Wonder whose been doing good in the travel
business all year a long? The Who’s Who in travel outfitters? Arthur Frommer highlights six non-profit organizations
that really deserve a round of sound or perhaps may be of use to you in your future travels. The San Francisco
Chronicle does the pleasure of listing these phenomenal groups, which you’ll have to go to the travel home page and then click on their ‘Time to do good for do-good travel
outfits,’ link. Those listed have displayed exceptional work in travel for persons with disabilities, promoting peace
through world home stays, cleaning and tending to hiking trails damaged by reckless travelers, and by providing
low-cost lodging. The list is as follows and I encourage all to look at them all.
New Year's Eve in Philadelphia
Philadelphia is known for the famous New Year’s Day Mummers Parade, which kicks off at 9 am on Sunday
morning. It’s a challenge for the late-night partiers to get out that early, but surely worth rolling out of bed to
experience this authentic Philly tradition if you have the chance. The city’s tourism office expects thousands to turn
out to see the masked revelers and string bands prance up Broad Street. The Mummers parade grew out of European customs
brought by the city’s settlers and origins of the custom date back to medieval England, when troupes of costumed
performers roamed from house to house presenting a Christmas folk drama. Eventually the tradition came to America and
extended to the New Year, marked by loud noisemakers that went off as locals paraded through the streets. Check out the
Mummers Museum for more. I’ll be in Philly for a low-key holiday
with some friends. I’m not sure what we’ll do on New Year’s Eve yet, but we may try to catch the fireworks display at Penn’s Landing. We’ll probably watch the Eagles game and have cheesesteaks, of course, but I’m
not sure if I’ll make it downtown to the parade. If I do, I’ll be sure to give a report when I return…next year.
Enjoy the holiday and Happy New Year everyone!
100 Interesting Things You Didn't Know Last Year
Gotta love the BBC for pulling together this superb list of 100 things we didn’t know last year.
What a brilliant idea. I read the headline and tried to make my own list before I read the piece. I came up way short
of 100 things. But then I read the list and giggled at some of the "things" we didn’t know. The facts range
across a wonderfully wide spectrum of life:
For example, here’s a bit on culture:
35. The
name Lego came from two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well". It also means
"I put together" in Latin.
And celebrity:
5. Nicole Kidman is scared of
butterflies. "I jump out of planes, I could be covered in cockroaches, I do all sorts of things, but I just don’t
like the feel of butterflies’ bodies," she says.
Or a bit of science:%uFFFD 29. When faced
with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell
and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs, scientists discovered.
And yet more science:
14. It’s possible for a human to blow up balloons via the ear. A 55-year-old factory worker from China
reportedly discovered 20 years ago that air leaked from his ears, and he can now inflate balloons and blow out candles.
Who knew!?
The list goes on, and is utterly worth a look…as are the many articles that
sometimes follow the facts. I’ve already sent this around to some buddies, but I figured folks here would enjoy it too.
Back From Baghdad: Florida Boy Back Home
Here’s a story that makes me wonder how engaged and how immersed some of us really are about our travel subjects?
Alas, a young 16 year-old teen from Ft. Lauderdale, FL has been sent home after jetting off to Iraq and spending several
days abroad without telling his parents. Of Iraqi descent and with no real Arabic language speaking skills, the
youngster took off on December 11 telling only two of his close friends. Before making way to Iraq on Christmas Day he
made stops in Kuwait and Lebanon. A taxi driver dropped him off at the Kuwait / Iraqi border, but could go no further.
Hassan then went to Beirut, Lebanon to stay with family friends before flying into Baghdad. On his second day in
Baghdad he contacted the AP and told them he had come to do humanitarian work and research. Are you floored yet? At
that point the AP called the U.S. Embassy who sent soldiers to pick him up.
Whew, wow and whoa! I know this
was pretty much on the absolute brink of stupidity, but the kid’s got guts. Having recently studied immersion
journalism, he really took the bull by the horns on this one. Now that he is back home safely we can all relax and take
a huge deep breath.
Unruly Passenger Dumped on Island
This is absolutely beautiful.
You really couldn’t imagine this
happening to an American passenger on an American flight because all sorts of litigation would ensue.
But in the UK, they not only have little tolerance for misbehavior aboard airplanes, they also have a real sense of
humor in how they deal with it.
According to this BBC piece some guy became so drunk on an airplane that he
started raising a ruckus, insulting people, yelling, being a general air-borne hooligan. He swore at passengers and crew
and basically became so obnoxious that the pilot finally said he had enough and decided to dump the guy on a small
island off West Africa called Porto Santo.
The guy was dumped on the tarmac, his stuff was thrown out
and he was left behind, cuffed by local authorities, to stew in the equatorial sun.