News and notes from around the interweb:
- It’s probably good not to have your name on your driver’s sign at pick up but I’m skeptical this happens as often as people think it does. (HT: @crucker)
Organized crime outfits are good at bribing airline employees for flight manifests (lists of passengers).
They then Google each name, create a list of apparent high-value targets, and arrive early to look for the right names on limo driver signs. They pay or threaten the actual…
— Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) August 16, 2024
- Truth
In Washington, D.C. we don't say "I love you," we say, "I'll pick you up from Dulles" and I think that's beautiful.
— Ellie Hall (@ellievhall) August 16, 2024
- Ogden, Utah NIMBYs got an airport runway closed. Six planes have crashed since then. It has commercial service again (Breeze, natch). And now people are questioning the decision, though it’s not clear the issues are related.
- I feel this – but you need to check a clothes dryer, too.
- Hyatt Regency Orlando to add adjacent Grand Hyatt hotel with 2,500 rooms
- The Financial Times celebrates the end of same day out and back business trips, grueling as they are the suggestion seems to be this is something that businesses used to force on employees (implicitly unwilling to pay for hotel rooms?) when it’s often that businesses were respecting the time of their employees and not forcing them to stay away longer. Especially employees with families, they usually want to get home as quickly as possible.
Compressed gasses have restrictions when traveling on a passenger aircraft. A wall or window air conditioner would have compressed refrigerant and lubricant in it so it may be restricted. If the gas and lubricant were drained, it might be able to be flown in checked luggage. I doubt a dangling power cord would be acceptable. I have ordered a mini-split heat pump and a window heat pump online. Both came with refrigerant in them and I think both came by truck.
They do sell portable air conditioners in Europe too, and then you don’t need to worry about the plug not fitting in the socket or the airline breaking them. I see them sold even in cooler spots of Sweden.
…. and that dangling cord is a recipe for the machine to end up broken during the baggage handling process. Thus it should go in a box if checking it in.
Europe has air conditioning in December
220 v 50 cycle European power will possibly fry the compressor and fan motor on his a/c unit. People think about voltage sometimes, but rarely think of the ac difference (60 cps v 50 cps).
Do the fake limo drivers rob the passengers? or what happens?
Actual chauffeur here. This simply doesn’t happen, it’s an urban legend and Ferris’s provides zero examples.
Friend who was an attorney at a major NYC law firm landed in Caracas for a meeting. Saw his name on a sign held by a limo driver. Seemed strange since he hadn’t ordered a limo so he called the office. Found out no one had ordered him a limo since he hadn’t requested it. Needless to say, he didn’t get in the car.
I haven’t had a car service pick me up with a sign since the 90s. Any legit operation will use text/app capabilities now.
@claire the driver flashes his headlights at an oncoming car with no lights on, which puts the passenger smack dab in the middle of a gang initiation where they give the pax poisoned Halloween candy that makes them pass out, pax wakes up later in an ice-filled bathtub with a kidney missing
Actually, I was surprised when they accepted my portable air conditioner, boxed, and purchased from Home Depot. They made no issues about it. But that was a long time, over 20 years ago.
It appears that the air conditioner joke went *whoosh* over several people. It’s a commentary on the lack of cooling available in the EU/UK, to which I can attest on our recent Italian/UK trip.