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Norwegian Cruise Line will launch new Norwegian Breakaway from New York City in May 2013. Busy getting New Yorkers into the idea of sailing away on their newest ship, Norwegian has everyone from the Rockettes to celebrity chef’s excited and involved in one way or another. Now Norwegian Cruise Line has good news for travelers who might not get into fancy restaurants or new-ship features.
Onboard Norwegian Breakaway will be authentic Sabrett New York hot dog carts positioned around the ship in convenient places, much like on the streets of New York City. To wash down those dogs? Brooklyn Lager Beer.
“As a New Yorker, I’ve been a fan of Sabrett’s. Since we are launching New York’s ship, it made complete sense to bring New York’s favorite hot dog to Norwegian Breakaway,” said Kevin Sheehan, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line in a Travel Pulse report.
Norwegian currently has the ship’s Godmother Rockettes dancing a Christmas show at a discounted rate courtesy of the cruise line. Norwegian used native pop artist Peter Max to paint the New York skyline on the hull of the ship and tapped New York restaurateur Geoffrey Zakarian to create a luxury seafood dining experience with a dining room, a raw bar, and a more casual venue called Ocean Blue on the new ship.
Now, going a bit more casual, the all-beef Sabrett hot dogs will come with a choice of condiments including onion in tomato sauce, sauerkraut, mustard and relish. The carts will be positioned on the Breakaway’s extra-wide promenade, The Waterfront, and on the pool deck and forward deck.
“With Sabrett hot dogs and Brooklyn Lager beer, our guests will truly get a real taste of the city as a part of their whole New York experience while onboard,” added Sheehan.
Fascinated by the New York City hot dog scene yourself? Learn more via this video:
The last time you probably heard about El Capitan was when you read about Alex Honnold, the crazy free climber who summited the wall in Yosemite Valley without a rope. There’s also a rope missing in the above video, but for a different reason. Anchored on two ropes, LiveLeak user tomservo set up a massive swing on the face of the wall by dropping to the end of one rope and then swinging across the expanse. There’s a huge drop before the second line goes taut (you may notice it when your stomach tries to climb out of your throat) and the swing is definitely risky – but it makes for a great video.
I’m not an anti-social traveler. In fact, I love to meet new people when I’m traveling. But when I find myself sitting on an airplane with the seat next to me open, I tend to get a little nervous wondering who is going to come and occupy the middle seat next to me.
On most airlines, I feel OK about looking to see who is coming down the aisle, because if they’re assigned to the seat next to me, they’re going to sit there, whether they like the looks of me or not. But when I fly Southwest, and other airlines that have open seating, I find myself strategizing on how best to preserve my extra space.
On a short flight, the stakes are low, but on a long flight, the difference between having an open seat next to you and having a size XXL traveler plop down beside you can be huge. And in fairness, it isn’t just large people you don’t want next to you. The overly chatty, the obnoxious, and the malodorous can be even worse. On Thursday, I traveled on Southwest from Chicago to Los Angeles, a 4.5-hour flight (if it’s on time), and, with most of the passengers already on board, I still had an open middle seat next to my aisle.
I know it’s horrible and selfish, but as the few remaining stragglers made their way down the aisle, a small voice inside me was pleading, please, please, please don’t sit next to me. My brain quickly ran through the different strategies that one might employ in order to preserve the extra space.
Spread Your Stuff Out
It rarely works, but who hasn’t put their reading material or other stuff on the seat next to them to make it seem as though the seat might be occupied? Admit it, you’ve done this before.
Make The Center Seat Seem Even Smaller Than It is
Put the armrest up, spread your legs out and make that center seat look as small and unappealing as possible.
Look Busy
It’s a longshot, but if you’re working on a laptop positioned on the tray table, some passersby might be so polite that they’ll chose another middle seat rather than make you get up and reposition with a computer in tow. (Or you can talk on the phone, but I’ve never stooped to that level because it’s an annoyance to everyone in the vicinity.)
Look Crazy
There are plenty of different ways to do this – you can stare, you can let your eyes roll around towards the back of your head, let your tongue hang out of your mouth, drool a bit perhaps. Just watch “One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest” if you need some suggestions. If you really want to take this one the extra mile, wear a T-shirt with an aggressively anti-social slogan on it. Something like, “I worship Satan” might do the trick.
Give Off God Vibes
Have a bible out and before the person even asks if the seat next to you is free, ask them if they’ve accepted the Lord, Jesus Christ as Their Savior.
Give Off Skunky Vibes
You probably don’t want to avoid showering for days before your flight but you can carry a bag with some smelly cheese, durian or some other food that smells awful.
Carry Depends or Have a Barf Bag Cocked and Ready to Go
Would you sit next to someone that had a box of Depends undergarments on their lap? What about someone who was hyperventilating and clutching a barf bag?
Gangsta-rap or Richard Marx at Full Blast
I guarantee you that if you are blasting Richard Marx’s “I Will Be Right Here Waiting For You” or NWA’s “F**ck the Police” into a pair of oversized headphones, people will think twice about sidling up next to you. 2 Live Cru’s “Me So Horny” Or the Devinyl’s “I Touch Myself” could work for most men, but might serve the opposite purpose if women try it.
Court A Skinny Passerby
If it’s a relatively full flight and I’m resigned to the fact that someone is going to sit next to me, I might make the effort to smile at people that I think would make good seat mates. Sometimes, if they’re looking at the seat next to me, I’ll go one step further and invite them to sit down. Alternately, when I see someone who I really do not want to sit next to me coming down the aisle, my heart starts beating faster and I begin to employ any and all of the tactics mentioned above.
Sometimes I’ve already spotted people I don’t want to sit next to before I’ve even boarded the flight, such as the individual in the photo at the top of this post, who I encountered on Thursday. It wasn’t just the fact that he was quite large but also the fact that he looked like he might break my neck or cast some kind of satanic curse on me if I happened to brush his elbow by accident. When I saw him sit in a middle seat next to someone a few rows in front of me, I was ready to pop open a bottle of Champagne. I’m sure he’s a great guy but I just didn’t want to sit next to him (sue me).
Don’t Make Eye Contact
This was the tactic I tried on my recent Southwest flight. My head was buried in a newspaper, even though I was too nervous about who was going to sit next to me to do anything more than run my eyes across the words without really digesting what was on the page.
On this occasion, the tactic didn’t work. I heard a voice ask if the seat next to me was occupied and I looked up to see, who else but an attractive and petite woman of perhaps 25. An ideal seat mate if there ever was one. The truth is that I enjoyed chatting with her and the woman in the window seat and the trip was, in fact, a good reminder that trying to repel people isn’t always the best idea.
[Photo credits: Dave Seminara and Skley on Flickr]
On Thursday of this week Botswana’s Ministry of the Environment announced that the African nation will ban big game hunting over concerns with the country’s sharp decline in wildlife populations. The edict, which came directly from President Ian Khama, will go into effect beginning January 1, 2014. In the statement announcing the ban, the Ministry is quoted as saying, “The shooting of wild game for sport and trophies is no longer compatible with our commitment to preserve local fauna.”
Naturally, the announcement was met with praise from conservationists, but some local groups will likely not be as happy with the ban. Villages in remote regions of the country often make their livelihoods from big game hunting with most hunters traveling from the West to bag their prize. The influx of money brought to Botswana by those visitors has played a key role in the country’s economy and the funds won’t be easy to replace, particularly on a local level.
The ban will still allow for the indigenous people to continue hunting wild game as they have in the past. Some tribes, such as the legendary Kalahari Bushmen, have lived off the land in Botswana for centuries and a complete ban would be a direct threat to their traditional way of life. But over the course of the next year, the country will begin issuing fewer and fewer hunting licenses to foreign visitors as organized commercial hunts come to an end.With more than 130,000 elephants living within its borders, representing roughly a third of the world’s population, Botswana certainly has some fantastic natural resources with which to lure visitors. Tourism plays a vital role in the economy as well and the government hopes it will more than make up for the loss in revenue by promoting itself as an outstanding safari destination. With that in mind, there are already plans afoot to convert some of the current hunting zones into special photographic areas for capturing fantastic images of the wildlife.
The announcement of this ban brings mixed emotions for me. While any steps to protect wildlife in Africa are welcome, I can’t help but think that banning hunting isn’t really the answer to the problem of declining animal populations. In fact, the threat to those populations probably aren’t coming from the hunters themselves but are instead the work of illegal poachers, particularly those looking to harvest ivory from elephants. This ban will have no impact on poaching at all and will only serve to send legitimate hunters to other parts of the continent, taking their money with them when they go.
Hunting can actually be an effective tool for conservation when used effectively. The government has direct control over the number of licenses that it issues on an annual basis and it can scale that number up or down as needed. An outright ban seems to indicate that they haven’t been using hunting as a means for conservation, however, but instead were overselling the licenses as a way to make money.
It will be interesting to see if this ban has any long-term effects on animal populations in Botswana. If over hunting has been a problem, then of course we should see some quick increases in the number of animals in the country. But if poaching or other problems are to blame, the steep decline will likely continue.