Take a three minute break to watch this video of animals auditioning to join the more than 60 other animals whose pictures are on the tails of Frontier Airlines airplanes.
Cute, right? And it’s only Part 1!
While it would be great if you could get a skirt or a pair of pants hemmed while you were stuck at the airport, that sort of service is quite rare.
But San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is offering perhaps the next best thing: an exhibition about the history of sewing machines.
(Singer sewing machine c. 1895–99. From the Collection of the Museum of American Heritage, Palo Alto, CA)
Threading the Needle: Sewing in the Machine Age traces the development of the domestic sewing machine from the 1850s to the 1970s and celebrates more than one hundred years of sewing.
According to the SFO Museum:
When the sewing machine was first introduced to American homes in the 1850s, it was heralded as a laborsaving device that would transform the domestic lives of women everywhere. Sewing clothing and household linens, once a time consuming, never ending task, no longer had to be painstakingly completed by hand. The popular and influential Godey’s Lady’s Book soon coined the sewing machine “the queen of inventions” and declared that every family in the United States should own one.
In the exhibit, pattern illustrations highlight ladies homemade fashions throughout the decades and a variety of notions from sewing boxes and sewing birds are also on display.
(Sewing accessory stands, c. 1930. From the collection of Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, Berkeley, CA).
Look for the exhibit in SFO Terminal 3, F2 North Connect Gallery, March 2012–August 2012
Happy Birthday to Barbie.
On this day in 1959, Barbie was introduced to the world at the American Toy Fair in New York City.
Those American flags and welcome signs won’t be needed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport anymore.
Every day, for the past eight years, at least one chartered plane carrying U.S. soldiers heading home for two weeks of rest and recuperation from active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan has touched down at both Dallas/Fort Worth and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airports.
And for every flight at DFW, volunteers in the “Welcome Home a Hero” program have gathered to enthusiastically greet the returning soldiers.
“The welcome is a festive event with recorded patriotic music and anywhere from 30 to 300 cheering people holding flags and homemade signs and banners,” said Donna Cranston, coordinator of the Dallas/Fort Worth program. The greeting has become so well-known that some soldiers request to arrive in the U.S. via Dallas instead of Atlanta, Cranston said, even though that means they may have to wait longer for a connecting flight home.
But the drawdown of troops in Iraq and the shift to shorter deployments means there are no longer two full planes of R&R-bound soldiers returning home each day. So the U.S. army has decided to consolidate the flights into Atlanta.
March 14 will be the final Dallas arrival.
The conclusion of the flight is bittersweet news for some troops and for many volunteers who have welcomed home more than 460,000 inbound soldiers who have touched down in Dallas since 2004.
“The soldiers get a hero’s welcome when they come through Dallas, and it’s an uplifting and emotional experience,” said Army Lt. Col. Trisha McAfee, commander of the army’s Personnel Assistance Point at the Dallas airport. “They didn’t get that in other wars. But the consolidation is a good thing because it means many soldiers are spending less time in the war zone and getting home sooner.”
In Dallas/Fort Worth, many volunteers who welcome home troops at the airport also joined the USO so that they could be part of the send-off activities for active-duty military as well. “One volunteer has made more than 45,000 neck pillows to give to soldiers on their way back,” said McAfee.
“It’s always a happier occasion when they come in,” said Linda Tinnerman, 71, who with 78-year-old Constance Carman became known as one of the “Huggin’ and Kissin’ Grandmas” — dispensing free hugs to every returning soldier. “We are also there just to talk and visit with the soldiers.”
While the final R&R flight will arrive at Dallas/Fort Worth on March 14, the last departing flight is scheduled for March 30. After that, the U.S. Army’s daily chartered R&R flights will arrive and depart solely from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where there’s a much smaller “Welcome Home a Hero” and send-off program.
“It’s a matter of logistics,” said Mark Brown, Personnel Assistance Point commander at the Atlanta airport. “At DFW, the soldiers come out into the non-secure side. In Atlanta, they stay on the secure side to connect to their flight. So we have airport employees come out to help with the welcome.”
(A slightly different version of my story appeared on msnbc.com Travel)
Banks don’t give out toasters anymore. But at least the Bank of America is continuing its Museums on Us program.
On the first weekend of each month, more than 150 museums, science centers, zoos and cultural attractions around the country offer free admission to anyone who shows their photo ID and a Bank of America or Merrill Lynch credit or debit card.
Because some museum admission prices hover around $20 now, this is a great way to extend your travel budget while you’re on the road. And it may be a good excuse to see a museum in your town that you’ve always been curious about.
If you’re anywhere near Dearborn, Michigan this weekend, keep in mind that your Bank of America card gets you free admission at the Henry Ford Museum, where the regular admission is $17 ($35 for the Henry Ford/ Greenfield Village combo) and where the Driving America exhibition is the latest attraction.
1955 Chevy Corvette Roadster, courtesy the Henry Ford
Among the many other exhibits inside this 13-acre museum building is a Heroes of the Sky section focusing on the pioneers of aviation.
1928 Ford Trimotor
Good packer? @AmericanAir has a fun contest that tests your packing skills. http://t.co/Ju5EOzez #contest
