Travel Blog: News and Briefs
The ‘Bedbug Epidemic’: Real or Media Generated?
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.26.08 | 12:21 PM ET
“[I]t’s like they’re all rooting for the bedbugs.” That’s how Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, describes the reporters he’d spoken with about the so-called epidemic. There’s so much to love about the hideous bloodsuckers, the Washington Post reports, especially if you’re a trend-hungry newspaper reporter looking for a story.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzHigh-Speed Train From Southern California to Las Vegas ‘Picking up Steam’
by Michael Yessis | 02.26.08 | 10:13 AM ET
The plans for a high-speed link between Los Angeles to San Francisco make more sense to me. Alas, they’re stalled. So are the plans for a Disneyland to Las Vegas MagLev train. That has given an opening to the DesertXpress, a privately funded high-speed project that seeks to connect Las Vegas with Victorville, California, perhaps best known as the place where, when you’re driving from Los Angeles to Sin City, you can stop off for a Double-Double at In-N-Out.
Is Max Gogarty the New Kellie Pickler?
by Eva Holland | 02.25.08 | 2:23 PM ET
Well, there may not be a video going around for this one, but a major travel blogging scandal is generating plenty of attention. The chronology, so far as I can tell, goes like this:
Tokyo Foodies to Michelin: ‘You Still do Not Know us or Our Cuisine’
by Michael Yessis | 02.25.08 | 11:47 AM ET
All those stars Michelin awarded Tokyo restaurants are impressing many, but not a core group of prominent Tokyo chefs and critics. “Japanese food was created here, and only Japanese know it,” chef Toshiya Kadowaki told the New York Times. “How can a bunch of foreigners show up and tell us what is good or bad?”
Are Empty Oxygen Tanks to Blame in Passenger’s Death?*
by Jim Benning | 02.25.08 | 11:36 AM ET
That’s the suggestion in a troubling story about the death of a 44-year-old woman suffering from heart disease aboard an American Airlines flight Friday.
* Update, 3:30 p.m. ET: American has issued a statement denying oxygen was not administered: “We are investigating this incident, as we do with all serious medical situations on board our aircraft, but American Airlines can say oxygen was administered and the Automatic External Defibrillator was applied.”
World Hum’s Most Read: Feb. 16-22
by World Hum | 02.22.08 | 5:23 PM ET
Our five most popular features and blog posts this week:
1) One Man’s Odyssey into ‘Eat, Pray, Love’
2) Starbucks vs. the Traveler
3) Traveling While Texan
4) ‘Eat, Pray, Loathe’? More Reconsiderations of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Travel Memoir, ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’
5) 10 Sizzling Hot Travel Tips From Sir Francis Bacon (pictured)
The JT LeRoy Saga: What’s He/She Doing Now?
by Michael Yessis | 02.22.08 | 2:36 PM ET
More than two years after Laura Albert was outed as the person behind novelist and sometime travel writer JT LeRoy, the Los Angeles Weekly’s Nancy Rommelmann caught up with her in San Francisco. It’s a fascinating story, though a long one—more than 7,400 words.
State Department Issues Serbia Travel Alert
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.22.08 | 1:25 PM ET
The U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert for Serbia until March 6 following violent demonstrations in the country over Kosovo’s declaration of independence. In rioting in Belgrade Thursday, the U.S. and Croatian embassies were torched—that’s the U.S. embassy burning in the photo—as were many Western businesses. At least one person, a protester, has died. The U.S., UN and the European Union have decried what they view as the Serbian authorities’ weak response to the unrest.
Hey, Let’s Turn Gitmo Into a Cruise Ship Terminal!
by Jim Benning | 02.22.08 | 1:03 PM ET
Photo by lyng883 via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
You have to love all the rampant speculation and wild ideas floating around about Cuba tourism following news of Fidel Castro’s resignation this week. Take this USA Today report that “Cruise lines are ready to pounce on Cuba.” Um, is there any sector of the U.S. travel industry that hasn’t been ready to “pounce on Cuba” for decades? It drew a number of comments, including one from someone claiming to be a former security officer at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
2007 Travel Movie Awards: Entirely Arbitrary and Non-Comprehensive Picks
by Eva Holland | 02.22.08 | 12:00 PM ET
Did Pilots Fall Asleep? FAA Opens Investigation of go! Flight 1002.
by Michael Yessis | 02.21.08 | 12:24 PM ET
The go! flight from Honolulu to Hilo last week overshot the airport by 15 miles, then backtracked and landed safely. The Federal Aviation Administration—and presumably everyone else who flies—wants to know how it could have happened. Anderson Cooper has an interesting theory: It’s all about the exclamation mark in go! airlines.
AVE High-Speed Train Links Barcelona, Madrid
by Michael Yessis | 02.21.08 | 10:31 AM ET
Service between two of Spain’s biggest and most-traveled cities opened yesterday, with the first train completing the 342-mile journey to Madrid in 2 hours, 35 minutes. The BBC and others have the story, and the Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal blog breaks the train down by the numbers.
Princeton Makes ‘Gap Year’ Official
by Julia Ross | 02.21.08 | 8:35 AM ET
I’ve always been a little jealous of the Brits on account of the gap year. To take an officially sanctioned pre-college year to travel, volunteer, or study language seems to me a wonderful start to adulthood. Administrators at Princeton University apparently think so, too: They’ve just announced they plan to launch a “gap year” program (they call it “bridge year”) for up to 10 percent of incoming freshman students, who will spend a year abroad performing social service work. The program is the first of its kind in the U.S., and Princeton says it will not charge tuition for the year.
Hotel Concierge: ‘There Are Definitely Days When I Want to Hide Behind the Desk’
by Michael Yessis | 02.20.08 | 10:17 AM ET
Photo by Elsie esq., via Flickr (Creative Commons)
I would, too, if I had to deal with the “shamelessness” of the guest requests chronicled in this W story. Among them: Tending to a guest’s elderly relative, shopping for a double-decker bus and, strangest of all, securing breast milk.
CAMRA Names Britain’s Best Pub
by Eva Holland | 02.19.08 | 4:24 PM ET
Britain’s Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has announced the results of its annual hunt for the best pub in Britain, and the winner, the Times of London notes dryly, came out on top “despite having no juke box, pool table, fruit machine or ‘theme.’”
