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Last Friday’s  “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” song contest at Boston Logan International Airport must have been a hoot.

Ten brave Boston Red Sox fans showed up at the new Jerry Remy’s Sports Bar & Grill in Terminal C and sang their versions of the springtime classic in front of a panel of  “celebrity” judges and loads of curious travelers.

Alan Rogers of Warner, NH won first place in the singing contest and will get to sit with Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy in the booth at a Red Sox home game.  Here’s a a video of Rogers singing his winning version of the song.

Categories: Contests, Fun Stuff
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Several airports around the country will be marking Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22 with free gifts for travelers.

At Denver International Airport (DEN) they’ll be distributing these reusable grocery shopping bags to passengers in the (main) Jeppesen Terminal.

At Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), more than two dozen kids from the East Boston YMCA will join airport staff to greet arriving passengers with  free plant-able postcards embedded with wildflowers.

“We have lots more postcards than we have arriving passengers that day, so we’ll be handing these out for a few days,” says an airport spokesperson.

And at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, (SEA) they’ll be having a full-fledged Earth Day Fair complete with information booths about local sustainability projects, examples of green products, samples of organic food, and presentations about recycling everything from food scraps to building materials. The fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sea-Tac Airport in the Gina Marie Lindsey Arrivals Hall.

Categories: Environment, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff
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Starting this Friday, April 24^th, the charming Dane County Regional Airport (MSN) in Madison, Wisconsin will begin hosting an exhibition about some tiny things, like this fruit fly embryo.

“Tiny: Art From Microscopes at UW-Madison” runs through Dec. 31, 2009 and features about 40 images of  cells, molecules and nanoscale structures generated in the course of research by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists over the last 10 years.

The magnified images include not only fruit-flies, but mice embryos, butterfly and plant cells, and corn kernels.

In the image of the fruit fly embryo above, gene products have been localised: the hairy protein in seven red stripes, the Kruppel domain in green and two giant domains in blue. (Image courtesy: Jim Langeland, Steve Paddock and Sean Carroll.  University of Wisconsin-Madison, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biology.)

If images of tiny things don’t grab you,  check out the full-size Corben Super Ace plane suspended from the airport ceiling.

The Corben was a sport aircraft built in Madison in the 1930′s and this one was built by volunteers from the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association using original 1930′s plans.

Categories: Art, History
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1950′s Pan Am World Airways flight bag; photo courtesy San Francisco Int’l Airport)

If you’ve got a layover at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) be sure to check out the exhibition of more than 125 vintage and present-day items from 45 airlines, including flight attendant uniforms, airline signage, flight bags, in-flight service items, luggage labels, ticket jackets, safety cards and model aircraft.

(Colonial Airways luggage label c. 1925; courtesy SFO airport)

The objects help tell the story of how airlines establish an identity through graphic design, interior design, architecture, fashion, and cuisine.

Painted Wings: A History of Airline Identity is on view at SFO through August 14, 2009 in the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum. The museum, a gem on its own, is located pre-security on the Departures/Ticketing Level of the International Terminal, next to the entrance to Boarding Area A.  Admission to the museum is free.

Categories: Art, Exhibits, History
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Happy Souvenir Sunday!

Whenever I’m stuck at the airport, I always spend a little time poking around the stores in search of a fun “of that city” souvenir.

I have just a few rules:

1. No shot glasses or t-shirts.

2. The souvenir must be under $10.

3.  Nothing generic or simply stamped with the city’s name. (See rule 1).

This Sunday:  Space Noodles from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

You can buy these in town at the gift shop at the Space Needle itself and in shops that sell local and northwest-made products. But I particularly love the idea of buying funny-shaped pasta at the airport.

Do you have a fun, offbeat souvenir you’ve found at an airport? Let me know and I may feature it in Souvenir Sunday.

Categories: Souvenirs
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