Feeling flustered on a flight? Keep your pants on for heaven’s sake.

by Jamie Rhein on

One could keep a tally of flight experiences. Make two columns.

On one side write: “Great experiences where the crew and flight attendants were spiffy.”

On the other side write: “Travel misery where any minute you could go bonkers and take off your pants.”

Then, under each column, jot down those experiences that would fit under each. Geoff Vuleta does a similar activity in his article, “Tired and Impatient. Keep Your Pants On.” By the end I was laughing. Vuleta travels often and has seen it all.

From the women whose baby threw up on the both of them, but the attendant would not move the cart in order to let the woman pass by so she could get to the bathroom to clean up the mess– to the airline personnel who bought pizza for delayed passengers, he has an eye for what makes for misery, a bit of grace, and the absurd.

The part that made me laugh out loud was when Vuleta recounted how on one flight he was so flustered that he forgot where he was. When he took off his sports coat, he also took off his pants, neatly folded them, and put them in the overhead bin before starting to head down the aisle to claim his seat. It gave his traveling companion some comic relief.

Woman snagged at airport for packing banana plants in her underwear

by Jamie Rhein on

I suppose if you’re flying domestically in the U.S. and had three banana plants in your underwear while going through a security check, particularly if you’re female, you’d attract attention. But, after discovering you were packing banana plants and not a pistol, you might be allowed to walk on your merry way.

Although, just how well one could walk is another issue. Seriously, if you had three banana plants in your underwear, could you walk?

In the airport in Sydney, Australia, according to this story published in the Sydney Morning Herald, if you have even one banana plant in your underwear, you’d be in a whole mess of trouble. A whole world of trouble. More trouble than you probably ever imagined.

You’d be in trouble even if the plant was not in your underwear but tucked under your arm like a rolled up newspaper–Or if you were wearing it like a hat.

It’s illegal to bring banana plants into Australia no matter how you are carrying them. Banana plants carry nasty ailments that sound as if they could be sexually transmitted diseases.

“Better not, I have black sigatoka disease,” one might say. Or how about “fusarium wilt?”– or “moko disease?”

The woman apprehended by customs officials at the airport in Australia was trying to smuggle the plants in from Samoa. Although she doesn’t have any funky sounding diseases, she could be looking at 10 years in jail and a $66,000 Australian dollar fine for threating Australia’s banana industry.

Drink vodka on the ice in the ice at a new Orlando bar

by Jamie Rhein on

We’ve written about hotels made of ice–this one in Quebec, another in Sweden, and one in Finland. We’ve also written about ice bars. There is one in Montreal, for example. At least there was in 2006 when former Gadling blogger Neil wrote that particular post.

As of October 1, there’s another place to get cold for a cold one. Icebar Orlando opened as one more option for adults looking for an adventure. In this AP article, Mark Wangrin provides an overview about what patrons can expect.

To help ward against the cold, visitors are provided with an insulated cape and gloves. Also, don’t expect to linger. The 27-degree temperature means that one or two drinks, and you’re out of there. There’s a 45-minute time limit on visits.

With the $35 cover charge that includes the cost of a drink, a trip to Icebar Orlando is not one of the cheaper things to do in the Sunshine State. Double the cost of admission and you’re in Disney World for a day. The Icebar is quieter though.

If you want to spend some more time here, you can hang out in the Chill Lounge where temperatures are regular and there isn’t an extra charge.

Sarah Palin in a Corn Maze

by Jamie Rhein on

Sarah Palin is in a corn maze. This does not mean that Sarah Palin is actually in a corn maze, but that there is a corn maze made to look like Sarah Palin. You have to be looking down on the maze and not in it in order to see the likeness. And it does look like her–and also Tina Fey.

I heard about this maze on News Update on Saturday Night Live and promptly checked out the story’s validitity. Yep, the maze is in Whitehouse, Ohio not too far from Toledo. Although the maze of Palin is new this year, The Corn Maze at the Butterfly House where it is located is not new.

Each year the Whitehouse Farm turns acres of corn fields into pictures. There is also an amazing intricate butterfly for wandering among the corn stalks. Corn mazes are one way farmers have upped their revenue in an unsure market. Elaborate pictures are not as common. Palin’s took eight hours to make after an artist made a sketch and figured out how to mow it using a GPS system.

Check out the farm’s Web site for a video of Palin’s maze. You can walk through Palin’s head (sort of a borrowed line from Saturday Night Live) Palin’s addition certainly adds something new to the fall line up of Ohio’s corn mazes.

Here is a YouTube video of a news clip of the Palin corn maze. The owner of the Butterfly House, Duke Wheeler explains how the maze was made and what other fun things his farm has planned.

10 tips for smarter flying


Couple gets hitched while flying on top of two biplanes

by Jamie Rhein on


I’m sure Orville and Wilbur Wright would get a kick out of seeing how their invention has opened doors to new ways of finding wedded bliss.

When Katie Hodgson and Darren McWalters climbed up onto the top of the biplanes–one each, they weren’t the only ones getting strapped into place. A minister was strapped onto the 3rd plane.

My first thought was when I watched this video, I wonder where they found the daredevil minister? I was also impressed Katie was able to climb aboard in such a lovely dress. I also wondered if this couple knows the song, “On the Wings of Love?”

The wedding took place in Great Britain on Tuesday. For a detailed account, click here for an article I found. The groom used to be afraid of heights.