Yes.
Yes it did.
Just look at these happy patrons over at Jack London Square’s Bocanova restaurant.
Thusly:
And thusly:
Man, if I had knowed, I would have loaded up the Land Cruiser with eight souls and headed on over there.
And then I’d have been off to Sud America to see Paradise Falls or to party like an impossible-to-fire BART spokesmodel or to do something, man.
Damn!
Well-played, LAN Airlines.
Well–played, Edelman PR
All the deets after the jump.
Well, this is news to me:
20120315_20120314_3.216d_cohen_malia (pdf)
Check it:
Gee, who didn’t go on this junket?
Now if I were a Supervisor, I’d prefer to take a $6000 [don't say bribe, don't say bribe] whatever and use it to head off to Trinidad, but that’s just me.
Vacation, have to get away
This shot of a crow hassling a red tailed hawk was taken before the boycott of San Francisco Botanical Garden, before the arrival of the paywall manned by minimum-wage workers.
Circling too close to the crow’s nest, Children’s Garden, near MLK Drive:
Click to expand
They said they’d kill the fee if it didn’t work out. It didn’t work out but I don’t think that they’ll ever kill the fee. Oh well.
On some days, the fees generated by the paywall don’t even cover the cost of paying the non-union workers minimum wage to collect the fees.
Of course our Rec and Park considers the paywall a “great success.” Oh well.
Yesterday, owing to the unusual winds what blew away* the fog, I saw jumbo jets above S.F. in places where I normally don’t, but I couldn’t really hear them. (I guess jets have gotten a lot quieter these days.)
Like this low-flying United Air 747-400 near the Ferry Building – you could hardly hear it:
Click to expand
*I suppose – cf. yesterday’s Blue Sky Red Bridge from Burrito Justice
Well we made it. We’ve gone ten years without a passenger dying on a commercial jetliner flying above America, or coming to America or leaving from America. (Now that doesn’t include regional jets – I’m talking about jet airliners, narrow-body or wide-body, made by Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed, or McDonnell Douglas.)
The last day passengers died was November 12th, 2001 on American Airlines Flight 587.
Of course, we’ve had some close calls since then, like with that shoe bomber guy or with Sully Sullenberger and his famous water landing.
Military flights, well that’s a different story. Capt. Christopher Stricklin punches out (and lives to tell the tale) 200 feet above Idaho:
Click to expand
(And this no-deaths record doesn’t include smaller aircraft like regional jets or turboprops or private airplanes.)
Needless to say, this streak of good luck hasn’t happened before. Back in the day, back in the 1960′s, 1970′s, 1980′s and 1990′s, people would die on big jets all the time.
But not anymore.
Hurray.
Uh oh, I smell trouble brewing after this recent bit from the Bay Area’s Michael Finney.
Check it:
“…a loyal reader sent a link to what ABC seven-on-your-side reporter Michael Finney in San Francisco thinks is news, a 2 minute plus tear-jerker of a story about Terri Weissinger, who made a home for herself in the San Francisco Airport in April.”
The battle is now well and truly joined:
“Mr. seven-on-her-side, Finney had the nerve (reporters are very nervy, busted!) to call the airline for a response as if Ms. Weissinger’s inability to pay for the services of an airline to take her and her stuff from A to B was worthy of a response from the airline and got a somewhat gracious, “We have apologized for her experience but cannot refund her ticket.” Stuck in the airport because of baggage fees, is the characterization of the reporter. She wasn’t stuck in the airport because of baggage fees, she was stuck in the airport because while she certainly looks like an adult, she was as ill-informed and as helpless as a child.”
This is what the lecture on “Aviation Reporting 101″ looks like:
Can’t we all get along?
I don’t know, the FAA doesn’t seem to mind this kind of hot dogging so who am I to complain:
Click to expand
Here’s what it looks like from inside.
Sometimes these birds land in the water due to engine trouble and then the Coast Guard tows them to shore.
It’s a living, I s’pose…
Well it’s the talk of the town: August 6, 2011 is Virgin America Day at AT&T Park, so all attendees will get a Virgin America 2 for 1 flight voucher. So if you’re into the Phillies…
But dynamic pricing appears to be at work, so don’t be looking for any of those $1 seats (that come with $10 in fees) that the Giants offer sometimes.
And, oh yes, August 8th, 2011 is Virgin America Day in the 415, so that’s why City Hall will turn red at night for a few days. (Just a guess, but I don’t know how else you’ll be able to tell it’s VA Day 11.)
And Virgin A will is a having a $49 a ticket sale on some flights. All the deets, and there are plenty, are below and after the jump.
Call sign REDWOOD transports the Trophy in first class without a seatbelt.
Click to expand
Virgin America Day – Saturday, August 6
All fans receive 2 for 1 flight voucher
Valid for travel Main Cabin between 8/16/11-10/27/11.
Blackout dates are 9/2/11 and 9/5/11.
Must book by 8/31/11, with two passengers travelling on one itinerary.
I’ll tell you, I have no objection in particular about Airbus A380 superjumbo jets flying into and out of SFO, but over the past few years the arrival of this a/c got oversold, way oversold, by SFO, the old mayor’s office and the new mayor’s office.
They went on and on about how farsighted SFO was to become “A380-ready,” but after these kinds of taxiway incidents worldwide, I gotta ask:
Where’s your Messiah now, SFO?
Oh, here it is, at the Paris Air Show, bumping into buildings ‘n stuff. Sacre Bleu – Une Autre Allision!
Click to expand – via Niek van der Zande
(Don’t call it a wing fence (or winglet or sharklet) the way some journalists do, oh no, call it a wingtip fence. Thusly: “The Superjumbo jet just lost another wingtip fence.)
“While the crew had been informed that the taxiway was clear for the A380, said Airbus, and the aircraft was on the centreline, it hit a building belonging to Aeroports de Paris.”
Oh well.
Hey SFO, why don’t you actually do something by getting your runways farther apart so you’ll be future-ready instead of just A380-ready?
Just asking, SFO Bro.
