British man passes through U.S. TSA security checkpoint with bag full of fireworks

by Scott Carmichael on

When 29 year old Paul Jones celebrated the 4th of July in Kansas, he ended up with a large bag of unused fireworks. Instead of discarding them, he kept them in a bag and brought them home back to the United Kingdom. In doing so, he was able to keep them in his carry-on luggage, and even passed the bag of explosives through the Kansas airport x-ray machine, in plain sight of officers.

It wasn’t until he arrived back home that a customs official spotted the fireworks and questioned him. To make matters worse, he was even able to carry a lighter though the checkpoint, which would have obviously aided in setting them off on his flight.

The BBC contacted Continental Airlines, who pointed their fingers at the TSA, who were obviously “not available for comments.” According to Continental Airlines, “We warn customers on our website about hazardous materials which are prohibited on aircraft under federal law, and the list includes fireworks.” Well, I’m sure terrorists will read those warnings and leave their bombs at home next time they fly.

Without hand screening every single bag, the TSA will of course never catch 100% of hazardous materials passing the checkpoint, but to miss a bag filled with 200 firecrackers shows an amazing level of incompetence.

[Image from BBC News]

Art for free in Paris? Paris’ cemeteries are beautiful and free.

by Gadling Staff on

Ah, Paris. City of light. City of magic. City of art. City of admission fees to view art.

Stepping inside the Louvre will cost you $14.00. Want the audio guide? Another 8 bucks. How about seeing one of the temporary exhibitions? That’ll set you back another $16.00. How about an espresso to caffeinate the experience? Plunk down $5.00, please. While no trip to Paris is complete without a foray to the Louve, spending that much money every day is going to result in a quick evaporation of your resources. You came to Paris to see fabulous art, but dang some days you get overwhelmed with the prices and the crowds. What to do? How about seeing world-class sculpture by some of the same artists whose works are exhibited in Paris’ pricy museums and galleries for free? Get thee to a cemetery. First up is Père Lachaise Cemetery, the world’s first “garden cemetery,” established in 1804.

Père Lachaise
48 51’35.95″N 2 23’20.51″E (Main Entrance)
A dozen years ago about the only ambulatory people in this magnificent cemetery were black-shrouded Goths who were on a pilgrimage to see the grave of their fallen high priest, Jim Morrison, or local Parisians who were out for a quiet stroll. That has all changed. Père Lachaise has been discovered. Not to worry, you’ll still be quite alone, at least by big city standards. You may have company around the permanent homes of some of the major celebrities, but wander off the main paths and you’ll get the serenity you want and at all times you’ll be surrounded by the magnificent sculpture you came to Paris to see. Better yet, it’s all FREE … but first things first.

(Père Lachaise)Before embarking on your eternal excursion, download a map and chart your path. (Vendors around the perimeter of the cemetery also sell reasonably-priced detailed maps). Then hop on the Metro and get off at (where else?) the Père Lachaise station. You probably won’t be able to resist making a beeline for JIM so do that if you must, then plan your path from there. Alas, Morrison’s grave is a pretty pedestrian affair, but, well, it is Jim.

(The grave of Jim Morrison.)

Other must-sees are the lipstick-kisses-covered-genitalia-abbreviated tomb of Oscar Wilde, the statue of journalist turned fertility god Victor Noir, dancer Isadora Duncan, writer Gertrude Stein, singer Edith Piaf, composer Chopin, glass artist Renè Jules Lalique and star-crossed lovers Heloise and Abelard. You can easily spend a day at Père Lachaise, but you can always come back and many people do, over and over again. Best haste; there are other boneyard bonanzas awaiting.

(Oscar Wilde’s tomb.)

Montparnasse Cemetery
48 50’10.13″N 219’39.04″E
Montparnasse Cemetery is home to Constantin Brancusi. A rendition of his sculpture, The Kiss, adorns his grave. Poet Charles Baudelaire has a suitably poetic tomb. And don’t miss the over-the-top tomb of Charles Pigeon, the inventor of non-explosive gas lamp. Pigeon’s tomb is a massive polished granite bed complete with a bronze sculpture of Pigeon and his wife. There are dozens of other sculptors, composers, actors, writers, singers and painters reposing at Montparnasse and you can easily spend hours tracking them down.

(Brancusi’s grave, topped with The Kiss.)


(Baudelaire’s tomb.)


(Pigeon’s grave.)

Saint-Vincent Cemetery
48 53′ 20.27″ N 02 20 21.20″ E
This postage-stamp-sized cemetery doesn’t have a lot of notable residents but its eclectic tombs and slanting hillside location make it a pleasant place for an unencumbered stroll.

Montemarte Cemetery
48 53’7.15″N 2 19’51.75″E
If nothing else, Montemarte Cemetery is a study in urban intrusion. Urban cemeteries have long been victims of city swell. Often the residents of these cemeteries are exhumed and deposited elsewhere with little or no fanfare. However, at Montemarte road designers figured out a way to thread a motorway above and through the burial ground. Sitting at the bus stop surrounded by petite mausoleums presents a unique opportunity to contemplate one’s mortality.

Paris Catacombs
48 50’1.99″N 2 19’56.06″E
Okay, this ones gonna cost you about 12 bucks, but for the truly macabre-motivated the Paris Catacombs are not to be missed. In the late 18th century, officials ordered the closure of various burial grounds in Paris and the transfer of the bones to abandoned underground quarries that at the time were just south of the city. In the next few decades the bones of approximately 6 million expired Parisians found their way to what became the Catacombs of Paris. The catacombs are open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Bring a light jacket and sturdy shoes (130 steps down on a spiral staircase).

Douglas R. Keister is a graveyard guru, who Sunset magazine said “has done for cemetery exploration what Audubon did for birding.” His 39 books include four books on cemeteries such as Stories in the Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography. Read his blog on Red Room.

Torquay on the English Riviera throws birthday bash for Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime

by Lillian Africano on

In September of this year, Agatha Christie fans from all over the world will converge on Torquay to celebrate the 120th anniversary of her birth in a week-long festival of murder, mayhem and mischief.

With two billion books in 50 languages in print, Christie is the most-published novelist in the world; online games based on her mysteries have had 30 million downloads. She was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1971 and her summer house, Greenway, was gifted to Britain’s National Trust in 1999, and opened to the public last year.

(Agatha Christie Bust unveiled by her daughter on September 15th, 1990 to mark Christie’s 100th birthday.)On September 12, Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard, will launch the festival with a re-creation of an English country fête of the 1920s and ’30s, with period costumes and a jazz band. A Hercule Poirot lookalike will be on hand to solve any mysteries that might arise. The festival’s 40-odd events will include murder mysteries aboard a train and a vintage bus, treasure hunts, fireworks, productions of Christie’s plays and films, and even a charity swim along the same beach where Christie herself used to bathe. (Dame Agatha was certainly no sissy — the water temperature hovers around 55° F in midsummer.)

Like millions of Christie’s fans, I’ve “traveled” with Agatha — in a beach chair, on trains, on planes, whiling away the hours with the 80 ingenious whodunits that featured her engaging detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. So I’ll be joining the crowds at Torquay to enjoy the celebration and to sample the attractions of the English Riviera.

Dame Agatha herself was an intrepid traveler and explorer. She visited Egypt and the Middle East and met her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, while visiting an excavation. In her imagination, she saw crime everywhere she went. Result: Murder in Mesopotamia, They Came to Baghdad, and Death on the Nile.

Christie rode the famous Venice-Simplon Express to Istanbul, and, like all upper class Britons of the time, stopped at the Pera Palace. She may even have written Murder on the Orient Express here. Her room, 411, is now called the Agatha Christie Room, and the hotel’s new international restaurant will be called the Agatha Restaurant when the Pera Palace reopens on September 1 after an extended renovation. The Pera Palace will also observe its famous guest’s birthday with a party on September 15.

Back in England’s capital, Brown’s Hotel will be offering a special Agatha Christie Afternoon Tea, September 12-19. Brown’s was the inspiration for the too-perfectly-English-to-be-true hotel in At Bertram’s Hotel. While in London, fans can take in The Mousetrap at St. Martin’s Theatre in the West End, where it continues its incredible world-record run of 58 years and counting.

But it was the people and places of her own hometown of Torquay, in the idyllic rural county of Devon, that really fired Christie’s murderous imagination, resulting in no fewer than 15 mysteries, some set in her gracious Georgian home, Greenway.

(Greenway, Christie’s Georgian-style home, and the setting for Dead Man’s Folly)

In Christie’s time, Torquay was a fashionable seaside resort, with stately hotels, sandy beaches and a glorious harbor; the 1948 Olympic sailing events took place here. Britain’s upper classes came for the sea air and a bit of golf or cricket.

Today, the palm-lined promenade and seafront gardens give a nod to the French Riviera; the international marina is a recreational hub of sailing, water-skiing, and diving. Occasionally there’s even a pirate sighting — as when Johnny Depp sailed into Torquay on the Black Pearl (aka HMS Bounty).

(Torquay Harbour and the new harbour bridge)

Stroll along the sea front and you can’t miss the Grand Hotel, an aptly named Victorian-era pile with an Art Deco flourish. Agatha and first husband Archie Christie spent their honeymoon at the Grand in December 1914. During the festival month, the hotel has a special package that starts at £159 (about $246) per room (three-night minimum) and includes a full West Country Breakfast daily, nightly dinner in the AA Rosette Gainsborough Restaurant, one complimentary Devon Cream Tea, and tickets to several Christie attractions.

The Grand Hotel is also the start of the Agatha Christie Mile, which takes in many of the landmarks pertaining to the author’s past and which can be walked with the aid of a leaflet, available from the local Tourist Information Centre.

(Grand Hotel, where Christie and her first husband, Archie, spent their honeymoon.)

In her youth, Agatha roller skated on Princess Pier, attended concerts at the Torquay Pavilion and went to balls at the Imperial Hotel, featured in three of her novels — Peril at End House, The Body in the Library, and Sleeping Murder. Built on the top of a cliff, the hotel commands a sweeping view of the coastline from its well-known Regatta restaurant as well as 77 of its 152 rooms.

High on my sightseeing list are the Torquay Museum, which has an entire gallery dedicated to Christie and the Agatha Christie Potent Plants Garden, which opened last year. Call it a “green” attraction, but fans will instantly recognize the garden as a cornucopia of grow-your-own murder weapon choices: dwarf peaches and nectarines, whose fruit stones produce cyanide, used in Sparkling Cyanide; deadly nightshade, the murder weapon in The Caribbean Mystery; and aconite, which dispatched several characters in 4.50 from Paddington.

If time permits, I’ll visit the prehistoric caves at Kents Cavern. Though Christie never chose the caves as a setting for murder, they are perhaps Torquay’s most mysterious places, pre-dating proper British society by about half a million years and said by some visitors to be haunted by ghosts of Stone Age man.

You can travel to Torquay by train from London’s Paddington Station; it’s an easy three-and-a-half hour ride. A number of hotels and guest houses are offering special festival packages.

Stay tuned for more from Agatha Christie Country.

Eat, Pray, Love movie review

by Catherine Bodry on

Elizabeth Gilbert’s personal transformation from depressed divorcee to healthy, balanced woman in love were recorded in her bestselling memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love.” The book resonated with so many people that a movie adaptation was made, with Julia Roberts playing the lead.

Filming highlighted the beauty of the locations, especially Italy and Bali. A soft focus gave a dreamlike quality, with Roberts’ golden hair glowing like a halo. India didn’t get as much glamor, though the chaos of the country, especially to a new arrival, was portrayed fairly accurately.

Though the movie definitely employed “pretty power,” it wasn’t able to really tell a story. Lost is the complexity of Gilbert’s situation and relationships. We see her in New York, telling her husband she doesn’t want to be married, but there’s no background. The pivotal moment in her story, when she first talks to God, seems out-of-place and as if it came out of nowhere.
The rest of the movie is similar. Gilbert goes searching for herself, but as viewers we’re not really sure what she’s in search of — or if she really ever finds it. Relationships don’t have the weight they should, and thus Gilbert’s journey is lost. Gone is the story of her building herself back up, learning to be alone, and eschewing romance in favor of nurturing her soul. People pop up, friendships are made, but none of it seems to make much sense. And while Roberts does a fantastic job of conveying pain, she doesn’t have the perk that led to Gilbert’s being assigned to the job of Key Hostess in her ashram in India. Thus, Gilbert’s charisma is also gone, and with it any sympathy the viewer might have had for her. When there is an emotional scene, it just tries too hard — like the awkward, pointless confession from Richard from Texas (played by Richard Jenkins).

At least it’s beautiful. And not just the scenery or the Italian food porn: Roberts is surround by a cast of sexy eye candy, including Billy Crudup, James Franco, and Javier Bardem. Unfortunately the beauty of these men in contrast with the lack of character development will only serve to amplify the dreamlike, fantastical quality of the movie; rather than focus on the work that Gilbert did on herself in order to become a more aware human being (what makes the story appealing and relatable), female fans are likely to get lost in the dream of travel and sexy men. I don’t suppose that’s the end of the world, and it is definitely what Hollywood is for, but again, the bigger message of Gilbert’s story is pretty much only conveyed in a final voice-over at the very end.

[Photo credit: Flickr user mzarzar]

EasyJet bans disabled, French government mad

by Tom Johansmeyer on

EasyJet isn’t letting unaccompanied disabled passengers onto its flights, and the French government is furious. It’s threatening the airline with sanctions “with the greatest severity” for leaving these passengers on the ground. The government response was triggered by EasyJet‘s refusing to allow three passengers on flights after they bought tickets, citing safety concerns.

In a statement by the French transport ministry reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, “EasyJet cannot hide behind safety regulations for refusing to board passengers who have difficulty moving around.” It continued, “It must implement solutions adapted to each case, as most companies do. Otherwise it must be sanctioned with the greatest severity.”

EasyJet says it’s in discussion with the French government to work out a solution but noted through a spokeswoman, “European regulations oblige us to evacuate an aircraft in 90 seconds so we are authorised to ask someone to accompany (those needing assistance) to assure the safety of the person and the passengers.”

[photo by twinkleboi via Flickr]