Summer Reading

Some quick links for your summer reading pleasure.

(The New York Times and Wall Street Journal links may require registration if those articles aren't part of their wide-open content -- the Times is free, the Journal is not.)

Passenger tries to open plane door mid-flight
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/07/27/drink.plane.ap/index.html

The title pretty much says it all. Well, I'm sure we could all say more, but it'd hardly be printable.

Come Dine With Me
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/opinion/03weaver.html

A retrospective on airline service, specifically in-flight dining, and how it has declined. The author says airline food hit its peak in the 1980s; however I will contend that Air France was beating the competition hands-down in the early 2000s.

A Tip for Overseas Travelers: Leave Your Cellphones Home
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121735292432893795.html

Want to avoid high mobile phone bills when you travel? Get a local pay-as-you-go phone number in your destination country or use a VoIP service such as Skype.

I've done both in the past, and with great success. What's interesting is the difference in personal information collected in various countries for the pay-as-you-go SIMs. The US practically wants a blood sample, and France wants to see some ID. The UK, by comparison, only asked two questions: you sure you have an unlocked phone? and how much money do you wanna put on it?