guessone Short hops    August 24, 2007    Big Mac Museums, wine castles, and the management of memory

Foodie tourist traps, highbrow and low
Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed… museum campus? The Big Mac Museum is open for business. Not your speed? How about the uber-bombastic Napa Wine Castle? Sounds like the supersizing of wineries. (Thanks, Dr. Vino!)

“Secrets From the Tower”
Fox News Chicago has a short “tell-all” report featuring a former Chicago O’Hare air traffic controller. My favorite snippet: “ORD controllers still use slips of paper to control traffic.” But take heart, the controllers take delays “as personally as you do.” (Thanks, Steve!)

Delta starts a blog
Corporate blogs are actually remarkably rare in the travel business. (Of the biggies, Bill Marriott has a blog, and Southwest has their blog.) Delta Airlines now joins the fray. Welcome to the blogosphere!

The re-mystification of myths
The TSA keeps trying to play “Mythbusters,” which I’m sure has the folks at the Discovery Channel doing cartwheels of excitement, seeing their brand name attached to the TSA. The problem is, the myths aren’t really busted. Here’s their attempt to refute the ban on liquids. But as Chris Elliott busts the supposedly busted myth, you can’t just say that liquids are dangerous “because we said so.” There are plenty of others who disagree, after all, and who come back with science-based arguments. (More here, for example; or read most anything Bruce Schneier has written in the last six years.) The TSA simply has lost its credibility, and it’ll take more than a few decontextualized videos of stuff going “Boom!” to make me feel water is dangerous. Their mythbusting efforts? Busted.

Down the memory hole
A China Airlines plane recently blew up (no one was injured) but what does the airline do to manage their image? They white out their name and logo from the plane. China Airlines explosion? What China Airlines explosion? Full story and before-and-after photos here.

3 Comments

3 Responses to “Short hops — August 24, 2007 — Big Mac Museums, wine castles, and the management of memory”

  1. UK Issues? Says:

    Hey, I have a “downgrade” for you (figured I’d stick it in this post)…

    Just spent three weeks in Italy. Flew through Manchester of all places to get there, and going, no issues, one bag plus one personal item (like purse) no issue. Return trip, totally different. They’re enforcing a one item limit…so just like a purse, and you check the rest. Not the airlines mind you, this is security enforcing. Downgrade for them.

    Also, I would downgrade Italy entirely, all the way from the totally rude and unhelpful airport staff (Milan) to very high prices and massive rude crowds. Only a few high points of the trip, most of it a tourist trap hassle.

  2. Mark Ashley Says:

    Agree that flying through the UK is a hassle, and the luggage policy is a big reason.

    Downgrading all of Italy?! Wow. Where’d you go? It’s been 12 years since I’ve been to Italy, and sure, it was touristy in places, but them’s fightin’ words.

  3. Italy Says:

    Oh, there were parts I liked. We went to Como, Siena, Florence, Venice, Rome, Abruzzo and Pisa. I liked Siena, Venice and Como, but the rest were too touristy. Not to mention that the Italians rivaled the French for friendliness (un), high prices (dollar doesn’t help) and the airports. The trip was a break even, but in terms of living up to expectations, it fell short.

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