Cornwall: The Update!

At long last, the Cornwall pages are done.

Head on over here to delight in the highs and lows and horses and cookies of the trip.

Enjoy (and please let me know if there are any broken links)!

Lotion-Gate, Take 2

I'd kind of wondered about this:

Airport Retailers Are Left With Uncertain Future
By JEREMY W. PETERS and MICHAEL BARBARO

Airport retailers, who scrambled to adapt to post-Sept. 11 rules that forbid anyone without a ticket from crossing security checkpoints, are now facing the possibility that they will again become unintended victims of enhanced airport security.

With the decision by the Transportation Security Administration on Thursday to ban all liquids, gels and creams from carry-on luggage, newsstands and other airport retailers selling everything from fragrances to frappuccinos have been left wondering about the future of their businesses.

Although it is too early to tell what economic impact the new rules will have on airport stores, many of the merchants are worried and some have already felt the pinch.

Okay, dudes. Nobody asked me, but -- surely there is a relatively simple answer to this.

Has nobody ever heard of "duty-free"?

When you buy duty-free on the plane, you get it in a bag at the end of your journey.

Why would it not be possible to purchase something once you've gone through security, but not actually receive it until you landed at your destination?

"Here's your receipt. Hold on to it or you won't have proof of purchase when you land in Los Angeles ... London ... Dakar ... South Bend."

Nobody needs lotion in-flight. Nobody needs Chanel No. 5 in-flight. (Well, you may need it, particularly after a 22-hour flight, but if you spray it you're going to get smacked by your seatmate.) You need it when you get there. So God forbid, you maybe didn't get it in time and maybe there's no such thing as a drugstore on the other end of your trip. Load it on the plane, or have it waiting from supplies on the other end. If I can get my Glenfiddich once I disembark from my London flight, there's no reason I can't get my tanning lotion.

C'mon, people.

Semitic Semantics

From another gem of an article in the aftermath of Mel-tdown:

(Focus on the Family ministry founder James Dobson) said in a statement that "we certainly do not condone that racially insensitive outburst," but added "Mel has apologized profusely for the incident and there the matter should rest."

For the perhaps 0.8 people who will eventually read this, I would like to make a statement for the record:

Judiasm is not a race.

Let's say it together:

Judiasm is not a race.

It is a set of beliefs, part of which are that Jesus was not the Savior, that the Messiah is still yet to come. From that you can extrapolate a whole two centuries of liturgies, canon and so forth.

As noted on answers.com, among many other places:

The traditional terms for these populations—Caucasoid (or Caucasian), Mongoloid, Negroid, and in some systems Australoid—are now controversial in both technical and nontechnical usage, and in some cases they may well be considered offensive. (Caucasian does retain a certain currency in American English, but it is used almost exclusively to mean “white” or “European” rather than “belonging to the Caucasian race,” a group that includes a variety of peoples generally categorized as nonwhite.)

Hey! They didn't mention Jews! Oh, wait. That's right.

Because Judiasm is not a race.

Neither, for that matter, is White, Black, Asian, or Aboriginal. But you just try go try using the actual words.

In the meanwhile, use words like you actually know what they mean.

I thank you for your attention to this matter.

The Friendly Skies

From this article on the new flying regulations, Day One:

From London to Los Angeles, travelers on Thursday had found themselves unpacking carry-on bags on the floor in the terminals. Some tried to squeeze makeup, sunscreen and other toiletries into their checked baggage, where liquids were permissible. Others filled up the bins at security checkpoints, abandoning everything from nail polish to a bottle of tequila.

"I literally lost about $50 or $60 worth of things we were told to throw out," said Terry Asbury, who flew into Cincinnati from Albuquerque, N.M., and found herself dumping all her cosmetics.

At Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Kristin Reinke, of Champlin, Minn., complained to her husband, Mike Reinke, "I just threw out $34 worth of hand lotion."

I wasn't there. But I'd reallly like to think that the Reinkes, Asbury and all of those other thousands who were left throwing out lotions and toothpaste and so forth actually considered taking clothing out of their bags and fitting all that expensive stuff in, while taking the clothing on board, which was allowed. I'd like to think that.

I tend not to, though.

In completely unrelated news, since yesterday turned out not to be a day of disaster, thanks to the Brits who are apparently paying attention to these sorts of things, I ended up having a very, very Duran Duran day. How did this happen, you may ask? (Or not.)

Morning:
Because I am a freak (and because I like to donate to good causes), I had ordered from the fan site a DD towel. Shut up. It arrived, this big fluffy blue thing with their block-letter logo on it. I left it in the FedEx bag to carry home.

Later Morning:
Had a legitimate, work-related reason to interview Nick Rhodes. The band is going to create avatars for this online MMOG called "Second Life" and have their own islands. Seriously. Anyway, they're all about self-marketing and branding, and we like that at work, so on the phone we got. He was lovely. He even made (at my request) a "get well" message for my friend Lynda, who's not feeling so hot lately. Nick Rhodes is a prince among men.

Evening:
Met up with H for dinner before heading to see "The History Boys," which won best actor and best play at the most recent Tonys. As we were leaving to walk the three blocks to the theater, it was raining torrentially. Insanely. Get wet in five seconds type of rain. We held back and waited for it to slack off. I rooted through my bag (because of course neither of us had an umbrella, though H decided he could carry his bag over his head). I found ... the towel.

Perfect. As Ford Prefect learned, it is always good to travel the universe with a towel.

Then, we got to the theater. I knew the play was full of Brits, which is always a pleasant thing if you're trapped in a small seat for 2 hours and 45 minutes, and I knew it took place in a grammar (aka high) school, but I didn't know it took place in the 1980s or that there would be a giant screen at the back which, during scene changes, showed the actors running around the halls and encountering one another or teachers or such like, set to the beat of various 80s music. The first song? "Rio."

Continuing into this morning:
VH1 Classic played "New Moon on Monday," the video in which the devilishly cruel director decided to keep in the brief scene where Simon gets rear-ended by a passing horse.

Aaaaaand....

The radio played "Ordinary World."

Either they're inextricably attached to the cultural bloodstream, or I'm being followed. Either way, it's all good.

Pre-baby Update

Nice profile!

Syd already has a shirt that reads "I'm the big sister."

Now, I'll jump on the bandwagon with everyone else

His mug shot may have made him not seem so crazy, but give that man some alcohol and watch the words fly. And truth is, when you're drunk, you don't usually say things you would never think or believe. You're actually more free with your emotions. So, there it is.

My point remains the same: Wait for actual evidence before trying someone. The police notes were, for at least two days, only available on a questionable web site; everyone else linked to them. Now that we have Gibson making a specific apology (this one is new today), I don't have a problem with rendering judgment.

Here's his latest mea culpa, from The Hollywood Reporter:

Aug. 02, 2006
Sorrowful Gibson asks forgiveness, help

By Gregg Kilday

Mel Gibson has issued a direct apology to the Jewish community for the anti-Semitic remarks he made early Friday morning when he was arrested for driving under the influence on Pacific Coast Highway.

"There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge," the filmmaker said in lengthy remarks issued Tuesday morning through his publicist Alan Nierob.

"I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena. As a result, I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologize directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words," Gibson continued.

The statement went on to say: "The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life. Every human being is God's child, and if I wish to honor my God I have to honor his children. But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.

"I'm not just asking for forgiveness. I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing."

He said that he would turn to the Jewish community for help in his battle with alcoholism, saying, "I have begun an ongoing program of recovery and what I am now realizing is that I cannot do it alone. I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery. Again, I am reaching out to the Jewish community for its help. I know there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed."

He concluded, "This is not about a film. Nor is it about artistic license. This is about real life and recognizing the consequences hurtful words can have. It's about existing in harmony in a world that seems to have gone mad."