David J.
Danto
Business travel
thoughts in my own, personal opinion
eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
Distracting Myself From Delta
“I was all set to pick up my
personal and conference travel at the end of August with a leisure trip to
Vegas followed immediately by attendance at an industry conference in
Indianapolis…and now there is the COVID19 Delta variant to contend with. I don’t yet know what its impact will be on
my plans, but I’m assuming it will definitely have some sort of impact. As of now I’m still planning to go and just
wear masks indoors again (honestly I never stopped) but I’d have to be an idiot
(or COVIDiot) to ignore the fact that there is an
increasing risk that my travel may not happen.
Soooooo……I’ve kept
myself focused on other things to remain distracted because I didn’t want to
ruminate on the potential issues with my plans.
Here is a totally unrelated, completely disjointed list of things I’m
thinking about this week – some travel related, some not.
· My blog last week that asked
readers to help me suggest solutions to the current failing US airline rules
resulted in a bunch of emails.
Regrettably, all of them were just commiserating with me about how
miserable conditions are nowadays. No
one has any good suggestions or answers to the problems.
· I wonder
how Delta Airlines is feeling about the most contagious strain of COVID19 sharing
its name. It reminds me of a situation
that happened when the AYDS diet candy had to deal
with the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, and an official of the
company that owned it infamously said “…let the disease change its name…” (You
can read more of that story
here.) Right now Delta airlines
isn’t in any imminent danger of being confused with a deadly disease, but
they’d have to be stupid not to be discussing the impact and possibilities at
their senior levels right now.
· There seem
to be three types of people in the US that care about wearing masks in the COVID crisis. There
are those that are very afraid to catch the disease who are wearing N95 or KN95
masks to protect themselves, there are those that understand it is mostly a
courtesy to others to wear a mask so they won’t accidentally spread the disease
– and they usually wear a cloth mask, and then there are the COVIDiots that have never put masks on. I wish we had not politicized this pure
safety issue. If people had followed the
masking guidance the crisis would be over by now. (I’m in the first category by the way – even
while fully vaccinated.) If you are not
wearing a mask how can you let the world know that you’re fully vaccinated and
not in the third group? Well, there are T-shirts
and wristbands
available to purchase, but the best way to show people IMHO is to not act like
an idiot.
· This week
we saw Amazon’s Jeff Bezos launched into space.
It prompted lots of comments and backlash. My two favorite ones were from my good
friends comedienne Maureen Langan and Joe Brancatelli himself – take a look at them:
·
This past week I had to buy a new TV for my guestroom
– my family felt the TCL-Roku display in there was “too small and too
slow.” So now we have a gorgeous 50” LG
unit. Installing it reminded me of a
huge pet-peeve I have with these new displays.
Why the heck don’t they provide an audio output for an external speaker
that is controllable from the TV’s remote?
Why does the entire soundbar/speakerbar
industry believe it is OK for each of them to require a separate remote
control? Why can’t they simply be
powered speakers and controlled by the overall TV volume? What a huge, unnecessarily complex way to
handle the latest in technology.
·
The Olympics are due to start as this blog is
published. I’m mostly looking forward to
the events that are new this year:
·
The 100 meter run-away dash for sponsors, distancing
themselves from any association with the Olympics. Toyota
is the frontrunner.
·
The out-of-touch
cruelty medal for preventing disabled Paralympians from attending with
their assistants.
·
The “one
person only” cardboard bed contest where athletes try to figure out how to
be intimate with each other without the bed collapsing.
·
The “ban
honest people but allow hidden doping” annual review. This one isn’t new and hasn’t changed for
years. It is important for the Olympics
to stand for traditions like unfair enforcement.
·
If you aren’t following the NY Mets baseball team this
year you’re missing out on one of television’s best drama series. They have more sick and injured people than
General Hospital, and more guest performers than any variety series. Make sure you check your messages every day –
you may be the next starting pitcher.
My apologies for yet another
rambling blog. Hopefully next week or
the week after I’ll know the impact of the Delta variant on my plans and can
get back to travel reporting.
This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal
opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.
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As always, feel free to write and comment, question or
disagree. Hearing from the traveling
community is always a highlight for me.
Thanks!