Smiley Face

Smile Day at JFK + Space pillow from Air New Zealand

World Smile Day will be celebrated on Friday, October 4 and JFK International Airport’s Terminal 4 is ready to celebrate.

What’s World Smile Day? It’s a day that honors Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts who invented the smiley face in 1963.

(Although others claim to be the original Smiley Face inventor as well).

Celebrations are supposed to take the form of smiling at other people (of course) and doing kind acts for others throughout the day. 

For its kind act of kindness, JKF T4 will be inviting passengers to take smiling photos and then share those images on Instagram and Twitter.

The preferred Hashtag: #T4SMILE.

T4 will then take those photos and make photo stickers of the images. Those stickers will then be put together to form a giant wall mural near the terminal help desk in front of the DFS store.

To encourage people to smile, T4 staff will also be handing out buttons and T4-branded toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Pillows for the people

Another thing that might make you smile is getting a great pillow on a plane.

Air New Zealand is doing its part in that arena by rolling out a new pillow that uses technology originally developed for astronauts.

According to the airline, the pillow is coated with Outlast, a substance first developed for use in space gloves to protect against extreme temperature fluctuations and to keep hands cool. 

The coating absorbs heat as the skin gets hot. And, as the skin cools, the heat is released.   

The new hypoallergenic pillow is now available to Business Premier passengers traveling on the airline’s Chicago route to Auckland, the longest route in the Air New Zealand network.

Greetings from Worcester Regional Airport

I attended a community radio reunion in Worcester, MA this weekend and was told by several folks that I just had to take a ride out the Worcester Regional Airport.

“It’s eerie,” an old friend said, “The airport has this giant new building. But when you go there, the doors open but nothing is there.”

He was right.

WORCESTER AIRPORT

Worcester Regional Airport (ORH) is advertised as having four jetway gates, two ramp level gates, a baggage carousel and other amenities.

But things don’t quite look finished, even though the first commercial air service in quite some time is scheduled to begin on November 7th, when Jet Blue begins daily service between Worcester and Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

worcester jet blue

And while it looks like there may be a news/snack shop opening, beyond the advertised free Wi-Fi, the only amenities I saw on-site were a vending machine (Pop Tarts were one option), two video game machines and a display case with some items representing Worcester history, including this coffee mug celebrating Worcester as the birthplace of the Smiley Face – an honor claimed by Seattle and one or two other cities.

Worcester Smiley Face