Fun Stuff

All the latest articles about Fun Stuff

Souvenir Sunday: Virgin hot air balloons and Eurostar uniforms

05/09/10
While researching a story about recycling efforts by airlines and airports, I came across Worn Again, a London company that made a line of small bags and jackets out of a decommissioned Virgin hot air balloon (you can order items in any color, as long as its red). Worn Again also makes a variety of →

Party at Pittsburgh International Airport

05/04/10
To celebrate five years of service to Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), Southwest Airlines will be throwing a little party at its PIT gates starting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Gate games and decorations are promised, but with Southwest, well, you never know quite what will happen. Even without a Southwest party, Pittsburgh Airport has a →

Vintage airline air sickness bags

04/24/10
Reading back through the Delta Air Lines blog this week I noticed an entertaining entry from archives manager Marie Force: an airsickness bag from the mid-1960s that has a gin rummy scoreboard on one side: And an aviation quiz on the other! That led me to visit the Air Sickness Bag Virtual Museum, of course, →

Airport trend I applaud: ice-cream vending machines

04/06/10
Where I live, it’s been very cold and very rainy. But at the Nashville International Airport (BNA) they’re ready for summer and celebrating the season with the installation of a new vending machine that dispenses that popular ice-cream treat: Dippin’ Dots. The machine is located on the C Concourse (across from Burger King and The →

Souvenir Sunday at Fairbanks International Airport

04/04/10
It’s Souvenir Sunday, the day we focus on fun, offbeat and inexpensive items you can find at airports. And I’m tickled that this week’s Souvenir Sunday items come to us from Fairbanks International Airport (FAI), courtesy of Bobbie Egan of Alaska Airlines. The first souvenir she sent over is this teeny-tiny brush, which has a →

Headless chickens, rotten tomatoes and other reasons to party

04/02/10
Friends, family and, yes, strangers, often remind me that there’s a whole world out there beyond airports.  They’re right. And luckily that world is quite wacky.   Especially if you find yourself at one of the offbeat festivals or events I rounded up this week for a “Wacky Festivals” slide-show on msnbc.com. (Courtesy Fruita Tourism) In →

WestJet offers hands-free Clapper technology

04/01/10
Here’s an interesting idea: Today WestJet announced that it is introducing Clapper technology on board its aircraft that will allow guests to operate amenities such as lights and live seatback television, simply by clapping their hands. “Made popular on television in the mid-1980s, Clapper technology is making an in-flight comeback thanks to the addition of →

Airports – and now airlines – trash talking each other

03/27/10
For my At the Airport column on USAToday.com this month, Airport wars escalate with attack ads aimed at rivals, I wrote about a new YouTube video about San Francisco International Airport, that features cameo appearances by SF  Mayor Gavin Newsom and Marion & Vivian Brown, the kooky 83-year-old identical twins who have become beloved San →

Bonus features on Oakland Int’l Airport website

03/22/10
Poke around on some airport websites and you’ll find some fun, surprising and educational stuff. Case in point: the Oakland International Airport (OAK) site, which has a link to the Exploratorium’s instructions on how to fold a paper airplane, information about the Oakland Aviation Museum, which sits on the airport’s North Field, and a great →
31 / 3931