Youtube.  At first I was just watching travel videos and getting ideas for my own travel.  But the Youtube algorithm started to follow me and suggested more and more channels I might like.

Now I subscribe to a limited amount of channels (about 20).  There's another 12 beyond that that I look at with some frequency.    In the next postings, I'll review each channel and give my thoughts on Youtube and falling down the rabbit hole of reality TV.

 

Those Aren't the Only Names Going Down

Curiously all four of my grandparents surnames are in danger.  Hollick goes down with me.  My great-grandfather Dolinsky had three sons.  One son had no children.  One son had three sons, two of whom  were gay and the other never married.  That left one son who had one son who had one son.  So it's all on my second cousin Michael's shoulders to carry on the Dolinsky name.

Similarly, my great-grandfather Pinkham  had three sons.  Two of those sons had only daughters, including my grandfather.  The other son had two sons, one of whom had no children.  The final son had two sons, so I have two second cousin Pinkhams to pass on that name.

You have to retreat to the brothers of my great-grandfather Pratt to find men with that name.  But he had five brothers.  Two had no children, but three had sons.

Likewise, Michael when he dies not only closes out Clark for three generations, but his middle name is  Berrigan, his grandmother's surname, and it is already gone.  You have to go to Michael's great-grandfather's brothers to find more Berrigans.  There were five other brothers who had children.

So all these surnames are teetering on the edge of extinction.

The Last of My Name

When I die, I will take my surname with me.  I have no children.  My father was an only son.  My paternal grandfather had one full brother who had no children.  By his first marriage my great-grandfather had four boys who all died as infants.  So it's to my great-grandfather's brothers we must turn.  John Holic born 1848 and Stefan Holic born 1856.  Both came to America, but anglicized their names as Holich or Hollich not Hollick.  So I am the last Hollick going and when I go, the name goes.

Ironically, it is the same for Michael.  He is an only son as I am.  His father was an only child.  His paternal grandfather had two brothers, Glenn who had two daughters and Chester who had three sons.  So there are Clark cousins for Michael.  (Let's assume that one of the three brothers born now 100 years ago, had a son and grandson.  But that's not for sure).

So Hollick will only last about 150 years as surname.  Anglicized from Holic say 1900 and gone with me.