Travel Blog: News and Briefs
‘The Terminal’: Limbo I Can Relate To
by Eva Holland | 01.20.09 | 3:20 PM ET
This weekend, on a long distance bus ride, I found myself watching The Terminal. (You know, the one where Tom Hanks lives in JFK for a year and makes out with Catherine Zeta-Jones?) Under ordinary circumstances, I probably would have found it sweet, if fairly forgettable—but on the bus, with snowy, nondescript Western New York sliding by, I was surprised by the way the film’s themes, about waiting and limbo, grabbed me. Airport terminals have a static in-between-ness all their own, but long bus and train rides—despite, obviously, keeping travelers in motion—can have that same quality of suspended animation, too. Being in a strange place, surrounded by strange people, dozing and eating in semi-public, I felt much less like someone watching Hanks’ character from the outside, and more like a colleague—or, well, like a fellow-traveler.
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Yahoo! BuzzWhen is Gas Station Food Better Than Restaurant Food?
by Sophia Dembling | 01.20.09 | 2:45 PM ET
Next time I go to Louisiana, I’m bringing along this article, by writer Nathan Stubbs, about great Cajun cooking in Acadiana gas stations and convenience stores. Sounds like I’ll eat a thousand times better than I did on my last trip to Louisiana, when my assignment was to sample as many Shreveport casino buffets as my digestive tract could tolerate. Any time anyone waxes envious about my glamorous travel writing life, I tell them about that trip.
The best advice I have, should you happen to find yourself dining in a Shreveport casino: Stick to the home cooking station. The next best advice: Avoid the pizza. The next next best advice: Ditto the Chinese food. The best best advice: Eat elsewhere. But you probably knew that.
Obama and the Departure Seen ‘Round the World
by Jim Benning | 01.20.09 | 1:00 PM ET
REUTERS/Mike Segar I wouldn’t have anticipated it, but for me, the most powerful moment of today’s inaugural events didn’t come during the swearing-in ceremony or President Obama’s speech. It came at the end: the moment former President Bush boarded the helicopter near the Capitol and departed, his chopper moving away from the seat of power, becoming ever smaller as it receded into the distance. We experience departures all the time, but few so symbolic for so many people around the world. What a sight. Travel as history.
The Traveler’s Guide to Barack Obama
by Michael Yessis | 01.20.09 | 8:39 AM ET
Morning Links: Obama’s Places, Poe’s 200th Birthday and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.20.09 | 8:06 AM ET
- Barack Obama’s places: Six writers on six places the new president lived.
- Another Onion gem: ‘United Flight Crew Hits up Passengers for Gas Money’
- Modern Drunkard’s bars you won’t be going back to anytime soon.
- US Airways Flight 1549: A New York tourist attraction?
- JetBlue has added a few flights between Pittsburgh and Tampa to accommodate Steelers fans flying to the Super Bowl.
- Photos: Behind the scenes of the Tube in London.
- Happy 200th birthday, Edgar Allen Poe. Here’s where to go in five cities that claim his legacy.
- What’s it worth if you’re mauled by a javelina? A Dutch tourist believes $400,000.
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World Hum’s Most Read: Jan. 10-16
by World Hum | 01.16.09 | 6:48 PM ET
iStockphoto Our five most popular feature stories for the week:
1) Eight Best Cities for Street Food (pictured)
2) The Songlines of Key West: Doing the Duval Crawl
3) With Obama as President, Will Americans Get a Warmer Reception Overseas?
4) World Hum’s Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time
5) English Everywhere
What We Loved This Week: Washington, D.C.‘s Inaugural Spirit, Dinosaurs and More
by World Hum | 01.16.09 | 6:42 PM ET
Photo by Michael Yessis. Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Michael Yessis
I spent a frigid morning in Washington, D.C., walking up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. I brought my camera and stayed warm enough to snap some shots before the masses fill the bleachers lining the street. More images to come tomorrow in a slideshow.
Jenna Schnuer
While procrastinating this week, I became obsessed with this photo gallery of close-up images of sand from the book, A Grain of Sand. From now on, shell-collecting is out. I’m toting sand home. Then I’ll just need to pick up a high-powered microscope. I guess I’ll buy the book and stick with the shells.
Roll With It
by Jenna Schnuer | 01.16.09 | 4:34 PM ET
Photo by Jenna Schnuer. “You the lady from New York?”
A loaded question if ever there was one. It’s drenched in the expectation that I’m some sort of big city snob out to prove that life outside NYC is no life at all.
But, once again, the question. This time it came in the Monroe County Marble Super Dome in Tompkinsville, Kentucky. I was there to spend four days with a group of guys who, daily, play game after game of Rolley-Hole marbles on the Super Dome’s dirt floor. With kids choosing Wii and X-Box over traditional games, Rolley-Hole probably won’t last through this century. Most of the Rolley-Hole crew has been shooting it out for 50 years or more.
President Obama’s ‘Green’ Inauguration?
by Joanna Kakissis | 01.16.09 | 1:10 PM ET
Photo by tifotter (Creative Commons). Depends on what “green”—that “it” word with the elastic definition—means. The event will no doubt leave a giant carbon footprint, since there will be lots of flying and driving to get the estimated four million people expected to attend the 44th president’s swearing-in to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20. But if green means less wasteful, then those organizing the Inauguration of Barack Obama and veep Joe Biden are taking a few thoughtful and symbolic steps. For one, Obama will be the first president in history to take the oath of office on a carpet made out of recycled material. The Inauguration committee has also recruited 6,000 volunteers to gather recycling along the National Mall and parade route, is offering electronic versions of media guides (less printing), and even plans to gather the manure from the event’s horses for a nearby farm.
Eat Like Abe Lincoln. Sort of.
by David Farley | 01.16.09 | 12:02 PM ET
Barack Obama’s taste in food has gotten a fair amount of attention in the last year: when it came out that he likes arugula, the anti-intellectuals of the country wrinkled their collective noses (and then wondered what the hell arugula was). And a just-surfaced video showed him waxing about no-frills Southern food. Then there was all the hubbub about whether or not he was going to tell White House chef, Cristeta Comerford, to go pack her knives, replacing the Filipino-born, Vienna-trained top toque of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with a big name all-organic locavore of a chef.
Now comes word that the Inauguration lunch is going to be Lincoln-themed: the 44th president has been reading the 16th president’s writings of late, and he’s even going to be sworn in on the Bible that Lincoln used at his Inauguration, so why not ape his food choices, too? But WWLE (What would Linoln eat), you ask?
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
by Sophia Dembling | 01.16.09 | 10:36 AM ET
Photo by Sophia Dembling I live in Texas and every now and then I get nostalgic for real winters. “I miss snow,” I’ll say to my husband, who grew up in Illinois and knows from snow.
And he always says the same thing: “That’s because you never had to shovel a driveway.”
Yes, OK. I grew up in a New York City apartment and now live where snow is here today, gone today. We do get it once or twice a year, but it rarely sticks more than a few hours. Snowmen in Dallas are a tragic sight, as much mud and leaves as snow. Still, hard as it may be to believe during this cold snap we’re having, I like traveling to where I can enjoy real snow. I’m no skier, but I like watching snow fall, walking in it, and sitting inside being warm on a snowy day. (I’m always game for an excuse to sit on a couch.)
The Critics: ‘Last Chance Harvey’
by Eva Holland | 01.16.09 | 10:30 AM ET
The reviews are in for Last Chance Harvey, the travel-infused romance that hits theaters today. Opinions vary on the quality of the film overall, but everyone seems to agree that the efforts from stars Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman are a rare treat.
“Just about everything works in this small and surprisingly hopeful film,” writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times, “with beautifully attenuated performances by Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, who slip into the characters Hopkins has sewn for them like an old sweater.” LA Weekly’s Aaron Hillis agrees—at least in part. “Hoffman and Thompson—despite the 20-plus years between them, and her graceful restraint in contrast to his creepy assertiveness—have a genuinely sweet chemistry,” he writes, “which is the exact and only reason to seek this one out.”
Morning Links: Glum Gladiators, ‘Nutters and Nudies’ and More
by Valerie Conners | 01.16.09 | 8:39 AM ET
- Yesterday’s incredible US Airways rescue in the Hudson River has yielded a medley of media coverage including eye-popping slideshows, surprising facts about bird strikes on planes and even a sprinkling of gallows humor.
- One New York City diner is taking the ultimate road trip to Alabama.
- Boston.com is featuring a series of stunning photos taken from NASA’s Earth Observatory website.
- Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn announced plans for the band’s third album, dubbed the “Syria Sessions” and inspired by Arabic orchestral music. The band will head to Syria to record in March.
- The backlash against Slumdog Millionaire has begun, including harsh words from one critic describing the film as “poverty porn.”
- With the number of foreign tourists to Rome down more than 12 percent from last year, the dolce vita is no more for the city’s “glum” gladiators, carriage drivers and other tourism operators.
- Vegas’s iconic topless showgirl review, “Les Folies Bergere,” is closing after entertaining oglers for 49 years.
- We previously noted Australia’s call for applicants for the “best job in the world.” Now, the video applications are rolling in, and there’s no shortage of “nutters and nudies.”
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US Airways Plane Crashes Into Hudson River
by Jim Benning | 01.15.09 | 4:07 PM ET
All 155 people on board survived. The Airbus 320 apparently had just taken off from LaGuardia when it hit one or more birds, causing engine trouble. A dramatic rescue ensued. Reports the AP: “The plane was submerged in the icy waters up to the windows, and rescue crews had opened the door and were pulling passengers in yellow life vests from the plane.”
I Resent That
by Sophia Dembling | 01.15.09 | 11:37 AM ET
“Business Week” recently ran a list of America’s Most and Least Favorite Cities, and my home town of Dallas ranked ninth least favorite. Adding insult to injury, the article says, “The top negative attributes, according to the survey, were the people—their backgrounds, talents, and perspectives (49%); environment—climate, park space, natural resources (39%); and image (38%).”
Well. Harumph.
