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Monday, December 28, 2009

Some Common Sense with respect to Travel Security -- It's Not A Joke

Like other travelers I have dutifully removed my shoes , undergone being frisked by security personnel, put items from my purse in a plastic bag to be screened, removed my overcoat, jacket, jewelry etc., and placed it on belt, etc. etc.  And in doing so truly believed at some level that we were being made secure.  That all this inconvenience and depersonalization was worth it.  We were safe.

But when a man got on a plane the other day in the Netherlands and flew to the United States with the ability to blow a hole in the door of the plane with explosive material he carried with him,  the illusion of safety on a plane evaporated.  Moreover, the solutions the TSA has presented as further ways to protect flyers has finally tipped the patience of most travelers. While up until now, travelers have dealt with the added regulations with some forebearance, their tolerance has dried up with respect to the additional rules, which seem not only inconvenient and troublesome, but downright silly.

It hasn't taken some of the humor  tweeps long to make comments like:



@antderosa
New TSA regulation requires passengers must hold breath for the final hour of flight while humming “kumbaya”
I sure hope these incidents don’t hold up my wire transfer from Nigeria.
@petrillic
“TSA - Protecting you from yesterday, tomorrow.” #tsaslogans
@wilw
It’s only a matter of time before the TSA decides that passengers simply will not be permitted to board airplanes. You know, for safety.
I’m personally looking forward to spending the last hour of a flight glaring suspiciously at my fellow

What troubles me in the humor of this is that it's really not funny.  I am traveler.  I want to travel a lot.  I don't want to afraid to get on a plane.  I am willing to do whatever is reasonable to be made safe on my journeys. But I also, like most people,  have common sense.  And I know a pilot's refraining from telling me we are now flying over the Rockies or the Statue of Liberty isn't going to add to my safety.  I am fearful that new knee-jerk regulations will actually cause travelers to be more lax, and make it more difficult for airline personnel to manage basic safety.


I want to believe that many of the regulations that have been put in place have made travel safer. But I also know logically that the key is not enacting more rules about what can be done or not done on a plane.  It's keeping dangerous individuals off  planes to begin with. The individual who recently tried to set off an explosion on the Delta flight had been flagged by his own parent as a possible terrorist.   Why wouldn't he have been more closely scrutinized?  We, as travelers, have to insist that our government agencies develop better ways for screening potential threats and keeping them off planes instead of coming up with rules that just don't make sense.

.. Category: travel issue

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Algonquin - New York's Historic Grand Dame and First Hotel to Welcome Solo Women Travelers

On an afternoon in 1919 Edna Ferber, the novelist, arrived at the Algonquin Hotel in a new suit not unlike the one composer Noel Coward was wearing that day. "You look almost like a man," Noel said to her, "So do you," Ferber quickly retorted.

That story, among the many that tumble through the history of what is claimed to be New York's oldest operating hotel, makes for part of a legend that continues to draw bibliophiles, art and history lovers, and connoisseurs who know what makes life good.

Among the many gems that dot the hotel's quirky past include the follow factoids:

  • William Faulkner wrote his 1950 Nobel Prize speech in a suite there

  • The Oak Room in the Algonquin launched the careers of Harry Connick, Jr, Diana Krall, Andrea Marcovicci, Michael Finestein and many others

  • Lerner and Lowe are said to have written My Fair Lady in Lerner's suite at the Algonquin

  • Harold Ross secured funding for the New Yorker Magazine at the hotel from a fellow poker player

  • Contrary to popular myth, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and their fellow Round Table members never drank at the Round Table because it was Prohibition

  • The Algonquin is the home of the $10,000 martini. It comes with a piece of ice -- a diamond from the in-house jeweler

  • The Algonquin was the first leading New York hotel to welcome ladies traveling alone


The Algonquin, opened its Beaux- Arts-inspired main structure in 1902, three-years later adding a cafe and restaurant through a conversion of the nineteenth century stable next door. Throughout its history, it has remained a place to gather, starting with the group that gathered there first and immortalized themselves and the Hotel, the "Round Table, " headed up by regulars Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Robert E. Sherwood. The marketing genius behind molding a hotel into more than a building with rooms was Frank Case, who in 1919 treated a group of young, low-paid, albeit talented writers to free celery and popovers and provided them with their own table and waiter, guaranteeing their daily return. An experiential enterprise was born. These influential people exchanged ideas and gossip that found its way into the New York papers of the day and created a cache that helped draw renowned personalities from throughout the world to the hotel's rooms and dining facilities for years to come.

The Rose Room, which was the hotel's original main dining room and the restaurant where the original Round Table met was lost to lobby expansion in 1998 during a major renovation of the hotel. But the Round Table remains as the Round Table Restaurant at the rear of the lobby of the hotel. Overlooking the Table today is the "Vicious Circle," a 2002 painting of the group who brought the Algonquin it's landmark status.

There are tours of the hotel available through Algonquin Walking Tours or just pass through by yourself, and for a real treat have lunch with the "Vicious Circle" at the Round Table. And just maybe you'll get a glimpse of the hotel's special guest -- the Algonquin Cat. From the 1930s, one furry traveler has been chosen for this unique position. Female cats have been named Matilda , males, Hamlet, a name insisted upon for the first resident feline by John Barrymore.




Saturday, December 19, 2009

Nice Gesture -- Christmas Cards for Recovering Soldiers

When doing your Christmas cards this year, take time to send one to a recovering soldier. Just think how wonderful it will be for these special individuals , who have sacrificed so much, to receive cards from all over the nation. When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include the following:

Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue,NW
Washington , D.C. 20307-5001

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Not to miss -- the Brancacci Chapel and Masaccio part of Florence's Living Art Textbook

Studying art without visiting Florence is like learning to read without a book. Being in Florence is being in a living textbook of art history. At times the amount of beauty and art is so overwhelming that it becomes difficult to focus as you become lost in whirlpool of color, impressions, and texture. That is why it is important if your trip to Italy, and in particularly Florence, is in part to learn about and view the art, and it seems silly to suggest that it wouldn't be, that you decide ahead what art you want to focus on and know the places to find it.

Of course, you will go to the Uffici, but that is a book in it's own right. You may as I did want to explore, in a smaller space, some of the very early Renaissance artists -- the innovators who were the first to start depicting people, not as stiff, flat caricatures, but as living, emotive beings. Masaccio is certainly one of these. And it is because of Masaccio's work there that a little chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in the Oltrarno neighborhood of Florence has been well-trodden over centuries by an endless stream of art students, masters and enthusiasts. While gazing at the walls in the Brancacci Chapel, your eyes will see what helped inspire Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo and many others.



We crossed the Arno early in the morning for the short 20-minute pilgrimage through the medieval streets where Masaccio once roamed. We had called the day before for reservations, which are mandatory, and arrived at the Piazza del Carmine about 15 minutes prior to our scheduled appointment. The large, unfinished, stone-faced facade, of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, loomed before us in stark contrast to the dazzling interior of the Chapel, whose entrance is tucked away to the right of the the church.

Prior to visiting the Chapel, we took in the 40-minute film reviewing the history of the church, the chapel and its magnificent frescos. This is well worth the time...the animated view of the panels within the chapel make for a much more enlightened visit of this Renaissance masterpiece.


The Chapel itself is tiny, and for that reason, self-tours are limited to 20 minutes . The works most of which tell the story of St. Peter were created by three artists Masaccio, Masolino and some Filippino Lippi (son of the more famous Filippo Lippo). While all the tableaus are notable, it's the Massaccio frescos that stun, especially if you realize that prior to these creations, the art world was for the most part, flat and emotionless.














You need only study what is viewed by some as the first modern painting, one that places people in a real setting with one station point, the "Tribune Money," to make your trip over the Arno worthwhile. The human beings, Masaccio depicted, using painting techniques novel for the time to create an illusion of three-dimensional space, bring you into the scene. Also, note the painstaking blending of midtones, shadows and highlights to create the flow of the silken garments, important perhaps considering Branacci, Masaccio's patron was a silk merchant. The politics of early 15th century Florence are also reflected in "Tribune Money." A new tax system to help support a war with the duke of Milan was raging, and the story of the painting provided a precedent for the debate on whether the clergy should be taxed.

Below is an outline of the frescos. The red blocks are works by Masaccio, the yellow, Masolino, the purple both Masaccio and Lippi, and the blue Lippi.



















1. "Expulsion from Paradise" -- An astonishing depiction of the anguish of the first human beings after being deported from the Garden of Eden.

2. "Tribune Money"

3. "Raising of the Son of Theophilous and the Enthronement of St. Peter"

4. "Saint Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow"

5. "Saint Peter Baptizing Neophytes"

6. "Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias"


Florence, Italy tweeps I follow:


Monday, December 7, 2009

Little Town of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) continues to welcome Christmas travelers

Since 1741, the little town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania has welcomed travelers to the town named after the place where Christ was born. Settled by a group of Moravians, who are now recognized as the oldest organized Protestant denomination in the world, Bethlehem received its name on Christmas Eve of that year when Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf of Saxony, Germany, visited the new settlement. In a two-room log home that housed both man and beast, the story goes, the Count christened the new community "Bethlehem".

But it wasn’t until almost one hundred years later that the town began to commercialize on its namesake. In 1937, the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce decided to make their town of Bethlehem, whose very name was already so strongly tied to Christmas, the Christmas City for the entire country. And it was on December 7 at a grand ceremony, that Mrs. Marion Brown Grace pulled a large switch to light the new Christmas street lights and a large wooden star beginning a new era for Bethlehem. Today Bethlehem is a Christmas tourist destination with a plethora of holiday activities and purchase opportunities including a Chriskindlmarkt, Follies, pageants, first night celebrations, bus tours and more.

If you plan to go, Christmas City’s website has full details www.christmascity.org
Christmas City also has a tweep: artsquest.

To get there it is noted on the Christmas City website, “If you're travelling with a group of wise men, you can always follow the Star of Bethlehem that sits atop South Mountain.” Or, as they recommend, use the directions found on their web page.

Of course, Bethlehem, PA isn’t the only town in the US that shares this Christmas name. Others can be found in New York, New Hampshire, and Connecticut…and I’m sure that are more tucked away. In fact, most Bethlehems in the states have programs to allow you to mail Christmas Cards postmarked with their name.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

It's Christmas Time on the Water...The Best Lighted Boat Parades Across the US

Harbors and rivers are ablaze, with mega-yachts, cruisers, sailboats, kayaks, and other flotables sporting every starry decoration imaginable from Christmas trees to naughty Santas. It's Christmas time on the water. And ever since the first little line of boats with lights strung from their masts set sail, holiday lighted-boat parades have become bigger and more extravagant each year.

With the economy still wobbling, it remains to be seen along the shore whether this year's celebrations will be as spectacular as those in more fiscally robust seasons of past years. However, a quick survey of websites dedicated to the parades indicates that, despite the economic climate, the parades will float on as elaborate as ever (boat owners spending as much as $40,000 to deck the halls of their vessels according to one website).

The waterside Christmas celebrations, most of which start showing up next weekend (the first weekend in December) and continue through the month up until the weekend before Christmas, are usually run by Chambers of Commerce, Yacht Clubs or Visitors Bureaus as a draw for communities on the water to not only the parades, but to local restaurants and shops. For example, the Newport Beach, California parade, one of the oldest, if not the oldest, of this type of spectacle (this year is the 101st parade) attracts millions of viewers each year, many of whom reserve tables at waterfront restaurants. Hey when you can't offer a white Christmas, boats with glistening decorations playing strains of Jingle Bells are a great way to make the holiday merry and bright. And Newport Beach, whose holiday regatta sails between Balboa Island and Pennisula, starts the season right with 5 consecutive days of boat parading beginning December 16.

Not to be outdone, the festival of lights for these boating extravagances often extends to shoreline residences and busineses as well. Creating runways of light for the parades, owners throw large parties where canal or harbor front docks are strung with lights and lawns and lanais bedecked with lighted Santas, reindeers and more. In the tiny waterfront town of Punta Gorda in Southwest Florida, for instance, boat parades wind through a maze of canals passing homes elaborately lighted for the procession.

The historic waterfronts of Alexandria, Virgina and Annapolis, Maryland will also sparkle during this holiday season. Alexandria's 10th regatta of lights which launches this Saturday, December 5, will navigate the Potomac from Washington to Alexandria's dock. Appropriately, Annapolis will welcome Santa from his boat rather than a sleigh the following Saturday.

The big daddy of the Lighted Boat Parades, Fort Lauderdale's Winterfest Parade is an entertainment extravaganza, entitled this year "That's Entertainment." The December 12 show, and it is a show, actually includes what the parade sponsors describe as giant showboats with musicians and dancers. Highlighted features of this year's 38th Annual splash of mega-yachts and more are "Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza Showboat," the Clydey Foundations "Cirque" Floating Finale, and a "Phantom of the Opera" show. This year's grand marshals include celebrities Alonzo Mourning and Kim Kardashian.

Here's a rundown on some of the best upcoming Lighted Boat Parades:


Parade Dates and Times More Information
Newport Beach, CA 12/16-12/20 6:30 PMhttp://www.christmasboatparade.com/
Punta Gorda, FL 12/5 6-9 PM & 12/19 6 PMhttp://youbelonginpuntagorda.blogspot.com/2009/11/punta-gorda-lights-up-harbor-and.html
Annapolis, MD12/12 6-8 PMhttp://www.eastportyc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=32
Fort Lauderdale, FL12/12 6 PMhttp://www.winterfestparade.com/winterfest_schedule_of_events.cfm
Marina Del Ray, CA12/12 6 PMhttp://www.mdrboatparade.org/home.htm
Venice, FL12/5 6-8 PMhttp://www.venicechristmasboatparade.com/
Alexandria, VA12/5 4-6 PMhttp://www.virginia.org/site/description.asp?AttrID=26951
St. Augustine, FL 12/12 6 PMhttp://www.sayc2000.com/R_Blair_Maintained/LightsRegatta_2009.html

The Clock at Musee D’Orsay