Robert Accettura's
Fun With Wordage

From the National Post:

Airport employees in Vancouver were forced into the role of babysitters after a family forgot their 18-month-old toddler after clearing security and boarded a flight to Winnipeg without him.

Did anyone see this and not immediately think of Home Alone (yes, the title of this post came from the tagline of the first movie).

A week ago I came back from St. Maarten, an island known for it’s weather and beaches. There are a few ways to tell a good beach from a great one:

1. Clean beaches.
2. Evidence that topless tanning is allowed.
3. Signs like the one to the left warning you of death by heavy metal.

A beach with an active runway for an international airport makes for a good time. So much so I got to this beach a several times. Equipped with a camera phone I took some video’s of the fun. The video’s are slightly grainy since it was taken on a phone, and a bit shaky since the jet blast could be pretty strong at times.

For the record, sand does go through clothing at that speed. It was strong enough that I wasn’t able to watch a takeoff live as I had to turn my head and close my eyes. Only afterwards could I watch the video replay.

Noteworthy

Boeing 747 takeoff (can’t even keep the camera up).

Almost being hit by a DHL plane

Side Shot of a landing

There’s about a dozen videos and a few pictures.

Here’s an article on the Top 10 Airports in the World. They are billed as great places to pass time while waiting. And boy is this article a load of manure.

I’ve flown out of John F. Kennedy International Airport (though not the mentioned Terminal 6), connected at Los Angeles International Airport (with a layover), and spend 12 hrs delayed at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

First of all, their description of Schiphol is borderline fraudulent. Believe me, all airports are boring after about 1hr. Everything they mention is a bit smaller than the description implies. To give you an idea, take the size of the country and compare the scale to that of the United States. Got that ratio handy? Then take a small Atlantic City Casino, Museum, etc. from the US and shrink it down by that same ratio. That’s about accurate.

I never saw any celebrities at LAX, but perhaps that’s because I was there before the sun came up on a layover, and that was in July as I recall. Any celebrity with money, and some without were somewhere else but LA.