Dahlings, I wonder if the people who did these two things were related?
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Raising the temperature
Dahlings: In a link to the Ebola outbreak, NPR article “Some Airports Have A New Security Routine: Taking Your Temperature” reviews different methods of screening people running temperatures. Those who have flown through Asia are familiar with such remote checks for Bird or Swine Flu.
The NPR postscript should leave you very scared.
There is one way of checking temperature that is far more reliable than the rest.
“The most accurate temperature is achieved with a rectal thermometer,” says Pompeii. “But I don’t think airlines can do that.”
..but the TSA can.
Quick think of a happy place.
Ciao for now, Cleo.
Tip Jarred
Dahlings, Mariott Hotels are placing envelopes in rooms to tactfully remind you to tip the person who cleans your hotel room.
What splendid Chutzpah, Bill! Emotionally blackmail your guests to compensate for you paying your workesr lsuch ow wages. I admire it.
Others however do not:
“It is not Marriott’s responsibility to remind customers to tip; it’s their responsibility to pay their workers enough so that tips aren’t necessary,” said author Barbara Ehrenreich, who tried working as a hotel maid for her 2001 book “Nickel and Dimed,” which chronicled her experiences in low-wage jobs.
Marriott’s Corporate 2014 Awards and Recognition are interesting in relationship to this tip envelope initiative. From Marriott.com [Queue a drum role please]. Continue reading..
Your Bad Trip Guide
Today, I had to reset the home screen layout on my iphone and Apple maps is back on my front page. The first thing I did was to move that stupid piece of software to my last screen in order to never use it again.
Apple maps is like taking LSD : every now and again, they will both take you on a bad trip.
Strike one was Apple Maps directing me on a 7 mile journey to a specific main street bank only for it to be another bank. Ok banks get bought so I excused that instance.
Strike two: it showed me the location of a major auto part store that turned out to be a Mexican restaurant. The problem was that it there was no way to make it another store before they’d closed for the night. I needed a particular main headlight bulb as it had just gone out.
Putting that behind me, I resolved to use Google maps instead going forward. Continue reading..
Where’s Waldo? In jail hopefully. : Waldo Police ticket racket is busted
US301-Legalized Highway robbery with two towns singled out by AAA as “Traffic Traps”.
Highway 301 runs through Florida just South East of Jacksonville. From Baldwin to Hawthorne, it is notorious for it’s issuing of speeding tickets. Two towns in particular – Lawtey and Waldo – are infamous for their overzealous ticketing, so much so that AAA officially declared them “Traffic Traps” : The only two cities in the United States to have such a declaration.
Per AAA site:
“Traffic Trap” – AAA condemns traffic enforcement measures and practices which are designed to raise revenue rather than prevent crashes or where there is evidence that enforcement is not justified by sound engineering principles. AAA particularly condemns the use of traffic traps which involve unfair, unethical or illegal law enforcement tactics or traffic control devices, as well as the use of speed measurement devices on roads with speed limits appreciably less than warranted by sound engineering principles.
Under “Traffic Traps” AAA says about Lawtey and Waldo:
“These two small Florida communities are located on U.S. Highway 301 situated about halfway between Jacksonville and Gainesville and still depend on revenue generated by traffic tickets to help meet their annual budget”
AAA is so outraged, it even paid for billboards to warn motorists traveling down 301 to beware that they are approaching these towns. Continue reading..
Thumbs up : United and Intercontinental Boston
Earlier this week, a friend of Roam was checking onto a United plane to go to Boston. He was traveling with his wife for long awaited vacation.
Just before boarding, he got a call that told him that his mother in law was being rushed to hospital.
He explained it to United and due to the medical emergency, they fully credit both airfares. Similarly, so did their Hotel Intercontinental Boston.
No fuss, no drama. Good on you United and Intercontinental: A Roads-2-Roam thumbs up.
It is refreshing to hear about good customer service.
The Intercontinental Boston has a positive recommendation from Roads-2-Roam where Augustus stayed there in early June 2014. They allowed an early (l pm) check in.
The best thing about it was the fantastic views looking back over Boston. Highly memorable. So much so, we slept with the curtains open to take in the view.
The water taxi from the Hotel, is another recommendation. See our photographs.
The nighttime view of Boston harbor from Boston Intercontinental Hotel.
Photo of Boston taken from the River Taxi from Intercontinental Hotel
Touch and go
Left picture: Someone in MA had this hand drawn licence plate on their car thinking the PoPo wouldn’t notice.
Right picture: A well meaning 80 year old dear in Spain who on her old initiative, repaired an historic Fresco.
Both sound like things my modern day crazy ol’ dad would do. But as I have said to my family, if you can’t go crazy in your old age, when can you?
Love you Dad. Mwahh.
Ciao for now,
Cleo.
It’s a Stitch up : The real reason behind a knitting air rage incident
18th Century french knitters: Watching the guillotines while they wait for airplanes to be invented.
Dahlings, what is up with the air rage these days. It is like a script to a bad horror movie where normal passive passengers go mad over the slightest things.
Hitting the chatternet was the story of a third flight diverted after a cat fight over reclining seat. From the WaPo story:
The unhappy passenger [..]had been trying to sleep with her head on the tray table [..]. “This woman sitting next to me, knitting, tried reclining her seat back, the woman behind her started screaming and swearing,” Klipin said. “The flight attendant came over and that exacerbated what was going on.”
The angry passenger, Klipin said, “demanded the flight land.”
According to ABC News, the passenger “said something to the effect of, ‘I don’t care about the consequences. Put this plane down now.’”
Amy Fine, 32, of Boca Raton, Fla., “was escorted off the plane, interviewed, then released,” according to WJXT, which cited the Jacksonville Aviation Authority police report. “Fine said she was hit on the head with the seat in front of her reclined, and they ‘did have words,’ but claims she was not disruptive,”[..]