Here’s one for you. Last night, on a news brief between television shows, there was an item that rather put our backs up. The government, just yesterday, ordered airlines to let passengers off planes that are delayed on the ground for more than three hours. They can’t hold passengers hostage with no food, water or bathroom facilities. Yes, it took the government, not the company to whom you pay through the nose to fly, to check in a second bag even…to pay for a friggin’ pillow to rest your head,  to realize that’s a no-no. Of course the airlines are poo-pooing (no pun intended) that idea because they say having to return a plane to a gate to avoid a significant fine would only cause more delays and would be inconsistent of achieving their goal of completing as many flights as possible. Oh, and by the way, as a sort of call back to yesterday’s blog, the three major airports in the New York area; Newark, JFK and LaGuardia are the country’s worst offenders for late departures, hence one more piece of the puzzle in the low stature on the happiness scale.

Whoops, before I forget, it’s Baby Picture Monday on Tuesday and that’s me at 5. Look at that thin-lipped smirk. There’s something going on in that head of mine, I can see it in my eyes. I have a feeling I was up to no good.

It’s not your eyes, Donna, I did put snow on the blog. Cool, no? It’s hard to see against the white background, but you can see it real well after a few seconds on the picture I put up yesterday of the big bush by the corner of the house and it looks like it’s still snowing.

Here’s a bit of a sad story and one I think has no chance of a positive outcome.  17 families want to dig through a closed Staten Island landfill because the ashes of the remains of their loved ones might be in there. A lawyer for the city of New York, Jim Tyrrell, urged a federal appeals court to leave the landfill alone, even if it does contain the ashes of 9/11 victims stating that “These ashes are undifferentiated dirt,” echoing the words of Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who, a year ago, when he ruled that the families had no standing to sue the city, argued that nearly 1,100 victims perished without leaving a trace, that they had been incinerated in the intense raging fires or pulverized into dust by the massive tons of collapsing concrete and steel. Normal Siegel, the lawyer for the 17 families argues that it’s “disrespectful to call it dirt when it’s remains.” He also pointed out the 223,000 tons of the material was never sifted. While work continues to identify the nearly 20,000 human remains that were uncovered, the families’ attorney says they want the material in the landfill moved to a another site where it can be properly buried. Faced with a civil action against the city, Judge Barrington Parker asked the attorney how the city could be considered to have shown a deliberate indifference in this horrible unprecedented situation. His answer: “Your loved ones on top of garbage. That’s the deliberate indifference” and continued his argument that this dirt could be used to fill a pothole. 

Of course it’s hard to say if I would feel differently all these years later had I suffered a loss of such magnitude, and I count my blessings I didn’t, but I think it’s best to abandon this crusade. I realize, for some, it’s a last ditch desperate attempt at closure (I hate that word with a passion) to this nightmare, but the endless, and probably fruitless searching would be even more devestating.

Finally, there is more  news on the Eric Williamson case, the man who was seen making coffee in the nude. He’s been found guilty of indecent exposure but the judge did not fine him or put him in jail. He maintains he had no intention of “exposing” himself at 5 o’clock in the morning to those who crossed his yard at that hour. A seven-person jury will rule on the propriety of Williamson’s domestic nudity in February. So, stay tuned.

Here are a few more pictures from the snow we had the other night, all thumbs. Click on them and they’ll open.

“The Road To High Performance Isn’t Always Paved”

New York – In LaGuardia Airport

November 28, 2009

Taken by Peter Jurmu

(peter jurmu/all rights reserved)

An airlift was scheduled out of Midway Airport this morning for 48 dogs rescued from puppy mills in Missouri.

The dogs, most of which are small breeds like pugs and terriers, are headed to Long Island in the hope of finding loving homes.

They arrived in Chicago by bus Thanksgiving Day and were given a rest break and special holiday meals.

This morning, Pet Airways flew the dogs from Midway to New York’s LaGuardia Airport at 10 a.m. on a flight dubbed, “Operation Thanksgiving Day Flight to Freedom,” said Dan Wiesel, founder of Pet Airways. The dogs, which range from about four months to three years old, will then be taken to the North Shore Animal League America in Port Washington, N.Y., where they will be put up for adoption.

“They’re in great shape,” Wiesel said. “They come from a traumatic experience. … they don’t know what’s going on. [But] they’ve got 15 people hugging and kissing them.”

The rescue mission is being coordinated by Best Friends Animal Society and Pet Airways.

Kelli Ohrtman, who works with Best Friends, said her group has transported about 2,600 pets across the country in the last two years as part of the Pup My Ride campaign to move unwanted pets. The strategy is to move cats and dogs from parts of the country that are over-saturated with unwanted pets to regions where the shelters are less full.

Wiesel said part of his airline’s corporate responsibility is to find these pets new homes and said the last thing it wants is for the pets to be euthanized.

“Whatever we can do to help with that cause is what we’ll do,” he said.

Pet Airways, which started service in July, bills itself as the only airline exclusively for pets,  with pets flying in the main cabin. It operates out of Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Denver, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale.

– Staff report

On Twitter, you can follow: Pet Airways @PetAirways; Best Friends Animal Society @BFAS; .

From http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11/rescued-dogs-to-be-airlifted-out-of-midway.html

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We traveled to Iowa yesterday, starting at 5 a.m. in order to get to LaGuardia for our 9 a.m. flight. We made a stop in Chicago, and then flew into Moline. Hubby’s aunt picked us up, we stopped briefly at her house, and then her son, a senior in high school, drove us to Washington, IA where hubby’s maternal grandmother lives. We had a short, but much-needed, nap, and then went to the community’s monthly potluck dinner.

I piled up my plate, and when I looked down, I saw that it was all brown. In other words, not much in the way of produce. There were some green beans in one dish, sauerkraut in another, and some fruit in most of the jello salads that covered the dessert table. It was all home-cooked deliciousness, but it was not exactly health food. The dinner ended with the MC reading a few really bad jokes, and everyone singing “Happy Birthday” and “Happy Anniversary” to the people celebrating those occasions this month.

The evening was spent hanging out in the living room, my husband working on the laptop, Grandma reading, and me doing a puzzle. It was quiet and calm and lovely. But oh so quiet. Life here is slower, much less hectic. People talk a lot, but I’m not sure they say much. I’m not a great conversationalist, and I’m especially not good at small talk. But there is something to be said for the art of conversing, and being comfortable talking to your neighbors, and keeping it flowing, even if you’re only talking about the weather.

I can’t tell you how many people give the exact same reaction when we tell them we’re from New York City. It seems impossibly far away and big and very much the antithesis of everything they know here. They can’t imagine living there, or wanting to live there. We heard several stories of bad driving experiences, and a few more about how they visited there once back in the the 60s or 70s. But then, I can’t imagine living here, or wanting to live here, so I guess we’re all where we’re supposed to be. It’s nice to visit, though. There’s so much space and openness. It’s not oppressive and nothing feels squishy, even Grandma’s very small house, which, small as it is, would still feel roomy in Manhattan.

We will visit with all the local family on Thursday for the holiday, then we plan to visit with a Bates aunt and uncle in Iowa City on Friday. We fly back Saturday, with TWO layovers this time, stopping in Chicago and Philadelphia before arriving back at LaGuardia that afternoon. But for now, we’re off to explore the town center before driving back to the airport to pick up the in-laws, who are arriving this afternoon.

Solar de Samaniego

Two weekends ago we stayed in Logroño instead of going to our summer house in Cantabria - it was just after the Wine Future Rioja 09 conference (more on that in a future post) and we were entertaining guests, so on Sunday I went down to our wine cellar to grab a bottle, with nothing particular in mind.  After a quick look around I chose Solar de Samaniego crianza 2003 because I hadn’t tasted it in a while and wanted to see how it was evolving, especially because 2003 was only rated ‘good’ by the Rioja Regulatory Council. Toñica and I were very pleasantly surprised after opening the bottle because in our opinion it tasted great, once again driving home the message that the exception confirms the rule where vintage ratings are concerned.

The wine is a blend of tempranillo and graciano, unusual for a crianza. It showed a medium ruby color, with an extremely elegant nose of strawberries, gingerbread cookies and maraschino cherries.  It had a medium mouthfeel with great balance between fruit and oak.  It went down perfectly with our lunch of meatloaf and green beans.

Speaking of mouthfeel, I remember a tasting class I took many years ago with Karen MacNeil, one of the USA’s great wine educators.  She liked to compare mouthfeel to different kinds of milk: skim and whole milk corresponded to light and heavy mouthfeel, with medium somewhere in between.  I used this analogy successfully in tastings in the USA but got a lot of blank stares in most of Europe, proving that wine tasting vocabulary is by no means universal. Last year I gave a tasting to some mainland Chinese wine writers, who agreed that one of the wines smelled like ‘ Beijing during the winter’.  I still haven’t totally figured that one out, but they liked the wine so it must have been a compliment!

Solar de Samaniego is often overlooked because its wines are neither traditional nor ultramodern, but I think it deserves a wider following because the wines are extremely well-made and mighty tasty.  Founded in the early 1970s in Laguardia in Rioja Alavesa by a family with roots in Rioja, the winery is named after Félix María de Samaniego, an 18th century writer of fables who was born and lived in Laguardia.  In fact, the ruins of Samaniego’s country house, where he wrote many of his fables, are in the middle of one of the company’s vineyards.  The former PR director of the company has taken advantage of this location to start a company specializing in picnics and romantic vineyard dinners. 

Solar de Samaniego also owns a winery and vineyards in Ribera del Duero (Durón) which it sells along with its Rioja brands in one of Spain’s most successful wine clubs, which it owns and operates.

El empate contra el Málaga deja fuera al Zaragoza. Fuente: elperiodicodearagon.com

El Real Zaragoza empató ayer el partido de vuelta de Copa ante el Málaga, por lo que el conjunto zaragocista ha sido eliminado de la Copa del Rey. El equipo maño cae en dieciseisavos por segundo año consecutivo, ya que la pasada temporada, en Segunda División, perdería ante la Real Sociedad (1-0). Esta vez, el Zaragoza es eliminado por el tanto que consiguió el Málaga en el empate del encuentro de ida en la Romareda.

La vuelta en la Rosaleda estaba abierta para ambos equipos y se esperaba un encuentro tenso y reñido. Sin embargo, el partido fue todo lo contrario, un partido aburrido en el que el Zaragoza no supo crear una oportunidad clara de gol. Únicamente en la segunda parte ofreció una propuesta más ofensiva cuando Marcelino cambio el sistema estratégico con la incorporación de Ewerthon por Songo´o (min. 58), Ander Herrera por Paredes (min. 64) y Abel Aguilar por Leo Ponzio (min. 67). El Málaga esperaría a la contra y el Zaragoza tendría bastantes ocasiones pero no supo culminar ninguna jugada.

Además, el Zaragoza ha roto su racha de marcar en todos los encuentros. Tras 28 partidos marcando de forma consecutiva, 17 en Segunda y 11 en Primera, el Zaragoza fue incapaz de ver la malla de la portería del Málaga y terminó empatando el partido y desclasificado de la competición del KO. Ahora el conjunto zaragocista se centrará únicamente en la Liga, en la que debe convencer y obtener resultados, ya que la actitud del equipo no ha convencido en absoluto a la afición.

El encuentro ante el Málaga trajo algunas novedades. Este es el caso de Goni, Songo´o, Laguardia y Babic, que no forman parte de los jugadores habituales, pero formaron parte del once inicial en el choque ante el Málaga. Goni lo hizo tras nueve meses de lesión debido a la fractura del ligamento que sufrió en su rodilla.

Patrick and his girlfriend Sarah flew to New York tonight from Fort Worth, via Atlanta.

He just texted me that they had just landed at LaGuardia airport after flying over Yankee Stadium during the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 6 of the World Series between the Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees were winning 7-3 at the time.

They are, if I remember correctly, staying with friends in the Bushwick part of Brooklyn, which has experienced a rebirth of sorts during the “aughts decade.” (By the way, we can start saying “twenty-ten” next year instead of the seemingly longer “two-thousand-eight” or “two-thousand-nine.”

Anyway, the kids will be up there through the weekend. Patrick has been to NYC before; Sarah has not.

Having been spoiled from my previous flight, this 757 did not have an upgraded cabin – back to the old and falling apart cabins that I am all to used to on the 757.

I guess I was running a bit late today, as I was self-checking in I was denied my boarding pass, had to run to agent, then to gate – they were boarding the last group by the time I made it there.

My neighbor was on phone talking A LOT of smack – between call waiting and a lot of drama I tried to immerse myself into my book as fast as possible.  I have yet to be on a flight that offers internet access – looking forward to that day. 

Aside from the chatter box, the flight was uneventful – tomorrow I am already on my way back to Miami.  Up next, Chicago…

Ode to Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger

Scheduled to leave on a trip.
One final stop
at the Danville, California library
to select a companion for flight. 

The book– “A Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability”
not an odd, casual reading choice
for a deadhead trip
for a man with whom the term ‘deadhead’
could never be associated. 

On the flight over
he read a few pages –
reflecting on his life
and where he had been.
Reserved – still fit and trim.
He had always done his job –
performed his role as a pilot and father
as life required. 

Nestled into the Captain’s chair at LaGuardia
the flight prepared
he read a few more pages.
Then slid the book into the console.
Thirty seconds into the flight
beyond hearing of the bird cannons
a flock of geese on a regular routine maneuver –
met his big bird. 

In one of life’s more poignant ironies –
both his bird and they, simultaneously meet their demise.
Less than a minute to summon all his skills and intellect
apply his instincts
succeed where no man had -
put steel to water
without the water prevailing. 

In the end,
he helped them walk on water –
then the world thought he could as well.
Now called Hero…
The term suggests an act beyond his means.
To him –
just a job performed
as life and circumstance demand. 

A few days later his table
strewn with messages
and calls he should return. 

Talking heads wanting his picture and words.
The President his presence.
The Super Bowl his stature. 

He settled into his arm chair
put the phone to his ear and dialed
            the only call which he knew he must make. 

“Hello, Danville Public Library”
 

“This is Captain Sullenberger
I lost the book which I borrowed last week.”

Ray Brown

Captain Sullenberger actually had 4 books with him on the trip.  To learn more:

Watch a video: the video: http://sfpl.org/fineamnesty/video.htm

Or read an on-line article: a story: http://www.mediabistro.com/baynewser/on/hero_sully_sullenberger_shilling_for_the_san_francisco_public_library_116479.asp

My USAir brethren will remember LaGuardia Airport (egg fart bay to the insiders) and remember when USAir ran alot of MD-80’s. The effect on the MD-80 is a Lomo Effect in GIMP….The old DC-3 and few others sat just outside our window at work (when they started up windows were shut…phew!) I did a Fake High Dynamic Res bit with it in GIMP….

En los últimos tiempos algunas bodegas de nuestro país han inaugurado impresionantes edificaciones, obra de prestigiosos arquitectos, para que no sólo el vino sea de gran calidad, sino también el lugar donde se produce. Lugares ideales para hacer enoturismo que, en algunos casos, además de ser joyas arquitectónicas,  funcionan también como hoteles para el viajero, ya sea porque acude a alguna cata o a visitar la bodega. 

Es el caso de la Bodega del Señorío de Arínzano, en Navarra, diseñada por Rafael Moneo y de las Bodegas de Logroño, Juan de Alcorta (Ignacio Quemada), Viña Real (creada por Philippe Mazières en Laguardia) y una de las más espectaculares, la Bodega Ysios, también en Laguardia, que ha sido diseñada por Santiago Calatrava. 

En cuanto a hoteles, un buen ejemplo son las bodegas Marqués de Riscal, en  Álava, que han creado la Ciudad del Vino, diseñada por Frank O. Gehry, con restaurante, sesiones de vinoterapia, vinacoteca y el fabuloso Hotel Marqués de Riscal.

Si te animas, necesitarás un buen alojamiento que puedes encontrar en los siguientes enlaces:

Hoteles en Navarra
Hoteles en Logroño
Hoteles en Álava

We are revising our strategy for boarding a plane with our two kids, both under the age of three. While we used to stand poised by the gate, ready to be the first to leap onto the gangway as soon as boarding began — or even before boarding began (after all, we are “passengers who need extra assistance”) — we will now hang back a bit.

This is not just because we often find ourselves assisting our nearly three-year-old with lengthy potty trips in the run up to boarding time. Nor is it because we want one last Starbucks trip before getting onto the plane (although that has happened at least once).

We finally realized that as thrilling as it is to have first dibs on the overhead bins, the less time you can spend on a plane, the better. This is especially true on a Friday evening in August, when you’re flying from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport to New York’s LaGuardia. We are now veterans of this route, and it seems to be plagued by delays.

When our flight was pushed back by about an hour and a half this past weekend, we wished we had savored a few more minutes in the terminal, where our son was toddling between travelers’ suitcases and legs, and our daughter didn’t have to contend with illuminated seatbelt signs when she wanted to hit the potty.

So now, we will take our time walking to the gate. We will not panic when we hear the announcement that our flight is boarding. The hour-plus we spent stuck on the tarmac with two crying kids was a cruel reminder that kids do not like to be strapped into a seat. Next time, we’ll have to think about driving…

:: stuck at laguardia :: 

mehhhh. a burning star, wrapped in flames and fantastic vision. so you say. i believe it. i have no choice. 

miss you, honey. miss you and don’t know what’s coming next. 

drinking a beer and wondering if anyone cares. i’m stuck here. close to home, far away from home. listening to slayer, hoping for the best. 

beautiful days in portland, in central maine, home. beautiful days, uneven days now. i’m not afraid, i just wish everything was perfect. we are on the edge of a golden world. 

and even the impatient man beside me on the flight from portland to here in NYC… i feel even love for you. and i wonder, my dear, my love, why won’t you let me fully love you. just don’t go away. 

i should stop drinking, but here i am at a shady airport bar with skeezy businessmen. thinking about texting you, wondering if you’ll care. hoping you’ll care when i don’t. i just never know. but i don’t even know what i want in the end, so it doesn’t really matter… 

i’ll just sit here and listen to slayer, and pray for blood. blood is the color of love, is the color of you. take me home now.

Over the past few weeks, we have outlined some of the critical elements to Shearwater High School’s future success. Today, we would like to wrap up the series by walking you through one of the challenges we faced as an organization. Through this example, you will see how asking for help and utilizing promising practices allowed us to create a model we have confidence in.

Shearwater High School is geared towards disconnected youth in the City of St. Louis. This means students who are out-of-school, homeless, getting too old for foster care, and those who need to make money. Our promise is to graduate our students poised for success – that is, ready for work and college, and prepared to take on daily living.

While we are confident that disconnected youth can attend and succeed in college, we struggled with how to help our students develop that same confidence. At this point, we predict that few of our students will believe in college as a next step for them. Some will have never met a college graduate. The majority will have never been involved in the college access programs that may or may not be offered by their former high schools.

But, given today’s job market, we could not drop the “college-able” part of our school’s focus. Today, two out of three jobs in our country require some formal education past high school[1].

We needed help. Unsure of the solution ourselves, we looked to the community for advice. “How do we help our students believe college is an option for them?” we asked. They told us to bring our students on field trips to local college campuses and introduce them to college students. Find people in our students’ neighborhoods who had graduated from college to serve as role models. Others even told us to enroll our students in a few classes at a local college or university.

They were right. Our students need exposure to college to make them believe that it is a possibility for them. What if we set up shop right on a college campus?

Thinking this was a good idea, we took it to St. Louis Community College.  They’ve shared our vision ever since. Today, Shearwater and St. Louis Community college are working hard to make sure that our students will have a place on their city campus.

This past fall, one of the college’s Vice Presidents mentioned the similarities between our program and a high school program at LaGuardia Community College in New York. Running over to our computers, we soon discovered that a high school was opened in the 1970s on the LaGuardia Community College campus, which was geared toward a population similar to Shearwater’s; it’s still running and thriving today. Dubbed a “middle-college” experience, the collaboration between LaGuardia and the high school gives students more choices, exposes them to college, and allows them to earn transferable college credits while still in high school.

We were thrilled. Not only had someone else already labored through much of the decision-making and thinking that loomed ahead, but we could use their information and this model to guide our own program development.

Through experiences like this, we at Shearwater have learned the power and value of asking for help. We know it is a simple concept, yet we know of some organizations that struggle with it. To use the old teacher adage: don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.

- Aquí dice Santa María de los Reyes.

- ¡Esa es! Pues es el único pórtico esculpido policromado del gótico que se conserva en España…

Pórtico de Laguardia, agosto de 2008

- Pero si es policromado, ¿por qué le sacas una foto en sepia?

Ojo, porque fue una foto complicadísima: el pórtico se encuentra dentro de un atrio con poquísima luz… Pero lo conseguí.

News link:

www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN0145937620090801?rpc=44

Some Dick-head liar wannabee  cleared out LaGuardia Airport todayafter police spotted him with a wire-laden backpack that ran to a trigger device on his hand, law enforcement sources said.

The contraption that caused the bomb scare — taped-up batteries designed to look like a deadly explosive detonator — was just a phony, police said.

That didn’t stop this Dick wad identified as Scott McGann, 32, from repeatedly clicking the trigger after Port Authority police officers Bobby Keane and Thomas Sullivan began questioning him around 5:30 a.m. at Terminal C Concourse B, setting off a mad scramble as hundreds of people fled for safety.

Keane and Sullivan then tackled the deranged man and started ripping the wires off his arm in a desperate attempt to prevent a calamity.

“He never said a word,” said one law enforcement source. “He didn’t even grunt.”

McGann “was just acting crazy,” said PA spokesman John Kelly.

MY Take:  people like this are sad they wanna use violent acts that has happened to americans in the past and acts that are unforgettable an try and scare people into believing they are trying to reinact them. what a shame. Put his ass under the jail

Authorities evacuated LaGuardia Airport’s Central Terminal for several hours this morning after a man with a bag containing a fake bomb entered the airport.

From CNN:

The man is in custody, and authorities have allowed passengers back into the terminal, Port Authority spokesman John Kelly said.

A law enforcement official close to the investigation said the man is Scott McGann, 32, of New York.

The man raised the suspicions of a Transportation Security Administration employee because he appeared intoxicated, Paul Browne, the New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner for public information, told CNN.

The man had a duffel bag with wires sticking out of it, and inside the bag, batteries were connected to the wires, Browne said.

The NYPD bomb squad determined the device was not dangerous, Browne said.

The main Termial at New York’s LaGuardia Airport was evacuated Saturday morning, stranding hundreds of passengers, after a man entered the building with a fake bomb in a bag, police said.

The terminal was evacuated at around 5:30 a.m. Saturday after the man approached security in the airport’s C concourse, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman John Kelly said.

It wasn’t clear if the man made a threat, but security officials said he “was just acting crazy,” Kelly said. The man’s name was not released.

The device in the man’s bag was a few batteries and wires, but was not dangerous, police said.

Police planned to reopen the main terminal later in the morning, but Kelly said the C concourse, serving United, United Express and American Eagle airlines, would remain closed as a crime scene.

It was not immediately clear how many flights were delayed or canceled by the evacuation, but the airport’s Web site said passengers should check with their airlines for information.

Among the stranded passengers were 12-year-old Samantha Casady and her 10-year-old brother, Patrick, of Norwich, Conn., who were supposed to fly out to Dallas at 7:15 a.m. by themselves to visit relatives.

Their mother, Colleen, said she and her husband were accompanying their children through a long security screening line when there was a commotion “and just a swarm of TSA.”

Casady said she later saw a man in handcuffs, surrounded by police.

The family was initially directed to go to another security gate, but it was closed, “and a few minutes later, they evacuated the building,” she said.

The evacuation also meant that Irma Quidore, of Denville, N.J., had to delay a trip to Monterrey, Mexico, for a second time with her two daughters, Sofia, 6, and Isabella, 3.

They had originally planned to fly out on Thursday, but a delayed that would have forced them to miss a connecting flight prompted them to reschedule their trip for Saturday, Quidor said.

“I guess we’re going to make the trip to Mexico, but a little bit late,” Sofia said as she pushed her little sister in a stroller toward the terminal.