News and notes from around the interweb:
- “Excuse me, a possible terrorist left their belongings outside of their control.” No, on second thought, that would be a very bad response to this. You do say something to a flight attendant, though, when another passenger uses your seat as a coat rack.
This passenger just moved to the seat beside the one assigned to them, since it was empty. But it seems to me just leaving a jacket there is an invitation for it not to be there anymore when you land.
Stranger on plane puts her jacket on my seat
byu/mrmanti inmildlyinfuriating - Delta’s 100th anniversary safety video. At 1 minute 46 seconds, Deltalina appears.
- Colombian airline Avianca opens new lounge at Miami airport. Take a look “The lounge is modest compared to others at MIA. Lighting is minimum and there are no showers. A reclining room has chairs that don’t seem to recline.” (HT: Robert G)
- I appeared on Patrick McKenzie (@patio11, ‘Bits About Money’)’s podcast this week. A genuine honor!
This week I’m joined by Gary Leff, an expert in airline mileage economics. We talked about genesis of airline and hotel loyalty programs, the substantial overlap with U.S. credit cards rewards programs, why these are some of the largest contracts in capitalism, and some quirks of the world which cause particular planes to fly almost empty while others are consistently overbooked.
- Austin airport wants to spend $10.6 million on installations by 3 artists – from New York, San Francisco and Chicago. These are for the tunnel that will connect the current terminal to the new midfield concourse to be built. Usually airport control by the city council is a bad thing, but in this case the Mayor wants more debate on this item before rubber stamping it.
- The place is stunning. It’s on-airport. But… does anybody actually like the TWA Hotel? Violating my own approach to airport hotels (always stay on-airport!) I head out to the Hyatt Regency JFK at Resorts World which doesn’t even have a shuttle, in order to avoid this place.
I appreciate the @TWAhotel's commitment to the time-travel bit. You call a 212 number and talk to someone who is in no way interested in helping you. It's just like being back in late 20th-century NYC! pic.twitter.com/KTWebyeMam
— Sasha Issenberg (@sissenberg) March 20, 2025
What’s the problem? “Excuse, please move your jacket.”
The Austin Airport spending $ 10.6 million on Tunnel Art seems entirely reasonable, leaving the walls painted and bare would be a bad vibe, and surely the famous United Airlines tunnel in ORD cost a good deal more. That being said, something along similar lines would be appropriate (the entry room of Dubai’s pop-up “Museum of the Future” at SXSW this year would be perfect). Instead, as the Far Left Austin City Council is want to do, two of the three Artists that they have selected are exceedingly woke, one to the point of being borderline satanic. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
A jacket left on a seat is not a life problem that warrants a SM post, and certainly not a blog post about the SM post.
That’s wild stuff—but, seriously, this recent ‘normalization’ of the word ‘terrorist’ is not a ‘good sign,’ namely because of the implications that our king can ‘rendition’ any of us on a whim. And, by ‘rendition’ I mean the legal definition of “the practice of sending a foreign criminal or terrorist suspect covertly to be interrogated in a country with less rigorous regulations for the humane treatment of prisoners.“ So, without due process, anyone, even a citizen, in violation of the constitution and human rights, can be renditioned these days it seems, unless our courts and the people say enough is enough.
Did I just spend time reading about a jacket draped on a seatback? Then spend more time commenting on it? Whoa I really need to re-examine some of my life choices.
@ Gary — Oops, I am so sorry that I just spilled coffee on your jacket.
1990 seems to sympathize with not calling terrorists folks who burn buildings, fire weapons and threaten the lives of a particular section of the public.for whom they hate and are intolerant. Maybe if these folks put on white rodes and hoods and burned crosses 1990 would better recognize these folks for who they really are and what they represent? Enough is enough of this new Klan of night riders trying to lynch Tesla owners.
@ AlohaDaveKennedy — Wow, what a truly insensitive starement. Members of my own family had friends die by KKK lynchings. This is not some thing that happened 100’s of years ago, but in the 1970s. The racists now are DJT and all the scum around him. I hope these people that you are labeling backwards successfully burn down the entire Telsa infrastructure.
It’s a jacket. You ask the presumptive owner to move it.
Hire some talented UT art students. You’d get good enough art for less than 10% of that.
For good artwork between concourses or terminals, I suggest checking out Frankfurt. Going to or from A and B in Terminal 1, they have beautiful artwork (mostly pix) from cities around the world. Really takes your mind off the long walk, when the moving walkway is not working.
Loved my stay at the TWA Hotel but my reasons for going would probably be totally different from yours…a nostalgia trip with a plane spotting angle. I don’t think I’d consider it if I was overnighting near the airport for business reasons.
@AlohaDaveKennedy — Feel free to check my comments on other posts. Day after day, time again, I advocate for the rule of law and due process over vigilantism and violence. Relatedly, I continued to fight the good fight against intolerance. Please, join in, call out hate and animus whenever and wherever you see it.
@AlohaDaveKennedy No one is lynching Tesla owners, you disingenuous mook. Find some different pearls to clutch
Vigilante: (Oxford Reference online) A member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate.
Although revisionists (and the media) like to make out that vigilantes could be loners, the definition does not support that. In lawless areas, concerned citizens sometimes formed vigilance committees to carry out what they saw as the law, often being the policing group, the judicial group and the executioners. The vigilance committees often had wide support in their communities.