Thanks to the Internet I suppose I could read El País every day. But I get bored after a while looking at the never-ending stream of news (and ads) that the Internet delivers. What I want is to browse the actual paper, noticing what makes headlines when editors are constrained by the real front page. I like to sip my café con leche and look around at everyone else’s paper, too, comparing, say, the Pais’s political spin to the Vanguardia’s white-shoe one to Avui’s Catalan perspective. The Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages gallery delivers some of that browsing fun on its online gallery every day. (more…)
Continental Airlines just sent me a letter containing a $200 travel voucher to be used on future trips. They say they have God on their side in not sending the 600 Euro cash compensation that European Union consumer protection laws require when an airline orchestrates a 24-hour mechanical-failure-induced fiasco as ridiculous as the one in question here. They’ve excused themselves by declaring the snafu “force majeur.”
Unless Continental can do something to improve customer service on this most skimpily-equipped and poorly-staffed route, my advice is don’t fly Continental Newark to Barcelona. Right now, the Delta flight from JFK is a better choice. (more…)