As waters from the Frankenstorm caused by Hurricane Sandy subside, six million people are without power, hundreds of thousands have been evacuated and thousands more are stranded in airports around the country. Not exactly where everyone wants to be on the eve of yearly Halloween celebrations.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen,” said David Arnold, from Long Branch, N.J., in a New York Times report. “The ocean is in the road, there are trees down everywhere. I’ve never seen it this bad.”
The far-reaching storm has East coast residents, normally planning on trick-or-treating, costume parties or haunted attractions, just trying to get back home. Once there, they hope to find a roof over their heads, power and food – elements of life they might normally have taken for granted.Instead of carving pumpkins or going door to door to collect candy in New York, residents are finding homes burned and transportation virtually stopped after Hurricane Sandy sent floodwaters into the city’s five boroughs, submerging cars, tunnels and the subway system.
Telling scary stories, watching horror films and playing pranks as part of a traditional Halloween may never have more meaning though, as residents recount what actually happened to them during the storm as we see in this video.
Still, in other parts of the country, Halloween events continue.
On the West Coast, California has a number of theme park attractions open including Knott’s Scary Farm at Knott’s Berry Farm, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, Disney’s HalloweenTime and Mickey’s Trick-or-Treat Party at Disneyland Resort.
Visiting the 50 states in America can be a life-long quest for some travelers. Others fall into it through frequent business travel. Many just realize that they have only a few states left and they will have visited all 50. But the criteria used to determine if a visit “counts” and gives one “I was there” rights is another matter.
The All Fifty Club is about as close as we can find to a governing, official organization charged with validating traveler claims of visiting all the states in America. They have some rules for scoring a win, requiring “that one should breathe the air and set foot on the ground. Thus driving through the state counts if you get out once, but airport layovers do not,” club founder Alicia Rovey said in an Associated Press report.
But many members have their own standards that include specific requirements for state visits to count. “Some do not count it unless they spend the night in that state or visit the state capital,” says Rovey. “More unique ones are sighting native birds of that state, playing a round of golf, donating blood in each state.”Not sure how many states you have visited? All Fifty Club has a fun interactive map on their website where visitors can quickly click on each state, adding each one visited to their total.
Not a politically oriented website, the All Fifty Club interactive map starts with all the states colored blue. Clicking on a state turns it red. Take a look and tell me you don’t think the Presidential candidates have a map like this that they play with on the road.
Struggling with the names and locations of all 50 states in America? This short video may help:
Business travel stress is caused by a number of reasons. Just being out of the office can make communication and keeping up with ongoing projects a challenge. Some travelers cope well with the challenges of working on the road. Others, not so much. A recent survey by Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) polled more than 6,000 frequent business travelers from nine global corporations, and found that stress tends to fall into three categories.
Time lost when a traveler might be working but instead has to stand in a security line can add stress. Thinking “If I was in the office right now, I could be doing something productive” adds more stress.
Surprises caused by an unscheduled event that disrupts travel is another. Major storms with a cascading effect on airports not even in the affected area commonly add “Will I make my connection?” stress.
Routine breakers that cause an inability to stick to regularly scheduled home activities count too. Activities that are easy to do at home like exercising, watching television or surfing the web add stress when not done on the road.
The biggest stress factor of all? Lost Luggage.”Losing one’s baggage requires replacing the lost content, often in a short space of time. This presents multiple uncertainties under tight deadlines, which produced considerable stress,” Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) said in an Executive Travel article.
Coming in at number two on the list of 33 possible stress triggers was being without an Internet connection, or having an unreliable one. Third place was having to fly in coach on a medium or long-haul trip, followed by flight delays, inconvenient arrival or departure times, having to stay in a low-category hotel, inconvenient hotel locations, and last-minute travel.
Last week, I heard about a product called the Knee Defender, which, when attached to the tray table of an airline seat, restricts how far the person in front of you can recline, on an episode of NPR’s “This American Life.” Apparently, this product has been available for more than nine years, but this was the first I’d heard of it. In the intro to the episode, host Ira Glass talks to Ken Hegan, a 6’2″ travel writer who uses the Knee Defender on flights, about the etiquette of using this unique little product.
As a frequent flier who often feels cramped in coach, I was intrigued, but wondered if it was ethical to limit another traveler’s ability to recline. So I contacted Ira Goldman, the inventor, to ask him how it works and whether it’s kosher to keep fellow passengers erect, or semi-erect in their seats.
How does the Knee Defender work?
It’s like a paper clip. You put it on the arms of the tray table. The tray table arms and the seat rotate on the same axis, so when the tray table arms come back and the seat’s not reclined, it’s like the blades of scissors. If you put something between the blades of scissors when they’re open, you can’t close them. That’s the dynamic of the Knee Defender.
According to your site, the Knee Defender isn’t FAA approved, but they also haven’t outlawed it, correct?
Correct. They only approve the things they have jurisdiction over and they’ve judged that they don’t have jurisdiction over this, so they have no problem with it as long as you aren’t using it during takeoff, landing or taxiing, but that’s when you need to have your tray table up anyways, so you couldn’t use it then even if you wanted to.
Have any airlines banned it?
The FAA has said it’s fine, my customers who are using it say it’s fine and as far as I know, it’s fine. That’s the bottom line.
But is this ethical? Doesn’t the passenger in front of you have a right to recline his seat?
When I fly, my knees touch the seatback in front of me. I’m only 6’3″, and I would even take the magazines out so in other words, that person isn’t reclining, because my knees will stop them, with or without the Knee Defender. All the Knee Defender does is, instead of my knees stopping the seat, the Knee Defender stops the seat. So the ethical challenge is not really there as you pose it, because it’s not as if they’d otherwise be able to recline.
Every Knee Defender that’s ever been sold says, ‘Don’t hog space.’ You should only use it to the extent that you need it. A number of customers, for example, use it with their laptops. If someone reclines, you can’t use it on your tray table, and it can also catch onto the little lip of the seatback. It can break your laptop.
The Knee Defender is adjustable. You can adjust it so they can recline not really at all or some amount, so this is marketed to stop people from being hit in the knees by seatbacks.
If I’m in my seat, trying to recline and I can’t, I would probably hail a stewardess. If she notices the Knee Defender, how would the situation unfold?
On the Knee Defender tag it says, ‘always listen to the flight attendant.’ Customers tell me that sometimes the flight attendant will say ‘don’t do that’ and they’ll have to take it off, and other times, they’ll realize there’s no leg room, so it’s not going to make a difference, so the flight attendant shrugs to the passenger who complains.
So it’s up to the flight attendant?
Yes, and frankly if there is room for the person to recline without hitting the person who bought my product, then when someone wants to recline, they should remove it (the Knee Defender). The Knee Defender isn’t called the I-want-more-space defender or the anti-claustrophobia-defender. It’s there to stop people from actually being hit.
If someone is using it just because they want a little more space, that’s not what it’s for. And if the flight attendant says you can’t do it, you can’t do it.
In the story on “This American Life,” the passenger who used your product handed the person in front of them a card warning them that they wouldn’t be able to recline their seat more than 2 inches. Does the product come with those cards?
There are two cards on our website. One if you don’t want to buy our product. It’s a note you can hand to the person in front of you that says, ‘By the way, I’ve got long legs, and if you recline, you’re going to bang into me.’ And then one that comes with the product that says the same thing but also says, ‘I’m using the Knee Defender, and if you want to recline, I’ll see if I can adjust it so we can both be happy.’
So what is the best etiquette? To notify the person in front of you that you’re using a Knee Defender or not?
On our site, we have a page about airplane etiquette. It may be wrong, but that’s my point of view. When you go to the restroom, do you knock on the door first, or do you just walk in? It’s up to each person.
Do you recline your seat when you fly?
No.
Even on a trans-Atlantic flight?
No. I get a window seat and lean against the wall.
Is it uncomfortable for a tall person to recline or you think it’s rude?
I don’t think it’s rude if you know what you’re reclining into. It’s like pulling out of your driveway. You look and then you pull out. If someone is coming, you don’t pull out.
So if the person behind you is using a laptop, eating, or is just tall or large, you shouldn’t recline?
I think so, but at the end of the day, there is no physical space for some people to recline into. My knees often hit the seat in front of me, in a normal situation. There are also lap babies. You can be sitting there bouncing a baby on your lap and the person in front of you reclines, and the baby gets smacked in the head.
Some would say that if you’re too tall or large, you should just buy a business class ticket, right?
That’s a question of space. I’m not talking about space; I’m talking about not being hit in the knees. If you have short legs, and you aren’t using a laptop, or have a lap baby, don’t buy our product.
I’m only 5’11” and I thought about buying one. Does that make me a bad person?
There’s nothing to keep us from promoting this as ‘more legroom.’ But that’s just not me. I don’t have to say in the instructions how to use it appropriately, but we do.
Author’s Comment: I generally don’t mind people in front of me reclining, and if there was a situation where I didn’t want them to recline, I wouldn’t hesitate to communicate directly with that person. But I can see where some people are too shy to do that, and in that case, the Knee Defender might come in handy. Still, the airlines make seats that recline, so I suppose that means that people have a right to do it, even if you have long legs or happen to be eating, using a laptop, or holding a baby. What do you think?
Have you ever wondered what the dishes on Bravo’s “Top Chef” actually taste like? Here’s your chance to give them a try. Gadling is giving away a chance go out to sea with some of the show’s favorite judges and contestants on a five-day, four-night cruise through Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico, aboard the Celebrity Constellation from April 11-15.
Cruises will be able to come face to face with “Top Chef” judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, plus Hubert Keller and Tim Love from “Top Chef Masters.” A panel of a dozen celebrity chef’testants will compete in quickfire cooking demonstrations and challenges, including:
Richard Blais, finalist on “Top Chef: Chicago” (season four) and winner of “Top Chef All Stars” (season eight)
Jennifer Carroll, competitor on “Top Chef: Las Vegas” (season six) and “Top Chef All Stars” (season eight)
Tiffany Derry, fan favorite on “Top Chef: DC” (season seven) and “Top Chef All Stars” (season eight)
Chris Hanmer, winner of “Top Chef: Just Desserts” (season two)
Mike Isabella, competitor on “Top Chef: Las Vegas” (season six) and finalist on “Top Chef All Stars” (season eight)
Spike Mendelsohn, finalist on “Top Chef: Chicago” (season four) and competitor on “Top Chef All Stars” (season eight)
Yigit Pura, winner of “Top Chef: Just Desserts” (season one)
Paul Qui, winner of “Top Chef: Texas” (season nine)
Hosea Rosenberg, winner of “Top Chef: New York” (season five)
Angelo Sosa, finalist on “Top Chef: DC” (season seven) and competitor on “Top Chef All Stars” (season eight)
Casey Thompson, competitor on “Top Chef: Miami” (season three)
Fabio Viviani, competitor on “Top Chef: New York” (season five) and “Top Chef All Stars” (season eight)
Several of the competitors – Richard Blais, Jennifer Carroll and Spike Mendelsohn – will also be featured on the upcoming “Life After Top Chef,” in which cameras follow beloved former competitors outside the “Top Chef” kitchen.
While aboard the ship, guests will be able to sample food from Top Chefs, take part in a Q&A with the hosts and contestants, watch cooking demonstrations and challenges, and more Top Chef-related activities. There will also be a one-hour cocktail party and all of the world-class entertainment that comes standard on Celebrity ships.
The Top Chef: The Cruise prize includes an ocean view stateroom for two people. All meals, snacks, coffee, tea and juices are included, plus complimentary 24-hour room service. Ship amenities also include two pools, a whirlpool, fitness center, casino, library and duty-free shopping. Retail value of the cruise is $2,796, which includes port taxes, fees and gratuities. Prize does not include transportation to/from Miami.
To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us your favorite “Top Chef” contestant. We’ll randomly select one winner from the entries and award him or her the prize. The contest runs through 5 p.m. ET on Friday, November 2, and is open to U.S. residents 18 and over. See the full contest rules here.
Fans of the show will also want to tune in to “Top Chef: Seattle,” the tenth season of the show that premieres Wednesday, November 7 at 10/9c.
