Travel Blog
William Wordsworth: Poet, Travel Guidebook Writer
by Jim Benning | 08.05.08 | 10:35 AM ET
Yes, the Romantic poet dabbled in guidebook writing. In 1835, he published “A Guide Through the District of the Lakes in the North of England,” the very same region where he once wandered lonely as a cloud. That’s but one of the interesting bits in Slate’s list of the 10 oddest guidebooks ever published. Why, exactly, did Wordsworth write the book? Garrison Keillor suggests he had money problems. No word on whether writing the guidebook condemned Wordsworth to eternal damnation. I’m thinking his poetry just might have saved him that fate.
Related on World Hum:
* ‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?
* Q&A With Thomas Kohnstamm: The Firestorm Around ‘Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?’
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Yahoo! BuzzUS Airways to Reward Belligerence With Free Drinks?
by Elyse Franko | 08.05.08 | 10:30 AM ET
On Friday, US Airways will begin charging customers for soft drinks, coffee and tea on domestic flights. For those who are balking at spending $2 for a Coke, do not despair—there’s a loophole, it seems. As the New York Times report suggests, all one has to do is be aggressive enough to set off a flight attendant’s peacekeeping powers. “We’re trained to keep order on an airplane and defuse confrontation,” Mike Flores, president of US Airways’ Association of Flight Attendants chapter, told the Times. “If it takes giving a free beverage to somebody to do that, so be it. I expect there will be flight attendants who just give everything away.”
Related on World Hum:
*The Nice Thing About the Barebones U.S. Airlines…
*The Long Descent: US Airways To Cut Movies On Domestic Flights
Photo by russelljsmith via Flickr. (Creative Commons)
100 Years of ‘Anne of Green Gables’: Super Fans Swarm PEI
by Valerie Conners | 08.04.08 | 4:15 PM ET
I fancied myself pretty darn literary at age 10 when the spunky exploits of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables sparked my imagination, and I hungrily read the series’ eight novels in under a year. Apparently, oodles of Anne fans more inspired than myself took that challenge further over the years, traveling to Prince Edward Island—the setting for Anne’s tales—to pay homage to the author and her characters.
The Long Descent: The $7 JetBlue Pillow, Blanket
by Valerie Conners | 08.04.08 | 3:40 PM ET
Though the airline recently tried to butter up passengers with a shockingly generous gesture of goodwill, JetBlue quickly demolished this big-hearted persona with the announcement that pillows and blankets will now be sold as $7 “eco-friendly” kits that will also include a $5 Bed Bath & Beyond coupon, according to the AP.
Related on World Hum:
* A Shocking Email From JetBlue
New Travel Book: ‘Explorers of the Infinite’
by Eva Holland | 08.04.08 | 12:57 PM ET
Author: Maria Coffey
Released: May 2008
Travel genre: Adventure travel, spiritual travel
Territory covered: The highest peaks, biggest waves, best powder, toughest trails and the paranormal
Onion Video: Are the Olympics an Elaborate Trap?
by Eva Holland | 08.04.08 | 11:59 AM ET
Since I’ll be heading to Beijing this week, my fingers are crossed that the Onion’s pundits got this one wrong:
Las Vegas Strip Going Eco-Friendly?
by Michael Yessis | 08.04.08 | 11:43 AM ET
It’s giving green a shot. More than 50 million square feet of construction built to LEED standards is planned “on and around the Las Vegas Strip, not including the 8.3 million square feet of the 7-month-old, $1.9 billion Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino, which, in May, was designated the nation’s largest LEED-certified building,” according to USA Today.
AirAsia X Says Weighing Passengers May ‘Help Aussies Lose Weight’
by Michael Yessis | 08.04.08 | 11:21 AM ET
It’s not a Derrie-Air-style joke. AirAsia X apparently is “considering charging passengers depending on their weight in a bid to fight rising fuel prices and to ‘help Aussies lose weight’,” according to News.com.au.
Where Can You Find the Most Expensive Cup of Coffee in the World?
by Eva Holland | 08.04.08 | 10:51 AM ET
And the winner is ... Moscow, where the average cup apparently costs $10.19. Forbes brings us the full list, but I have to wonder about the methodology behind the survey. Are we talking cups of joe, or are we talking venti caramel mocha frappuccinos? It was the New York City listing that got me doubting: it landed in the middle of the pack, with the average cup costing $3.75—but when was the last time you paid nearly $4 for a regular coffee from a New York City deli?
World Hum’s Most Read: July 26-Aug. 1
by World Hum | 08.01.08 | 3:01 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts for the week:
1) Seven Reasons to Have a Foreign Fling (pictured)
2) A Shocking Email From JetBlue
3) World Hum Travel Movie Club: National Lampoon’s ‘Vacation’
4) How To: Use a Squat Toilet
5) Ask Rolf: As a Woman, Can I Really Travel Without Much Fear for my Safety?
What We Loved This Week: Norway, Christian the Lion and Dancing in the World
by World Hum | 08.01.08 | 2:25 PM ET
World Hum contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Eva Holland
I’ve been fascinated by the American literary scene in 1920s Paris ever since I first read Ernest Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast” a few years back. Hemingway’s not the only one who wrote a memoir about those days, though, and this week I finally started reading Canadian author Morley Callaghan’s take: That Summer In Paris. I’m really enjoying it so far, not least for the section on Hemingway’s little-known stint in Toronto, where he first met a young Callaghan and invited him into his circle.
R.I.P. Ballooning Brazilian Priest
by Michael Yessis | 08.01.08 | 11:31 AM ET
Father Adelir Antonio de Carli was found off the Brazilian coast this week. The priest had taken flight in April via hundreds of helium-filled balloons to “help raise money for a chapel for truckers in his highway parish,” Reuters reports.
Related on World Hum:
* Lawn Chair Ballooning: Serene or Idiotic?
A380 Makes Landmark U.S. Flight Today, But ‘White Tails’ Could Still Ensue
by Jim Benning | 08.01.08 | 11:09 AM ET
An Emirates A380 is scheduled to touch down at JFK this afternoon, marking the behemoth A380’s first commercial journey to the U.S. But that doesn’t mean all is well in the airline manufacturing industry. And that leads us to our travel lexicon lesson of the day, courtesy of the New York Times. “The spreading downturn causes some analysts to wonder if aircraft makers will be left with ‘white tails’—industry slang for planes that are built without customers to accept them, leaving their tails unpainted.” It’s like the airplane equivalent of an unpainted Easter egg. That’s just wrong.
Related on World Hum:
* The Airbus A380: ‘The Mother Load’
Photo by frielp via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Disclosed: Travelers’ Laptops Can be Confiscated at U.S. Borders Without Reason
by Michael Yessis | 08.01.08 | 11:07 AM ET
The Washington Post plays the chilling story on its front page, noting that U.S. “federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing.”
Are You a ‘Travel Wanker’?
by Michael Yessis | 08.01.08 | 9:59 AM ET
Ben Groundwater explains what makes a travel wanker and what you should do about it if you are one.
