Travel Blog
What’s up With the ‘Open Letter to All Airline Customers’?
by Jim Benning | 07.10.08 | 3:32 PM ET
Like many travelers, I received the “open letter” today from the airlines. Mine happened to come from United, but a dozen airlines have endorsed it. They’re asking customers to complain to Congress about oil speculation. So what’s the story? The Politico declares via CBS News that “Airlines are trying to divert their frequent flyers’ fury to a new villain: oil speculators.” Christopher Elliott offers his own translation. Among the highlights: “High fuel costs are going to push half of us into bankruptcy. We need you to bail us out.” (Via USA Today and Jaunted)
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Yahoo! BuzzThe New Yorker on Summer Reading
by Eva Holland | 07.10.08 | 1:17 PM ET
The New Yorker’s Book Bench bloggers offer some entertaining thoughts on how to choose a reading list for the summer reading season. Jenna Krajeski observes that “a lazy place necessitates its own reading list”—and for her, that means a lake in Maine and a copy of Harry Potter.
British Couple Arrested for Having Sex on Beach in Dubai
by Jim Benning | 07.10.08 | 11:42 AM ET
Contributor Elyse Franko recently wrote that Dubai is “the place where kids can be kids and dads can indulge their midlife crises.” But apparently it’s not the place where a couple of Brits can have sex on the beach and not get arrested.
Video: Tony Perrottet on the Hunt for Napoleon’s Penis in New Jersey
by Jim Benning | 07.10.08 | 11:20 AM ET
World Hum contributor and “Napoleon’s Privates” author Tony Perrottet just spoke to World Hum about his new book. In this video, he tracks down the traveling relic in New Jersey, of all places:
The New Acropolis Museum: Ready to Take on the British Museum?
by Eva Holland | 07.10.08 | 10:15 AM ET
There’s a new museum opening in Athens this year, but as the Times of London’s Mark Hodson writes, it’s not just another tourist attraction: It’s also “the latest gambit in a 200-year campaign for the return of the Elgin Marbles,” currently housed in the British Museum.
Does Creme Brulee Qualify as a Global Treasure? UNESCO Says No.
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.09.08 | 3:50 PM ET
UNESCO just inscribed 27 new sites to its World Heritage List— the usual mix of archaeological, architectural, ecclesiastical and ecological places. French cuisine didn’t make the cut, despite a campaign led by President Nicolas Sarkozy to enshrine it. Did the coq au vin fail to inspire?
Q&A with David Farley: The Restless Legs Reading Series
by Jim Benning | 07.09.08 | 12:10 PM ET
World Hum contributing editor David Farley recently announced the creation of the Restless Legs reading series in New York City, which will be devoted to travel writing. Farley knows just about every travel writer who passes through town, so he would seem the right person for the task. The first reading, which will feature travel writers Tony Perrottet and Cullen Thomas, is scheduled for Wednesday, July 23 at Lolita bar on the Lower East Side. I asked Farley a few questions about the series.
World Hum: How’d this come about?
‘Dancing’ Matt Harding: The Commercial Angle Remains ‘a Bit of a Mystery’
by Michael Yessis | 07.09.08 | 12:07 PM ET
Advertising Age takes a look at the Matt Harding “Dancing” phenomenon through the lens of the video’s sponsor, Stride gum. As the New York Times noted the other day, “in this era of shameless commercial tie-ins, Mr. Harding is not obliged to wear a Stride T-shirt or deliver a little pitch for the product. Exactly what connection the company sees between gum and a guy dancing, but not chewing, remains a bit of a mystery.”
The Long Descent: US Airways to Cut Movies on Domestic Flights
by Michael Yessis | 07.09.08 | 11:47 AM ET
The airline says few people are wiling to shell out $5 for headsets anymore. No surprise there. Eliminating in-flight movies will save the airline $10 million a year. Among the reasons why: Just removing the player systems, which, according to Bloomberg News, weigh about 500 pounds, will help save fuel. (via Today in the Sky)
Related on World Hum:
* The Long Descent: US Airways to Charge $2 for Soft Drinks
Youngtown: Neil Young’s Hometown Gets Its Own Rock Museum
by Eva Holland | 07.09.08 | 10:29 AM ET
It’s been a busy season for rock ‘n’ roll museum openings. First we noted the debut of the Woodstock Museum, and now the National Post brings us this article about the new Youngtown Rock & Roll Museum in Omemee, Ontario—Neil Young’s childhood home. Omemee is about 80 miles northeast of Toronto, and it helped to inspire the “town in north Ontario / with dream comfort memory to spare” that Young sings about in “Helpless.” Here’s video, also featuring The Band and Joni Mitchell:
FDA Slaps Warning on Cipro
by Elyse Franko | 07.09.08 | 10:25 AM ET
This goes for all of you who rely on Cipro to eradicate the nasty stomach bugs you pick up from undercooked meat in foreign countries: The Food and Drug Administration has ordered drug companies to add a black-box warning, the agency’s strongest warning, to Cipro and other antibiotics due to risk of tendonitis and tendon rupture. If you want the basics in language that you might actually understand, read the report at CNN.
Related On World Hum:
* Tall, Short Passengers at Greater Risk for Thrombosis
Photo by blmurch via Flickr, (Creative Commons)
A Danish Isle Weans Itself From Fossil Fuels—and Flourishes
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.09.08 | 9:33 AM ET
New Travel Book: ‘A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean’
by Elyse Franko | 07.08.08 | 5:15 PM ET
Full title: “A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean: A Grump in Paradise Discovers that Anyplace it’s Legal to Carry a Machete is Comedy Just Waiting to Happen”
Author: Gary Buslik
Released: June 2008
Travel genre: Bad-natured travel, island travel
Territory covered: The Caribbean
Spam Conquers the World (Sort of)
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.08.08 | 11:48 AM ET
Spamburgers, Spam tacos and Spambalaya—the canned pork loaf everyone loves to hate is leaving its indelible taste on dishes around the globe. In Spam-loving Hawaii, Japanese-American chef Muriel Miura has a new cookbook, “Hawaii Cooks With Spam,” which offers recipes for Spam sushi, Spam pancit and Korean rice with Spam. Um, yum? If yes, then try Spam in ratatouille pie, curried rice, lasagna and even Heidelberg casserole.
The Old West’s ‘Non-Renewable Resources’ In Peril
by Eva Holland | 07.08.08 | 10:47 AM ET
When it comes to the preservation of historic landmarks, it’s often “the grand, the notable and the notorious” that get the attention—but sometimes it’s the structures built for everyday use that tell us the most about history, the AP observes. According to this story, in places like Utah and Colorado, it’s those everyday buildings—the remnants of early frontier settlements—that are slowly disappearing. “You could tell this was a place where they were doing everything they could to make it,” one archaeologist said of a historic homestead near Salt Lake City. “That’s the story of the American West for me right there.”
