I’m really looking forward to the new Terminal C opening up, hoping it allows airlines to develop more direct international flights. Right now, in order to go direct to Paris, I have to depart out of Miami, which isn’t necessarily a bad alternative, but it does add several hours to the trip. The update video and concept ideas look fantastic for the terminal. Great to see the progress of it.
And speaking of new terminals, a few weeks ago I shared this slightly older video with the designer of the new La Guardia update, where he discusses the thought process and history of terminal design. If you love travel, it’s a fascinating perspective on an area that is a huge part of travel.
I have to say, the one thing I miss when I’m not in France is the ability to walk down the block, hand over one Euro and receive a Baguettes de Tradition. These are the baguettes that are protected by French laws in how they can be made and how much they can be priced at. They are made simply from flour, water, salt and yeast. The most basic food you can make and it’s delicious either plain or adding butter and ham.
“Miss Maudie stopped rocking, and her voice hardened. “You are too young to understand it,” she said, “but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of—oh, of your father.”
I was shocked. “Atticus doesn’t drink whiskey,” I said. “He never drunk a drop in his life—nome, yes he did. He said he drank some one time and didn’t like it.”
Miss Maudie laughed. “Wasn’t talking about your father,” she said. “What I meant was, if Atticus Finch drank until he was drunk he wouldn’t be as hard as some men are at their best. There are just some kind of men who—who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”
Excerpt From To Kill A Mockingbird by Nelle Harper Lee
Originally from Kottke.org worth reading the post there.
This video reminds me of the days of the Kuwait/Iraq/Afghanistan Wars when news programs were prevented from showing the coffins of dead soldiers returning to the US. It was a way to manipulate the public into not understanding the huge cost of the war on the soldiers lives. Had those images been seen nightly, would the public have supported the war as much as they did? Sure, businesses got behind the war effort and made commercials celebrating when soldiers returned alive and people clapping and thanking them for their service…here’s a Bud Light.
This is not to disparage soldiers, but much in the same way we didn’t see the coffins, nor did we see the truly depressing jobs our healthcare workers do in the COVID wards of hospitals across the US and around the world. While the death toll in the US is above half a million people and climbing, the human effect of the virus is still distant for a vast majority of people. I’m lucky in that I don’t know anyone close who has died from it, I know a couple of people who tested positive for it, but nobody who had to spend time in the ICU. That does not stop me from wearing a mask when I go out or making sure I socially distance as best I can, both my parents and in-laws are in high risk categories, so we do everything to protect ourselves in that we can protect them as well.
And yet, had you happen to turn on C-SPAN on March 4th in the afternoon, eastern time, you would have seen an empty Senate Chamber with only 3 clerks, a stenographer, sitting president of the Senate and perhaps a single Democrat and a single Republican. And for about 10 hours (until 3 am the next day), a clerk read the 628 page Recovery Act. Normally, the reading of bills is waived, but Senate Republicans want to delay voting on this bill, delay getting needed help to people, schools, state and local governments and yes, ICU workers.
In the House of Representatives, NOT A SINGLE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN voted for the relief bill. Barely a month into the Biden administration, the Republicans are back to their old game of delay and avoidance of doing anything. Doing anything. The Republicans believe that in order to win the next election, they have to make the current administration look bad by not accomplishing anything.
They’ll sit there and claim that any bill is just a bunch of Democrat pork belly projects, but if they even come up with an alternative offer, it’s always significantly less (Because Republicans don’t like to spend money under a Democrat President, but will spend like crazy under a Republican president) and focus on benefits to businesses and the rich. If you need an example of this, look at the Affordable Care Act, which almost from the minute it was passed, the Republicans started fighting it in court case after court case. All the time, Republicans claim they’re preparing their counter proposal for Health Care. And yet, 10 years later there has never been a proposal put forward by ANY Republican. Even for the four years under Donald Trump, his Health Care plan was always going to released “in two weeks.” We still haven’t seen even a draft of a proposal.
The Republican actions are the great shame of America.
Air France, my airline of choice, has a new safety video which is not only a new talk about safety when flying, but a stunning tour of France. Love the ending shot of the crew at the end.
When the sliced bread was first sold, it was advertised as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”.
So, if something is amazing, you can say that it’s the best thing since sliced bread. But if something is really amazing, you should probably say it’s the best thing since bread was wrapped.
Sliced bread was, temporarily, banned in 1943 due to World War II.
The toaster, in case you’re interested, pre-dates sliced bread with the first electric toaster being introduced in 1893. The pop-up toaster, however, was introduced at around the same time as sliced bread. Kids had to wait an another 36 years, until 1964, for Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts.
