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Greetings, Quotaholics:
I am not really a seasoned traveler, but I have flown in everything from
a small bump-your-head-on-the-ceiling plane to a huge beast for a trans
Atlantic flight. The planes I have flown in have been locally owned and
operated or Irish owned and operated. I’m not familiar with any other
airlines.
My husband traveled for business for many years and he is a seasoned traveler,
although he hasn’t flown outside the Americas. For years he flew somewhere
around the country at least three round trips per month.
The airlines have had problems over the years. Some do better than others
in keeping their customer base happy so they continue to use them as their
carrier of preference. Chicago based United Airlines has had its share
of problems. According to Los
Angeles Times.com the airline is trying to reverse the downturn of
the last several years.
At the moment, United is working on giving their planes a face lift. Planes
enter a large hanger and are stripped to the metal seat frames. They are
tearing out the black with red stripes décor, called "tequila
sunrise," and replacing it with soft blue.
It takes four days for mechanics to strip and replace the inside of a
large plane such as an Airbus A320. They get the old colors out and replace
overhead bins where needed. The first class cabin is overhauled and new
leather seats are installed throughout. Every plane in the fleet is to
be refitted and any reminders of Ted branding, now no longer associated
with United, is removed. But … as they say in the commercials, there’s
more.
They are also revamping, upgrading, and sprucing up the Red Carpet Clubs
and gate areas. John Tague, United’s president wants the company back
to the old standard of what was once expected of a top airline like United
used to be.
Between bashings on You Tube and in the Onion, the company’s reputation
has been tarnished. Of course, without some basis in reality, those outlets
wouldn’t have been able to cause any disruptions. United, like all airlines,
suffered after the September 11 attacks. They have had issues with SARS,
oil prices, and the current economic patterns.
They have also had internal problems with workers sullen and disenchanted
with pay and pensions lost during a three-year bankruptcy. Mother Nature,
always helpful, has also added to their woes by having storms hit in Chicago
and Denver, damaging two of their central hubs.
Some customers say they don’t care how pretty the planes are, what they
are looking for is service and unless the staff changes attitudes to something
marginally helpful, none of the décor will matter.
Back in May of 2008, the leadership at United Airlines decided to make
a concerted effort to turn the company around. They put Tague in charge
and he listed some goals: run on time, have clean planes and courteous
employees, and work to keep costs in check.
United has worked diligently to get planes flying on time. They have increased
the staffing to help turnover planes and have allotted a more accurate
time interval to offload and load passengers. In 2007, United was 19th
out of 20 major US carriers as ranked for timeliness. For the first nine
months of 2009, they moved up to second place. Being on time also decreased
the amount of lost luggage, gave cleaning crews enough time to set the
plane for the next flight, and there were far fewer people missing their
connections.
How often do you fly? What do you base your choice of airlines on? Do
you care about reputation? Do you worry about décor? Does a bad
experience on a flight make you stay away from the airline during your
next trip? How much does cost factor into your choice?
Do you care about the number of layovers? The time allotted between flights
can make the trip either very long (long layovers) or very nerve-wracking
(short layovers with an even slightly delayed flight). Does your choice
of carrier have anything to do with the time spent in airports between
flights? Has your luggage ever been lost and if so, did the airline handle
the inconvenience to your satisfaction?
Are you flying "home" for the holiday? As one airline said,
"You are now free to move about the country" and we can probably
include the world.
Airborne,
P.S.
I wanted to let everyone know that we will be taking the day off Friday
to recover from too much turkey and dressing. Happy Thanksgiving
everyone. See you again on Monday!
Comment
On This Article
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“The relationship between truth and a newspaper is like the relationship
between the color green and the number seven. Occasionally you will
see the number seven written in green, but you learn not to expect this.”
– Garrison Keillor
In a letter to Rupert Murdoch when she refused to take advertising space
in the New York Post – “Your readers are my shoplifters.” – Betsy Bloomingdale
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Puddle
[Thanks Bonnie]
A man traveling
down a country road was forced to stop before a giant puddle covering
the entire road. Looking to the side of the road, the man noticed
a farmer leaning on a fence. “Think it’s safe to cross?” the man asked.
“I reckon so,” replied the farmer. The car was immediately swallowed
by the puddle as the man drove in. In fact, it was so deep that he
had to roll his window down to swim out of his car back to the surface.
As his head broke the surface the man said to the farmer, “I thought
you said I could safely drive through this puddle!”
“Well, shoot!” said the farmer, scratching his head. “It only come
up chest-high on my little ducks!”
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“Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise
man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.”
“He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that
dare not is a slave.”
“Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer
in his lifetime for the good of the community.” - All from British-born
industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie born on this date in
1835
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Cool
Wood Pile
[Thanks Cliff]
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Speak right up!
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Energy
It takes energy, in one form or another, for almost everything
on the planet. Whether it is potential energy of the rock sitting
on the ground adding pressure to the substrate below, or the kinetic
energy of the birds flapping their wings to maintain their flight,
energy is all around us.
Energy is wasted. I’m not talking about mistimed traffic lights
that cause a multitude of drivers to sit motionless while their
cars continue to run. Nor am I talking about the power of the
sun’s rays falling on the bare soil doing no more than heating
it up. I’m talking about kids. Feed them in the morning and they
seem to have enough energy to power a small power plant until
snack time when the process is renewed.
For a "weekend rendezvous", I volunteered to watch my
4 granddaughters for an entire weekend. (We will discuss the wisdom
of this at another time.) Ages 14, 10, 6 and almost 2, their energy
levels vary. The youngest is constantly going. She is the busiest
of the bunch, and I have to do the "no, don’t touch that"
thing as regularly as a traffic light.
The 6-year-old isn’t much different as far as energy levels are
concerned. The difference is that I don’t have to remind her as
often about what to do or not to do. The one that is 10 is much
easier to deal with. The only thing I have to do about her is
keep her from fussing with the other 3. The one that’s 14 is actually
an assistant. Except for the occasional interdiction to mediate,
she is fairly autonomous or helps deal with the younger three.
Even with the help, and most of the energy expended in non-physical
ways, the whole process is quite draining. It seems, at my age,
less energy is derived from sustenance than takes place with children.
Given smaller portions, children seem to be able to sensitize
every erg of energy from every molecule. Even with portions 7
or 8 times as large, I am only able to absorb only 10% of the
energy, or less, from what it contains. As a non-scientific comparison,
the baby gets 200 energy units from a couple spoonfuls of cereal.
However, an oversized bowl of the same cereal that is heaping
and overflowing only garners me 15 energy units. Or so it seems.
King
Herod had the right idea about rounding up all the children. He
got it wrong about what to do with them. Had he simply harnessed
them together, he would have had enough energy to have created
wonders of the ancient world so grand, they would have far surpassed
those tiny pyramids in Egypt.
Here’s your quiz:
What do you do to maintain your energy level?
Can you keep up with those around you?
Do you believe the supply of energy is wasted on the youth?
Energy - A Disproportionate Ability To Maintain Activity Levels
As One Ages
Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature
pic’) 
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Kirsten
is still out. Here’s another archive article.
Email
Kirsten
I
call them the UberMoms. They are the mothers that other moms love
to hate. They look like supermodels two days after giving birth, unlike
the rest of us, who are still struggling with baby weight when our
kids are well into toddlerhood. The UberMoms probably wake up several
times a night just like the rest of us, but they never look tired.
They are immaculately dressed in real clothing instead of old sweats.
Their makeup and nails are always perfectly done, and not a single
hair is out of place. They never get spit-up on their clothes or hair,
and their babies never pee on them during diaper changes. Their idea
of a messy house is two pieces of Lego on the living room carpet.
Their kids always eat what they are given at mealtimes, they are fully
potty-trained by the time they are two, and they walk demurely beside
their parents in grocery stores instead of running up and down the
aisles like Barbarians, playing "Toss The Merchandise".
The UberMoms read
the same advice as everyone else regarding kids and television. But
where I have, on a number of occasions, plunked one of my kids down
in front of a Baby Einstein video just so I could unpack the dishwasher
in peace or use the bathroom without an audience, the UberMoms somehow
manage to shepherd their charges all the way to the age of two without
exposing them to a single minute of television.
According to research,
children younger than two should not be allowed to watch any TV at
all, and children aged two and over should not be allowed to watch
more than one or two hours of carefully selected programming. Children
who watch more than that are about 30% more likely than other children
to develop ADHD. Further studies link frequent TV and computer time
with delayed language abilities, particularly in boys.
It cannot be denied
that excessive TV comes with a host of potential problems. Time that
a child spends watching TV is time that he is not spending in social
interaction with his family. He reads fewer books and takes a longer
time to master such basics as grammar and spelling. And because he’s
watching TV instead of running around playing, he is more likely to
be overweight and unfit.
Unfortunately,
though, TV is such an integral part of modern society that it is difficult
to stay away from it. We seem to have become addicted to the sensory
inputs provided by TV, and like it or not, the images shown are a
great way to keep a child occupied for a little while. Is it realistic
to expect a frazzled, sleep-deprived mother to enforce a complete
ban on TV for her kids younger than two? I know that there are mothers
who achieve that, but they seem to be the same mothers who never allow
their kids to get dirty or run too fast.
The answer, I
believe, lies in moderation. I do not believe that televisions should
replace interaction with actual, three-dimensional people. Sadly,
there are parents who have no compunction in letting their kids watch
as much TV as they want - and they are doing their kids a disservice.
But at the same time, I do not think it is worth the energy to impose
a total ban. Children - even very young children - tend to be attracted
to things they are forbidden to do. When I have the TV on, both of
my kids will watch for a few minutes, but invariably they get bored
with it and wander off to do something else. If the TV time is limited
to brief periods of developmentally-appropriate content, and if it
is balanced by interaction and physical activity, I honestly do not
see the harm in it.
Kaleidoscopically
yours,
Kirsten
Comment
On This Article
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I love my job. Do you want to know what I love most about my job?
Well, after days like this, it’s going home.
A while back I asked you what kind of national ID number you have.
In the US, we have our Social Security Number. Canada has their Social
Insurance number. China has a national ID number. The reason I asked
for this information is because when we create accounts like for my
web page and for e-mail, we use part of this number to confirm the
student is who they say they are. It has to be a number they would
know, but other people wouldn’t.
I tried to explain this to the person running our IAA programs. She
was only entering their name when she was registering students. I
told her we needed a SSN and date of birth. She said Chinese students
don’t have SSNs. I told her to use their national ID number. She continued
entering only their names. Now she has students that can’t log on,
so she e-mailed the person in Academic Computing that handles accounts.
That person told her to e-mail me at my web site e-mail address. Pretty
simple, right?
Not for this moron. Instead of e-mailing me, she e-mailed the head
of her department. He e-mailed my boss, then my boss forwarded the
e-mail to me. All this forwarding took about a week, but if she had
e-mailed me directly, she would have had her problem solved that day.
Apparently she has a real problem following instructions, so I made
it a point to let her know she wouldn’t be having this problem if
she had followed my earlier instructions. I also told her the person
she said didn’t have a SSN actually did, and the other person that
didn’t have a SSN I e-mailed with instructions on how to log in.
I sent that e-mail to the student’s College e-mail address. She can’t
check that e-mail unless she knows her SSN. Sometimes when you’re
dealing with someone as stupid as this person, you just have to fix
things so they really aren’t fixed. Perhaps she’ll listen to me next
time.
Tim a’Musing
Having a Ball with Yarns
E-mail Dear Tim
Comment
on this article
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Miscellaneous Tips
Don’t throw out all that leftover wine: Freeze into ice cubes for
future use in casseroles and sauces.
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Good ones. Thanks!
Next opening line…
I decided to visit the zoo…
Hints:
Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool. http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules. http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm
Submit
Opening Line
Submit
Limerick
I
went to sit down in my chair
Noticed someone already there
A pampered black cat
Gave me a look that
said, "What, sit down here? Don’t you dare!" - Maria
in Illinois |
I
went down to sit in my chair—
and felt something strange under there—
it felt really soft
unlike hay in a loft
it was someone’s brand-new underwear. - Cassandra in New York |
I went to
sit down in my chair…..
My wife said, "That’s not fair…..
" ‘Cause I have to cook…..
"And you’re reading a book!!??"…..
Then she pulled out most of my hair. - Skeeter
|
I went to
sit down in my chair…..
Knowing full well that while there…..
I’d soon take a nap…..
With the book in my lap…..
And at the back of my eyelids I’d stare. - Skeeter |
I went to
sit down in my chair
But I couldn’t find it anywhere
I looked and I looked
And soon found it booked
With my husband’s ass sitting there. - Bonnie |
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Re: Juvenile Justice
The Birdman of Alcatraz,
Robert Stroud, was still 18 when he killed a bartender who beat the
living crap out of Stroud’s girlfriend. He was found guilty
of manslaughter and given the maximum sentence of 12 years, rather
than the 2-3 years he expected. He was shipped from Alaska to Kansas.
His
brother came to visit and it was a Sunday, so the guards wouldn’t
let him see the prisoner and then taunted Stroud. He lost his cool
and killed the guard. He was then sentenced to death and it was finally
commuted to life in prison. He was shipped from Kansas to Alcatraz
to finish out imprisonment. He spent a little more than 54 years in
prison before he died on November 21, 1963.
Stroud knew what he had done, initially, was wrong and had turned
himself in. The prison system didn’t do anything to rehabilitate
him and actually had a few people who were irritated by his birds
and his ability to actually write books. Leavenworth, Kansas was more
progressive. Alcatraz, not so much. – Patti, still loving history
Of course,
kids should be treated like adults, but not until adults are treated
more fairly. The cops can make people admit to things they never did
by using tactics designed to do just that. Prison conditions are deplorable,
and are designed to make people hostile and desparate when they do
get out. Life without parole is also stupid, because it removes any
insentive to behave well and try to improve. Yes, there are crimes
that are so bad we never want the people who commit them to walk free
among us. Most criminals are victims of their of their own bad judgment.
We, as a society, should focus on rehabilitation for criminals, and
education for kids who might feel isolated from the community so that
they are more likely to feel they have nothing to lose by becoming
criminals. - Lucille
There are a number
of issues around the question of giving youths long jail sentences.
In the U.S. you have to fight the businessmen who profit from maintaining
prisoners, and do what they can to increase business. As Mike points
out, younger offenders were traditionally considered more likely to
change their ways. Brazil is still extremely lenient with them, except
for the death squads they also tolerate. We now have much better tests
to detect psychopaths and others likely to continue in a life of crime,
which I’d be eager to pursue if there were a single religion that
considered anyone beyond redemption on earth. I’d expect the sages
to have noticed if some folks never changed, but some of them may
have "flipped" into sainthood, or seen it happen themselves.
So, why not try something more like the Mexican prison system, where
inmates are just confined to certain communities, with visitors allowed.
It keeps the general population safe, costs nothing, and lets the
prisoners have some control over their lives with opportunities to
learn. We might also let them out for various periods, with visible
electronic tracking devices on. The prison communities are expected
to be self-supporting, which is good for all concerned. Weeding is
a therapeutic activity for those at the bottom of our pecking order.
If people are persistently prone to violence or deception, it seems
best for them to be wary of the same in a community of like minded
folks. - Bob of the North
Before
movies made FOR teenagers providing violent and gruesome acts, before
Game Boy that grew from fun to let’s-play-virtual-reality-games, before
parents thought of their four year olds as mature enough to make adult
decisions, Juveniles WERE kids. Are they today? The only thing still
Kid Like about teens is their sense of invulnerability. When any 14
year old girl thinks she won’t get pregnant when she engages in sex,
when it’s easy to "score" drugs and access alcohol, when
half a kid’s life is soaked in violence, what else can one expect
them to learn and copy? As far back as the 1960’s psychologists were
split about the effects of kids watching 3 Stooges movies. In our
own house, I had one son who DID copy those slapstick antics. Thankfully,
he learned it was not acceptable behavior in Real Life.
And we all know one can’t turn the clock back to before all this happened,
so how do we expect to correct these kids in ANY lock-up situation?
Maybe long term sentences aren’t a bad idea, as long as the kids can
be kept in an institution apart from repeat adult offenders, where
education includes courses on a person’s responsibility and social
behavior, plus development of skills that are productive. Maybe a
structured situation that tells a kid NO ( some for the first time
ever) they can actually develop and learn. I think we know now that
saying No and placing limits appropriate to a child’s age and knowledge
will not injure a kid’s "Id". - Nancy L in Ohio
Re:
Drivers
I’ve noticed a
big change in drivers since I started driving in 1969. I was 25 before
I got my first drivers license and I learned to drive in St. Louis.
When I moved to Springfield, MO, it scared me to drive down here.
You could be driving out on I-44 or a Highway 13 and have some farmer
pull right out in front of you while you were going 60-70 miles per
hour.
In St. Louis, there were what was called "merge" lanes whereby
when you wanted to make a left to merge into oncoming traffic, you
had the time and space to speed up to match traffic speed. In Springfield,
there are no merge lanes, only yield lanes which means that 99.9%
of the time one has to stop and wait for an opening which usually
means you have to wait for the light to change - the right turn lane
is longer than the merge lane. There are no other options. (They have
fairly long left-turn lanes too.)
Regarding changing lanes - it used to be that all one had to do was
to turn on their blinker to tell other drivers you wanted to change
lanes. People used to allow you to change lanes. Not anymore. I’ve
driven sometimes two or three blocks before somebody would let me
over. Rather than risk an accident I go to the closest exit, drive
around the block (if I can - so many streets in Springfield do not
go through or there are no blocks to drive around) and start over.
I figure if it’s that bad in a small city like Springfield - what
must it be like in the larger cities?
Now that I think about it, I think I had better luck in Kansas City
in the rain, at least people weren’t driving bumper to bumper.
That reminds me of the time I drove in Detroit in the rain. I didn’t
know where I was going - I’d been given directions by a guy I was
following and neither of us had cell phones at that time. The exit
we were supposed to turn off at was closed, so I had no choice but
to follow him. Traffic was literally bumper to bumper. If I lost him,
I was totally lost - never been in the city before and had no one’s
telephone numbers. I HAD to make sure I didn’t lose him. For the first
time ever (and only time ever) in the rain, I had to drive at 60 miles
per hour 1/2 car length behind him - if I left room for even one car,
it would merge over between us and then I had absolutely no control
of traffic after that. I did learn that the best way to follow someone
is to arrange ahead of time - the car in front puts on his blinker
and before he can move over, you in the car behind move over first
and control traffic - he can move over in front of you and you can
stay together much easier. - Noella
Daaayyum
Cliff–you must live in Kitsap County here in beautiful Washington.
Or else all those idiots who drive like that here have some disease
that’s spreading!! The bad thing is it’s usually women drivers I see
doing that. They may be more cautious than men–but they are definitely
far worse drivers most of the time. - Ruth (Yes, I’m a woman!) in
WA
Reader
Comment
Here’s a link you
might enjoy it for a good giggle. http://blog.trutv.com/dumb_as_a_blog/dumb_criminals/
Old age ain’t for sissies. - Grammie Sammie
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Disclaimer- All quotes printed in this publication are believed to be
accurately attributed, but no guarantees are made that some incorrectly
attributed, or even outright false quotes won’t get in here from time
to time. I assure readers that I will do my best to weed out incorrect
quotes, and will print a retraction as soon as I become aware of any errors.
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