trinacriabob

@oldshurst442 AirTransat flies a lot of A330s to cross the pond. I think cruising speed advantage can be cancelled out by tail winds and head winds. The last Alitalia flight from Rome to New York was 10 hours. The pilot said it would be 1 hour longer because of strong head winds. Normally, it's 9 to come back to the U.S. and 8 to go to Italy. I've also seen the eastbound trip be as short as 7:20 because of tail winds. The 747 is just impressive to be in. One of the things, though, is that there are 3 seats out on the sides. That's more people to crawl over if you like windows. If you sit way in the back and the 747 turns 180 degrees while taxiing, you get a good spin from it compared to those sitting in the middle, near the fulcrum. With reference to Greece, I've seen Olympic's Airbus 340 going to Athens at JFK parked at the gate across the way. The 340 is probably my favorite Airbus product.

Have never been to Hawaii. Yet. I'll check out a HNL airport map. British used the 747-400 between SEA and LHR in the evenings as well, in addition to the 747 service from PHX to LHR you mention. It's easier to see planes doing their thing at PHX, which has come a long ways, than it is at SEA, where there's no planespotting area that I know of. As for DEN, I know that Lufthansa used the 747-400 for non-stops to FRA. It looks like Lufthansa will park their A380s, retire their remaining 747-400s (they've seen a lot of action), and probably use their 747-8i for nonstop long-haul that have the demand. The newer 8i is one beautiful machine. I've only flown on a 777 once. Can't say I liked it all that much. For passenger comfort, the 767 is better, with 2-3-2 in economy. That could pencil out better and that's why everything with 2 aisles is at least 8 economy seats across now. I vaguely recall that, from the initial roll to rotation, a 747-200 or -400 (?) consumes about 800 gallons of fuel.

Just as a distraction ... I once wondered how many gallons (or liters) of fuel it took to get a fully booked 747 from somewhere on the East Coast to one of the major gateways in Europe (like LHR, FRA, or CDG) and it was almost pointless to calculate that sort of thing. If first and business class are somewhat full, they more than take care of the cost of the fuel. The low priced seats in the back, upwards of 325 of them in economy, would pay for other operating costs, overhead, and profit. Cargo would do the same. That's one possible way to look at it.

Just an FYI - if you're "shopping" for airfares months after the curve has theoretically flattened, the domestic legacy carriers' fares aren't what they can be, meaning lower. I am sure that they need the revenue and might be anticipating that people will cram all their air travel into this window of time when the weather is still decent.

One thing is probably going to change when it comes to buildings. My local post office is newer, but not that new - maybe late 80s or early 90s. You have to grip the metal door handles to get in. You can exit by leaning on the doors. In the future, I see more of those entry doors for big public and commercial buildings where a sensor or some other contraption will cause the door to open and close. Also, I see more translucent partitions in cashier-customer situations. And, we will have to get accustomed to bowing to greet people, like the Japanese do.

I ran it through the car wash yesterday. I applied Mother's paste wax to it today.

Andrea Bocelli just gave a live solo performance for Easter at Milan's cathredal (Duomo di Milano) upon being invited by the city and the (arch)diocese. In the beginning, he's inside the church but, at the end, he is singing outside the church and they pan over some of the world's great but empty cities. One of the lines in the lyrics of the last song is especially noteworthy. Happy Easter to our members who celebrate it. And anyone else who wants to share a day of peace and rebirth in general.

I read that the Burning Man festival held in the Nevada desert has been cancelled. My heart aches ... NOT.

I went on it. And went off it. It keeps people in high school type dynamics. No bueno. - - - - - In it's heyday: It went out with a bang ... literally ... what a send off ... When they do show you their marquee, it says "No Vacancy." Duh. There was a lot of fire once the implosion got started. The Kingdome stadium was imploded - the only one I've actually seen - but you only saw the flares and some smoke when it got started; nothing like this. The Dunes went down to make room for the Bellagio.

I agree with just about all of that. Said another way, most things are better in moderation: being mentally, spiritually, and physically "incarcerated" is one extreme. A "free for all" would be the other.

I will not opine too much on this but agree that guilt has been used as a control mechanism by organized religion. There's something to think about here - Slick Willie slotted in right after the Bush 41 1991 recession and right before the dot-com bust. His timing in the business cycle couldn't have been more fortuitous. Not talking about politics and ability, the first time I heard him open his mouth, I didn't like him. He's too much like a car salesman, but with a very impressive IQ and educational background. Talking business, there's one business that's not doing too shabby around here: Starbucks. If you've got a Starbucks in a suburb and it has a drive-through, you may see the "addicts" lining up through the drive-through. They're the ones who don't wear down the seats and tables, use the restrooms, or use the wi-fi. What they've "lost" is their in-store clientele, but some of those customers, myself included, can be cheap - order a cup of coffee or tea ... and sit there for a long time. I usually leave their nice employees a tip, though.

@daves87rs I'm not sad about Bernie dropping out. At all. I'm hoping that Joe picks your state governor as his running mate. @oldshurst442 She could have died of cancer. The article mentioned that she has battled it before. If she was weakened by that battle, it would have been harder to overcome COVID-19. Some famous people, as we see on the news, have succumbed to it. We don't know if it was the issue here. A few days prior, Honor Blackman, who played the Bond girl with the character name that has gone unforgotten in "Goldfinger," died at 94, and it was entirely due to other health issues. I have heard that theory that Linda Tripp was a case of being scorned and being jealous of Monica. If Linda Tripp was jealous or thought she had a chance, she was delusional. As for gossip and sinfulness, imagine this. Try to spend an hour with someone, such as a friend, and not talk about anyone. It's not possible to operate in a vacuum. Possibly, there are two options - just talking about someone in a "shoot the breeze" way and gossip of the "nasty" variety. If you want to talk sin, the first one would not be while the second one could be. I don't want to digress into a spiritual discussion. Regardless, all this talk about Linda Tripp and company got me thinking about this classic tune (better here than in the music thread):

Random thoughts could include mulling over current events: - Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the race, and - Linda Tripp died a day or two ago, at age 70. The cause has not been revealed. When I thought of the word bureaucrat, I thought of employees in European government posts who pushed paper and took forever to do so, probably giving priority to their smoke and coffee breaks. We definitely have these same types over here. At any rate, Linda Tripp, a previously obscure federal employee, became the American face of the term "bureaucrat" some 20 years ago ... and this is the face most likely to be etched into people's brains:

I agree. Even if they lean a little to the left or a little to the right, you can use the information and make up your own mind on the topic. We probably have our own opinions about the topics they present ahead of time. My parents had these neighbors a couple of blocks over. They were a younger married couple with kids. The wife often began sentences with "you need to" or "you have to." For being "uneducated," she was very patronizing. One time, I got an emphatic, "You need to watch Fox News." It turns out her husband moved to another state to attend to family matters and, last I know, hadn't moved back. I'm sure he had had enough of "you need to" and "you have to." On top of it, this lady was also a holy roller.

I read the book before I saw the movie. True, in "The Exorcist," the younger priest's surname was Karras. And, when they showed his elderly mother in NYC, she was sitting in her apartment listening to a Greek language radio station. However, why was he hanging out at Georgetown? Could it be that a very small percentage of Greeks are Roman Catholic? There were always Greek Orthodox kids and Middle Eastern Christian (Coptic, etc.) kids in my schools but that's because they didn't have enough critical mass to have their own grade schools and high schools and their parents had no intention of sending them to public schools.

Or we could say it's like having the blues, but then it would be confused with depression. I believe he has a degree. He dumbs down his presentation to connect with everyday blue collar folks. He started out at Fordham and transferred to Penn to finish. Since his father built out one of the largest and nicest developments in Queens NY (Jamaica Estates) back in the day, his dad's money could have kept him in, with the university sort of buying in to push him through with B-/C+ grades. If he doesn't want to show transcripts, it's possibly because his grades aren't much to look at. It's okay. When I was a kid, I would have thought the same thing, let alone even think about either of these schools. On the East Coast, I only gave some thought to Georgetown because it looked cool in "The Exorcist," but I doubt I would have gotten in. Also, up until about the late 90s, I always assumed your McGill was private because of its WASPy sounding name and because it didn't have the Univ. of (insert place) names given to most other major public Canadian universities.

CNN is my point of reference. I looked it up in Wiki and the article said that, while the perception is that they lean left, the reality is that they present a balanced viewpoint.

I'm talking about the perception of the virus rather than reality. Your imbecile president, with an Ivy League pedigree from Penn, hastily called it the Chinese virus.

Stop being so Canadian and apologizing! I, for one, am rarely offended. It's hard to separate humor from political correctness, so let it roll (laissez les bon temps rouler). So it goes like this: the virus started in China, so it was a Chinese virus it then got transported to Italy in 2 ways - 1 person from Wuhan repatriating to Italy (Lombardy, in the north) and 2 tourists from China staying near the Colosseum (Rome, in the center) * there rea also contact traces where there was some movement between Germany and Italy related to work and that caused it to spread * so, it is now an Italian virus and the EU hates them the south of the country got its first cases a month later - 1 person, a mother, returning to the east coast of Sicily after visiting the kids in Lombardy and 1 person in Palermo, on the northwest coast, who was vacationing from Lombardy so, to the south, it's a northern Italian virus ... and southern Italians think northern Italians are cold and structured while the northern Italians think the southern Italians are unruly and unfiltered then, somebody who may have been in China returns to the Seattle area and WA state is at the center of the spotlight so, in the U.S., it's a Pacific Northwest virus the West Coast puts a lid of sorts on it, but cases in tri-state NYC skyrocket so, in the U.S., it's now a New York virus and, to the world, it's now an American virus - - - - - To put some humor into this, I can only think of the commercial for Pace picante sauce. Some dude is getting food in what might be a diner in Texas and gets a hot sauce that looks odd. They are probably thinking it's Tex-Mex or from across the border. Then, together, they examine the label on the Pace picante sauce and it comes from a company headquartered in New York. So, in unison, they exclaim with a twang: "New York City?!?" You know some rednecks in the U.S. are thinking that exact same thing right now.

I saw this before but it came back up and I saw it again. I don't understand it. And I don't see it. If they eliminate the Malibu, or whatever that niche of car would be named going forward, GM will have no product to offer to the rental and salesperson fleet markets. The Malibu shores up the segment above it and beneath it, when they chose to eliminate the Chevy full-size and compact. What I don't understand is how, with boomers growing in numbers among retirees, the demand for sedans dwindles as much as they say it has. I agree that it'll see a refresh in about 2 years, and maybe continue on for a few more years. However, I think that a similar vehicle will be slotted into the Malibu's spot, possibly with a different type of powerplant (electric or other variant) and with a different name. I sort of thought the name "Malibu" was a detriment. At times in its history, it has been a dowdy car. Moving over to Buick, I think that their naming a German produced sport sedan "Regal," which has had even dowdier chapters in its history, was a misfire. I think some nameplates need to go away. They can come up with other ones. It's called brainstorming. As successful as the Cutlass was, Olds was smart to shelve that nameplate and rename their new midsize product the Intrigue.

I had meant to put the second half of the above post in Random Thoughts. Sorry about that.

@Robert Hall I presume the second one is a NON-N95 dust mask. I have some of those. What I've been doing is doubling them up when I go to get groceries or go to the post office. I don't keep it on for a long time. It's more confining and uncomfortable than just one, which doesn't offer much protection. - - - - - Okay, folks, I want everyone (assuming they are practicing their faiths) in church for Easter. I'm still trying to get over this. I think that, no matter how hard it is, people should plan on April 30, at the very least, which is 18 days beyond Easter. Just recently, Mark Cuban beat around the bush and said he wasn't ruling out a run. This worries me. Isn't one reality show star enough in the most important office in the land (or the world)? The problem is that the idiots (who are far from rich) who like this sort of stuff and lack critical thinking skills vote for ultra rich narcissists who sell them the populist line of crap ... yet don't give a crap about them. Then, if this is even tenable, how about Kevin O'Leary being a possible PM choice for our northern neighbors? Please break this worrisome trend, folks.

I recall there being a Cortina years ago, most likely a Ford product for the foreign market. - - - - - About the current downer subject, I was looking at the global caseload map ... the shaded one. The Southern Hemisphere caseload is a lot smaller. There are cases but, for the numbers of people, they aren't as high as in the Northern Hemisphere. This makes me wonder if what they say about UV rays and higher temperature (over 30C/86F) is helping the fight. In Brazil, which has over 200 million people, there are about 12,000 cases ... at this time. Our April is their October. It's hard to look away even if you try.

Saw this photo and thought it was funny. Don't know why. It's the central square (more of a rotunda) with Sofia, Bulgaria's Orthodox cathedral in the middle of it. Don't remember what brand of car that is. I can almost hear one of those French sounding ambulances somewhere in the background.

Love most Firebirds but that front fascia ruined the '77 and '78 models, IMO. Had it been a little more subtle, it might have worked. Their switching over to rectangular lamps was a good design decision, though.