Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Man to Plead Guilty of Snooping at Passport Records of Politicians, Celebrities
by Michael Yessis | 09.16.08 | 9:03 AM ET
And he didn’t stop there. According to the Justice Department, former State Department contractor Lawrence C. Yontz also looked at the files of “athletes, actors ... musicians, game show contestants, members of the media corps, prominent business professionals, colleagues, associates, neighbors, and individuals identified in the press.”
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Teacher, Counselor, Mediator and Pastor’: Welcome to Your Flight Attendant’s World
by Valerie Conners | 09.15.08 | 3:54 PM ET
If you haven’t done so already, consider on your next flight the plight of your flight attendant. New York Times writer Michelle Higgins certainly did, ultimately going undercover as an American Airlines flight attendant. Life in the “unfriendly skies” is a far (and stressful, drama-filled) cry from the heady days of Coffee, Tea or Me? The Uninhibited Memoirs of Two Airline Stewardesses, Higgins was soon to learn.
British Airways: 30 More Airlines Could ‘Go Bust’ By Christmas
by Eva Holland | 09.15.08 | 1:56 PM ET
As thousands of stranded U.K. travelers struggle to find their way home following XL Leisure Group’s sudden collapse last week, British Airways CEO Willie Walsh predicted more of the same through the fall. “We are in the worst trading environment the industry has ever seen,” Walsh told the Independent. “We have already seen 30 or so airlines go bust this year and it would be fair to expect a similar number of casualties worldwide over the next three to four months.”
State Department Travel Advisories Now Available on Twitter
by Jim Benning | 09.15.08 | 12:32 PM ET
You go, State Department, with your shiny new Twitter account. Very handy. So what does a State Department “tweet” look like? “This Travel Warning is being issued ... to the unstable social and security situation in Bolivia.” Poetry. For those keeping score, World Hum is also representing. (Via L.A. Times)
Long Descent Be Damned: Airports Still Romantic
by Julia Ross | 09.15.08 | 11:45 AM ET
When it comes to killing time in airworld, writer Ethan Gilsdorf sees a glass half-full. “It’s the perpetual option of suddenly being somewhere distant and different from my home that makes airports seductive,” he writes in an essay for the New York Times. “I could rush up to any ticket counter and buy a last-minute fare to Oslo or Detroit. I could be like the hero of a movie, following my whim to be with the woman my destiny has foretold.”
After Ike: Flights to Houston to Resume Today
by Jim Benning | 09.15.08 | 11:23 AM ET
Southwest and JetBlue are among the airlines that will offer limited service to Houston Hobby Airport today, after Hurricane Ike swept through the area, leaving dozens dead and a path of destruction. Needless to say, travel to Houston and coastal Texas won’t return to anything resembling normal for some time.
Paul Theroux on Henry David Thoreau, Sarah Palin and Moose Hunting
by Jim Benning | 09.15.08 | 10:30 AM ET
The train-riding travel writer isn’t impressed by Sarah Palin’s moose-hunting experience. “All this talk about moose hunting! It is as though, because of the animal’s enormous size and imposing antlers, bringing one down is a heroic feat of marksmanship,” Theroux writes in an op-ed in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. “Nothing could be further from the truth. As Henry David Thoreau wrote in ‘The Maine Woods,’ killing these big, gentle, myopic creatures is more ‘like going out by night to some woodside pasture and shooting your neighbor’s horses.’”
R.I.P. David Foster Wallace*
by Jim Benning | 09.13.08 | 9:05 PM ET
Horrible news is emerging that the widely acclaimed writer committed suicide in his Claremont, California, home Friday night. Wallace is perhaps best known for the novel “Infinite Jest,” but travel lit fans also know him for his typically footnote-laden 1996 Harper’s article, “Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise”—one of modern travel writing’s sharpest and funniest stories. (We were just singing the story’s praises a few months ago, in fact.) His 1997 appearance on “Charlie Rose” is well worth a look. Wallace was 46.
World Hum’s Most Read: Sept. 6-12
by World Hum | 09.12.08 | 4:53 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts for the week:
1) How Does Sarah Palin Rank in Foreign Travel Experience?
2) Seven Reasons to Have a Foreign Fling (pictured)
3) From Mecca to the Vatican to the Kumbh Mela: Religious Tourism on the Rise
4) Visit Myanmar—That’s an Order
5) Paul Theroux: Invisible Man on a Ghost Train
Go Easy on Texas, Ike
by Jim Benning | 09.12.08 | 1:15 PM ET
The forecasts are horrific. Sophia Dembling’s essay, Traveling While Texan, should give you more than enough reasons to lay off the place.
Harrison Ford: When Good Celebrity Travel Stories Go Bad
by Jim Benning | 09.12.08 | 12:40 PM ET
You can almost hear the swearing emanating from Outside magazine’s New Mexico offices when, after scoring an interview with action hero Harrison Ford about his travels, editors finally read the transcript. Ford makes almost no sense.
U.K. Tour Operator’s Collapse Strands Thousands
by Valerie Conners | 09.12.08 | 11:29 AM ET
Nearly 90,000 British travelers have been stranded across the globe after the UK’s third largest tour operator collapsed and grounded all its planes. XL Leisure Group blamed “high fuel prices and a sagging economy” for its demise, the AP reports, noting that the Civil Aviation Authority will be making arrangements to bring affected travelers home.
Photo by sun dazed via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Singing the Praises of Belleville, Edith Piaf’s Paris
by Jim Benning | 09.12.08 | 11:20 AM ET
Many travelers know Belleville as the Paris neighborhood where they can find Pere Lachaise cemetery. I recall riding the metro out there more than a decade ago, like every other college kid with a Let’s Go, to check out the tombstones of Jim Morrison and Gertrude Stein. But what I didn’t appreciate at the time was that Belleville was also once the home of singer Edith Piaf.
Photos: ‘80s Tourists in Their Native Habitat
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.08 | 11:17 AM ET
Back in the Reagan Era, Lucian Perkins went to the most touristy place in Washington, D.C.—The National Mall—and photographed tourists. The former Washington Post photojournalist’s images are currently on display at D.C.‘s Carroll Square Gallery, and also in a fleshy and compelling online slideshow, Visitors From Another Planet.
Night at Hearst Castle to be Auctioned on eBay
by Michael Yessis | 09.11.08 | 4:03 PM ET
Photo by mbtrama, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
I’m sure the bids will be astronomical, as they should be. Hearst Castle‘s beds haven’t seen overnight visitors in 50 years, and the winner of the auction—and his or her companion—will have the run of Julia Morgan‘s hilltop masterpiece in San Simeon, California. Among the things the top bidder will be able to do: Screen a movie in William Randolph Hearst’s private theater. Of course, only one movie should top everyone’s must-watch list: Citizen Kane.
