Destination: United States
Pet Airways Begins Flights for Pampered Animals; Humans Still Out of Luck
by Alicia Imbody | 07.15.09 | 12:41 PM ET
Beginning today, Florida-based Pet Airways will fly your critters to and from New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. The new airline promises that pets will be constantly attended to and treated as first-class “pawsengers,” with rates for one-way flights—for Fido only; you’ll have to book on a regular carrier—starting at $149. Representatives are confident that the high prices are well worth it, offering peace of mind against the “severe emotional and physical harm, even death” that can befall your pet traveling in the cargo hold on human-centric flights.
The airline has even started a blog featuring everything from the latest in-flight pet news to expert tips on keeping fit with your dog on the road.
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Yahoo! BuzzPedaling Through New York’s Neighborhoods
by Eva Holland | 07.15.09 | 9:47 AM ET
Good news for travelers on two wheels: New York City’s planning department has launched a series of cycling guides to lesser-visited areas of the five boroughs. The Times’ J. David Goodman took the first installment, “Queens Around the World,” for a test drive, and apart from a few logistical hitches he gives it a positive review. He wrote of his trip through Flushing, Corona and Jackson Heights: “Cruising this route by bike reveals how each community bleeds into the next, and does so at a speed that is quick enough to show the juxtapositions, but not so fast that each is lost in a blur.”
A guide to the Bronx is due out next.
Coney Island: ‘It’s Not Dead Yet’
by Eva Holland | 07.13.09 | 4:07 PM ET
The New York Times thinks it’s about time for City Council “to stop the long, slow, perpetual dying of Coney Island”—and, as noted in this editorial, there’s a proposal in the works that could do just that. Hear, hear.
Site to Watch: Open Sound New Orleans
by Michael Yessis | 07.13.09 | 3:31 PM ET
It’s a soundmap of New Orleans. The directors of the project, Heather Booth and Jacob Brancasi, aim “to make more accessible the authentic, unedited sounds and voices of New Orleans. Sharing the sounds of our city as we hear them, move through them, and create them, is an act of celebration.”
Booth and Brancasi spoke about their project and shared a few sounds yesterday on NPR’s Weekend Edition.
U.S. Senate Encourages Domestic Travel to Canada
by Alicia Imbody | 07.13.09 | 2:55 PM ET
Screenshot of the Environment Of Public Works website The Washington Post embarrassingly revealed how the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee recently tried to promote domestic summer travel to the Rockies on its website, using a picture of Lake Louise—which happens to be located in Canada. When the Post questioned committee members about the contradictory image, both parties denied a deliberate attempt to promote foreign travel, pointing fingers and ultimately admitting to using a hasty “placeholder” photo, which has since been removed.
This is in no way related to past examples of the U.S. attempting to annex Canada for strictly promotional purposes.
Give Some Time, Get Some Free Travel
by Alicia Imbody | 07.09.09 | 11:46 AM ET
A new promotion from Sage Hospitality encourages travelers to “give a day” of service and “get a night” back, via a free hotel stay or 50 percent off the rate at 52 hotels across the U.S.
Programs like these show potential to encourage public service in exchange for travel perks, especially among folks with more spare time right now than spare change. There’s no obligation to stay additional nights. Just complete eight documented hours with a registered 501(c)3 non profit organization. Extra (karma) points if you work for a green cause to help offset the environmental impact of your trip.
John Cheever: Summer Vacation, 1954
by Eva Holland | 07.08.09 | 1:29 PM ET
The Book Bench bloggers spent last week looking back at some favorite New Yorker fiction of summer vacations past. All their selections are worthy, but this excerpt from John Cheever’s “The Day the Pig Fell Into the Well” really resonated with me. Here’s a quick teaser:
In the summer, when the Nudd family gathered at Whitebeach Camp, in the Adirondacks, there was always a night when one of them would ask, “Remember the day the pig fell into the well?” ... The perfect days—and there had been hundreds of them—seemed to have passed into their consciousness without a memory, and they returned to this chronicle of small disasters as if it were the genesis of summer.
New Border Wall Going Up Between Mexico, U.S.A.
by Eva Holland | 07.07.09 | 2:31 PM ET
This time, according to The Onion, it’s the Mexican government that’s building a wall, and the move is going ahead despite fears for the tiny guitar, novelty sombrero and three-foot tall plastic margarita cup industries. Get all the details in this (sub-titled) video report:
America on Film: ‘50 Movies for 50 States’
by Eva Holland | 07.07.09 | 12:47 PM ET
Here’s one more leftover tidbit from the just-past holiday weekend: the film fanatics over at Rotten Tomatoes have put together a list of 50 movies for 50 states, in which each selection “features something special about the geography, history, or people of a particular state.”
Some picks are obvious (“Rocky” for Pennsylvania, “Oklahoma!” for Oklahoma) while others link movies and places that I never realized were connected (who knew “Fight Club” was set in Delaware?), but all contribute to a compelling whole. If you’re skeptical about a pick, chances are the description will convince you. Here’s a sample, justifying “Napoleon Dynamite” as the Idaho pick:
Have We Entered the Era of the ‘Roadcast’?
by Michael Yessis | 07.07.09 | 9:57 AM ET
Mark Vanhoenacker argues that we have. What’s a roadcast? It’s “a podcast that has particular qualities of randomness and reflection; they’re fascinating and thought-provoking but not news-focused or educational,” he writes in the Christian Science Monitor. “Like the tape deck itself, or the cup holder, roadcasts manage to revolutionize the road trip while also being right in tune with its sensibilities.”
Do these types of podcasts “revolutionize the road trip”? Not quite. Are they intriguing? Sure.
Some of Vanhoenacker’s examples of good roadcasts: Philosophy Bites, In Our Time and the New Yorker’s fiction podcast.
Vanhoenacker goes on to say he believes that roadcasts fill in “some gaps in the road trip experience.” He writes:
AIDS Levy for Air Travelers?
by Eva Holland | 07.06.09 | 11:07 AM ET
There’s a proposal in the works to add a special tax, marked for efforts to fight AIDS in developing countries, to all flight purchases in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany. A similar tax has been in place in France for three years and has raised nearly $1 billion. The Financial Times has the details on what the plan might look like.
Gay Talese Takes the Circle Line
by Michael Yessis | 07.06.09 | 9:57 AM ET
The New Journalism pioneer overcame his aversion to water—“In some 50 years as a writer, I do not recall ever proposing a story that would likely lead to getting my feet wet,” he writes—and joined the tourists for a circumnavigation of Manhattan on the Circle Line.
Talese is still on his game. It’s a terrific story, with a terrific audio slideshow.
Travel, Politics and the U.S. Flag
by Michael Yessis | 07.02.09 | 1:29 PM ET
Timothy Egan has noticed something during his recent travels in the U.S.: “a surfeit of American flags.” In his story in the New York Times, he takes a shot at explaining the abundance of Stars and Stripes.
For a look at how the flag flies outside the U.S., check out our American Flag in a Shrinking Planet slideshow.
American Flag in a Shrinking Planet
by World Hum | 07.02.09 | 12:39 PM ET
Images of the the Stars and Stripes around the world.
See the full photo slideshow »
Photo We Love: The Glass Ledge at Chicago’s Sears Tower
by World Hum | 07.02.09 | 12:05 PM ET
REUTERS/Frank Polich Kids stand on just-opened Skydeck Ledge on the 103rd floor of Chicago’s Sears Tower.