#lufthansa could never

[thesoundofsnowfallingfromeaves]

i got up at 2am (less than 4h of sleep RIP), its currently 8pm in my own timezone (10 where I'm now) and I still just did my russian homework AND yoga, I am truly god. and now, SLEEEEEEEP.

[wowbright]

Fic: Recommend

Fandom/pairing: Glee, Kurt/Blaine

Event: December Klaine Fanworks Challenge 2023

Words: ~1500 words                                         

Rating: Teen and up

Summary: Although Kurt's faith has changed, he still manages to get his temple recommend renewed.

Notes: This is part of my Mormon!Klaine universe. It takes place after Out of Eden, which I am still in the process of posting to AO3. It’s among the possibilities for their future. Mormonsplaining and mild warnings in tags.

* * *

Kurt and his parents had always planned for him to do Finn's temple work when he got back from his mission. It had seemed the right thing at the time, a fitting way to honor the two young men’s brotherhood and make it even more real.

They hadn't seen its one glaring flaw: they were all assuming Kurt would return from Germany with the same faith he'd taken with him when he’d left.

“I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get my temple recommend renewed when I get back,” Elder St. James said to Kurt on their Lufthansa flight to New York. He was on his third Milka mini chocolate bar snatched from the candy buffet near the bathrooms on the lower deck, and Kurt was on his fourth.

“Why?” Kurt said. “Gluttony’s not against the Word of Wisdom. Besides, if chocolate and cookies are all they're going to offer us between meals and we're growing young men, we kind of have no choice. Besides, that breakfast was hardly a breakfast.”

“European breakfasts never are,” agreed Elder St. James. “But it's not the Word of Wisdom I'm concerned about. It's that question about sustaining all the leaders. I'm not sure I can answer ‘yes’ to that in good conscience. I mean, I voted to sustain them at the last general conference, but since my vote doesn’t actually mean anything since they just ignore the abstentions and opposition votes, am I actually sustaining them?”

“You pray for them, don't you?”

“Of course.”

“Well, I think that's what sustaining means—offering sustenance. With a child, that would mean giving them food and clothing and shelter and support and love. The leaders don't need those first three things from us, but they do need our support and love. And we show that by respecting them and praying for them.”

“Huh.” Elder St. James opened a fourth chocolate bar and took a thoughtful bite. “I suppose that works. I mean, it's not my fault that I can't actually sustain them in the vote sense, and the temple questions are supposed to be about things that are within our own control, so … Thanks, Elder Hummel. That helps.”

Kurt unwrapped his fifth chocolate. But before he could break off a piece, he started wondering if he was eating his feelings, trying not to think about what was actually happening, how he was currently vaulting through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour, every second pulling him farther and farther away from Blaine and closer to a future that he couldn't envision. Hmmm. Maybe he should eat his feelings. It was better than thinking about that. Besides, he felt nowhere near full.

“Do you have any worries?” Elder St. James said.

Kurt had so many worries, he didn't know where to start. Maybe he could mention how he didn't actually understand how planes stayed in the air and it was rather disconcerting to be hovering over the Arctic when he could easily imagine the plane just dropping out of the sky and plunging them into the icy water to their untimely deaths, and while he didn't fear for his own salvation, he did rather like this life they were currently living and also, it would be terrible for his parents to lose two sons in so many years. But before Kurt could think about whether this was an appropriate response, Elder St. James clarified, “About your temple recommend questions?”

Kurt gave his one-time companion a sharp look. “What's that supposed to mean?” The recommend questions included one about the law of chastity, and while Kurt knew he had done nothing wrong, it would be better if rumors didn’t spread. Blaine was still inside the mission.

“Nothing in particular.” The vacant look behind elder St. James's eyes seemed to confirm his sincerity. “I mean, you’re such a Peter Priesthood I figured you wouldn't have trouble with any of them. But maybe I was hoping, just a little, that you were in the same boat as me.”

“What boat is that?” Kurt asked.

Elder St. James popped the rest of his chocolate bar into his mouth and chewed it slowly. He didn't speak again until he had swallowed it all. “I don't know. Not as excited about all this church stuff as I was when we were on the plane out here? I mean, I don't even know if I want to go to the temple again.”

"Well, the temple is –" Kurt looked over your shoulder to make sure no one was listening. He had, perhaps, become a little too used to speaking about the temple freely with Blaine. “–it's a lot different from every day worship. And the sessions are long. But I want to go back. I have work to do for my stepbrother.”

The necessity of that work, Kurt’s obligation to his family—they had nagged at Kurt as he’d weighed the risks of becoming physically intimate with Blaine. It had felt like another unfairness imposed on him by the church, forced to choose between loyalty to the family he came from and commitment to the family he was discovering in Blaine.

But as time passed and Kurt got closer to leaving Germany, denying the gift Blaine was offering him had begun to feel like a sin bigger than any lie Kurt might tell the bishop. And he had discovered just how true that was when they finally slept together: being intimate with Blaine, Kurt had felt for the first time what it must have been like to be one of those legendary first humans, before sin and pain existed, when they felt no shame in their nakedness or the bodies that had been gifted them. Their love was sinless because it grew from that same place without sin.

So it was with a clean conscience, upon returning to Ohio, that Kurt answered yes to his bishop’s question of Do you obey the law of chastity? Kurt’s actions with Blaine had been authentically chaste—reserved for one’s spouse, pure in conduct and intention, free of coercion, seeing the full humanity of the other person and loving them for it. Blaine was his other half in the truest sense, regardless of whether the church or the law recognized it.

Nor did Kurt have any qualms about professing his testimony in God the creator or in Jesus Christ or the restoration of the gospel—his faith in these things was even deeper than before he left on his mission, though in a way he would never have expected.

Even Do you support, affiliate with, or agree with any group or individual whose teachings or practices are contrary to or oppose those accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? was easy to answer the right way, because the only teachings “accepted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” were those that had come before the general conference for a vote of common consent. The Proclamation on the Family wasn't one of those things. And besides, he was pretty sure the question was mainly meant to root out polygamists.

Do you keep the covenants that you made in the temple? and Do you strive to keep the covenants you have made, to attend your sacrament and other meetings, and to keep your life in harmony with the laws and commandments of the gospel? were harder. Kurt wasn't even sure he remembered all the covenants he had made in the temple. But the ones he remembered, and the ones he had honestly agreed to, with full understanding—he strove to keep those. As for keeping his life in harmony with the laws and commandments of the gospel, he was more committed to doing that than he’d ever been, even if his understanding of “the gospel” was probably different than his bishop’s.

“Have there been any sins or misdeeds in your life that should have been resolved with priesthood authorities but have not been?” the bishop asked.

“No,” Kurt answered.

“And finally,” the bishop said, “do you consider yourself worthy to enter the Lord’s house and participate in temple ordinances?”

No more or less than any other of God’s children, Kurt thought to say, but he knew it wasn't the answer the bishop was looking for and would only confuse him. “Yes,” Kurt said.

The bishop signed the recommend and sent Kurt on his way with a smile and a handshake and, “Now, don’t spend all your time at the temple. Your first priority now that you've gotten back from your mission is to find a wife.”

“Thanks for the advice," said Kurt, trying to accept it in the same well-meaning spirit it was given.

Then it was rinse and repeat with the stake president, and Kurt had his recommend. Alone in the car, he turned the card over in his hand, staring at the movement of light over its barcode and lettering. “Finn,” he said, “I hope you’re ready for this.”

[runwayrunway]

No. 48 - Eurowings

We're here today to talk about Eurow

Yes, Eurowings! Did you think those five letters started any other words? Silly. Let's discuss the aerosartorial choices of Eurowings, a member of - oh dear - the Lufthansa Group.

Eurowings! Eurowings is a former regional airline formed from the 1990 merger of Nürnberger Flugdienst, a regional airline that I'd heard of, and Reise- und Industrieflug, one I hadn't. After its acquisition by Lufthansa, it has been restructured into a low-cost subsidiary, making it something of the FlyDubai of Germany. That means I am yet again courting a C&D from the Lufthansa Group, and I am delighted to throw myself on this particular blade.

The process of Eurowings's evolution into its current state is somewhat tortuous, involving the cannibalization of its old subsidiary Germanwings (yes, this was subsidiary-ception, and while it happened after 2015 it seems to have been planned before...well, you know) and the establishment of an Austrian subsidiary which was moved to Malta last year and is named - get this - Eurowings Europe.

Eurowings has been going through it of late. Well, of ever, as far as I can tell. If you've ever been frustrated by a delay, spare a thought for the passengers of 2016's Eurowings flight 131, some of whom had their visas expire while stuck in their hotels in Cuba during their 60-hour delay. Every fourth flight could expect six hours or so of unscheduled quality time at the airport. Or, you know, 20 sometimes. 20 hours. Yikes! That's what happens when you start seven long-haul routes with one (1) A330 and a handful of various and sundry wet leases. A lot of their routes have been taken over by Lufthansa proper, which seems eager to kill the brand as soon as possible, and I can't blame them given it's somehow developed a worse reputation than actual Lufthansa. I've never flown with them. They served Boston for literally three entire months, but I wouldn't have flown Eurowings anyway. For my own taste their 'cheap' prices are still fairly expensive.

The Eurowings livery is unfortunately on more than just one plane for the moment. They have 95 A320 family members and four wet-leased Boeing 737s, giving them a very typical fleet for a low cost carrier. And they look like that!

Okay, first and foremost, I want to talk about their logo. It looks a lot like LATAM's logo.

Indeed, they even both use a variation on something adjacent to blue and something adjacent to pink. I think it's definitely a coincidence - they both were unveiled in 2015 - and even if it weren't I don't respect either one enough to defend its honor from the other.

So, those colors. I think I prefer the shades chosen by Eurowings, and in a competent livery design that palette could be extremely effective. I love LATAM's saturated pink and indigo, which made the mostly-white fuselage a disappointment, and I like Eurowings's desaturated fuchsia and cyan as a combination even more, but the lack of fuselage coverage gets even sadder when it's such light colors that fail to contrast against the white at all.

Unlike LATAM, Eurowings makes use of grey as both shading and background. I like this! I think it can make for a nice base to play with and a potential source of some interesting, dynamic designs.

Oh, and the logo is meant to look like an 'E'. I guess I can sort of see it, but it looks more like me attempting to get a pen that's starting hard going again. (Don't mix inks in pens, though. Especially not fountain pens.) Anyway, I don't really love the logo's shape in isolation but I do think it could easily lend itself to some totally acceptable fuselage layouts.

It's the wordmark that I think is interesting. This is about to be a long section about fonts but I promise that one, I have a point, and two, if you keep scrolling it will stop being about fonts.

The typeface used for the Eurowings wordmark is Soleto in medium weight. It was designed by Dalton Maag, a London-and São-Paulo based foundry. You've definitely seen their work around - they've done custom fonts for the likes of Pitney Bowes, Tesco, Fox Sports, Nokia, AT&T, Airbnb, Wix, USA Today, Google, and the flipping BBC, among others. And, well, a few that I would go as far as to say are pretty iconic:

Lush Handwritten is actually gorgeous in Cyrillic, by the way.

I would say they're not my favorite foundry, with a lot of their work trending towards somewhat boring sans-serifs that are not at all to my taste (you will never replace Gill Sans), but they've had some hits. They're also no stranger to airlines - they did a custom typeface for the TUI wordmark, which appears on their livery!

Blue side up appeal aside, I definitely want to someday talk about the strange beast which is TUI, the World's Most Misogynistic Airline.

So you might think that Dalton Maag was commissioned to make a nice custom font family for Eurowings, given Lufthansa literally used their money to commission a slightly different version of Helvetica, but you would be wrong. As their website makes no mention of a custom typeface for Eurowings, despite discussing modified versions of their existing products for other companies (like Fox Sports Cricket being a variant of Aller), I believe they are indeed using off-the-shelf Soleto, available via Dalton Maag's website as well as Adobe Fonts. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with this, and I, who cannot afford a tablet to redesign the Eurowings livery, am not trying to wealth-shame an airline for not custom-ordering a typeface. They're far from alone. Another Dalton Maag user is Cebu Pacific, which uses Foco in a bold weight to decent effect, and I firmly believe that there's no reason to commission a second Helvetica if you want to use Helvetica. SAS uses Rotis Sans, and that's a massive airline with money to spare.

I just think the contrast here is funny. I could get the right to use the full Soleto font family for the entirety of Runway Runway's branding, title, and body text for one thousand sterling, or around $1350 in USD. This is, to me, a fortune and more money than I've had at any one time in literal years. It's also definitely not what Eurowings paid. I don't know what they paid, because Dalton Maag does custom quotes for unlimited licenses, but I don't want to imagine how much it cost to commission a firm to make a second Helvetica, so this just makes me think that Lufthansa really despises Eurowings. Pointless diversion? Maybe. I just think it's funny.

I think Soleto Medium is on the uglier side. I mean, I really don't like how Eurowings uses it in the same way I don't like Helvetica or the FedEx proprietary font - I really don't like really wide sans serifs used as titling, and I'm not sure why. Is it because it reminds me of elementary school? Is it because I find them sort of illegible? Are they just...ugly? Well, there's no such thing as objective ugliness, but this is my blog and I dislike them. They're certainly not at all memorable, which frequently makes their use something of an epic branding fail.

Soleto looks better than Helvetica, I'll give it that. A lot better. It's not really the typeface, though. It's the usage. While Dalton Maag's website does say:

Soleto is a flexible font family that can adapt itself to a wide variety of uses. [...] [it] is also quite capable of standing on its own.

It opens with:

Soleto is a contemporary sans serif font family with a quietly confident character. It works well for big areas of text, creating an even rhythm and texture, but can also make a statement at larger sizes.

And I think this is totally true, actually. As body text Soleto is fine! (This is via Dalton Maag's TypeTester feature, as are all future samples.)

This is 10pt Soleto medium, and it's a solid if generic sans-serif. Not overly ugly, totally legible. I'm not sure it's meant to be used for a logo, though. When I read 'statement at larger sizes' I think...titling, not airplane livery. A title for a website and an airplane wordmark are just different orders of magnitude.

How about titling? Well, I tried my own name in a couple different weights, and I actually think Soleto looks great in black italic.

This is a bit modern for my own taste, but I think this would look fine as a wordmark. Frankly, I think it would look good as an airline livery! It's not nearly as generic, it's almost a bit stylized even, and it's legible. The italic is always something I think looks nice due to its aerodynamic implications, and with a name as long as mine you don't really notice that this also does that obnoxious thing where the bottoms of certain letters dip beneath the baseline. Let's try some other weights!

Normally I prefer lighter weights in sans serifs, but no, Soleto looks worse the thinner it gets. These are, respectively, Light and Medium. Medium is what Eurowings uses!

Oh, wow, would you look at that! One of their default color combinations is even basically the Eurowings scheme, though in reverse.

Well, this...doesn't look that bad, right? It's boring, but it doesn't actively make me wrinkle my nose.

So why is this such a problem? I mean, let's look at this picture of an airplane, as we do on this blog. I've chosen this picture because you can see a Finnair (post coming soon) plane in the background. Finnair has this neat spiky sci-fi looking wordmark, for which no typeface exists. This wordmark is absolutely huge, and in a very dark blue against white.

Meanwhile, Eurowings's logo is very similarly formatted to Lufthansa's. It's high up and closely spaced, making it feel a little claustrophobic. It's not...as bad as Lufthansa's proprietary Helvetica (Helvetica Neue Neue? Helvetica Ultra-Ultra-Condensed? Hellvetica?) but that's barely a compliment. Lufthansa has theirs well above the window-line all squished together, while Eurowings has the decency to use the windows as the underline you would think they're just perfect to be, but with a typeface that's medium weight, neither thick nor thin and with no italics or serifs, it becomes something of a small blob. To locate something that far up should be a stylistic choice. There should be no default choices in airline liveries. You can design a massive wordmark to cover the fuselage, or something which looks nice when localized to part of it, but you don't just get to do the equivalent of opening your text editor, typing in one word without indenting, and calling that a livery. Lufthansa doesn't get this, and neither, really, does any of the unfortunate airlines in the Lufthansa Group.

The color used doesn't blend into the white, but it also isn't like they're sharply contrasted. It just doesn't particularly draw your eye. It's a wordmark your eyes glide right over and it's not at all memorable. While grey or cyan could have been incorporated somehow to accentuate it, they weren't. For a livery that's mostly white to work, you generally need some sort of really vivid color. Kalitta Air's red and gold or Tibet Airlines' rainbow are examples of good use of a white fuselage. You could use a different background, but they stand on their own, and the white plays an active part in the color palette rather than just being a default canvas for it. Many airlines use black or dark blue for their wordmarks, and while these aren't the most creative choices they're used for a reason. Just look at Finnair. That's some contrast. It's nice and legible and distinct.

Icelandair's two most recent liveries use the same placement for their wordmark as Eurowings and Finnair respectively. Now, I actually like the wordmark on the old livery better. It has those nice trailing serifs and is in small caps, making it memorable and dynamic, and it doesn't feel closely spaced. The name 'Icelandair' teeters on the edge of being too long for this to work, but ultimately pulls it off. The modern livery dispenses with this much nicer font in favor of gigantic letters. While I like this less, it's still serviceable. It is gigantic, legible, and feels as natural as me sprawling out on a couch after work. It's simply expanded to its natural point. Adequately done on both archetypes.

Meanwhile, the lack of color contrast from the white fuselage was perhaps my main criticism of Air Astra's livery, which I otherwise quite like. It's probably the inverse of Eurowings, which is contrasted enough to be acceptable but entirely boring in design - well-designed, but please, please, please let me actually see it.

Eurowings just...well, I'm going to copy and paste exactly what I said earlier. There should be no default choices in airline liveries. You can design a massive wordmark to cover the fuselage, or something which looks nice when localized to part of it, but you don't just get to do the equivalent of opening your text editor, typing in one word without indenting, and calling that a livery.

And, as a final note, something that looks good on a webpage won't always look good on an airplane. The angles you'll see it from are completely different, it has to compete for the rest of the livery for your attention, and you can't necessarily put infinite space around it due to the very physically limited canvas you're working with. The Eurowings wordmark feels vertically cramped more than it does horizontally, because the windows are right below it and immediately above it the fuselage just...ends, from a two-dimensional view. Something looking okay in copy doesn't mean you can transfer it immediately to material.

Lindon Leader talked about this when discussing his design process for the FedEx logo in a very illuminating interview I cited heavily in my FedEx post. He looked at multiple pre-existing fonts but decided to create a custom one, and one of his reasons for this was:

[...] each had its potential limitations downstream in application to thousands of FedEx media, from waybills and embroidered courier caps to FedEx.com and massive signage for aircraft, buildings and vehicles. 

Something can look acceptable or even sleek on a webpage, and that same wordmark can look downright horrible when applied to an airplane. I'll say this for FedEx - while I find their logo ugly it is absolutely good at what it needs to do. It looks no worse in any one medium or context than any other, and that's one of the reasons it's successful. It's not to my taste, but it's definitely well-designed, and I think one of the ways to improve the livery would actually be to somehow give it more real estate on the fuselage.

So the wordmark is, in my opinion, an abject failure. It's not even ugly but I mean that in the same way Wolfgang Pauli describes crackpot physics as not even wrong. Like, it's fine. It's nothing showstopping or even memorable enough to be picked out of an identity parade of default webfonts but I don't despise it. It's a common phenomenon and I'm picking on Eurowings because it's there and I know exactly what font was used and thus can mess around with it, not because it's the worst. Much like Lufthansa, it's an opportunistic victim. You know, the sort of post I'll end up hyperlinking to later, because even in its failure it's nothing exceptional.

I will say I enjoy the tiny outline of black on the letters. That's not on the wordmark proper, as rendered on their website m, but adding it was definitely the right move to help the magenta stand out from the white. Once you know about it you can notice how it makes the wordmark pop ever so slightly, turning an unmitigated catastrophe into a mitigated catastrophe. It's almost infuriating that they did this thoughtful little thing when you zoom out and remember what it's in service of. This honestly is a reoccurring thing with Eurowings.

Look at that nice tail design! They could have slapped the logo on and left it at that, like so many other airlines, but they didn't. They use the same nice colors and the overlapping greys to create a design that is clearly their logo while also being abstract and dynamic. There's a lot of shapes, a lot of motion, and a lot of nice shades of cyan and magenta, and I love it!

See that airplane landing in the background? Think about what airline you think it flies for, and stick a pin in that for a minute.

Hey, uh...where's the rest of it, though?

So, yes. Eurowings shares the first five letters of its name with Eurowhite. If you're not familiar with the term (I have a glossary, by the way) it just means a livery that is almost completely white save for logos. One could argue that the fact that the pattern on the tail isn't limited to strictly the tail and does form some sort of attempt at a fuselage design means that Eurowings' livery isn't 'true' Eurowhite, but I'm not going to brook that. Eurowhite is a state of mind. There is a nice, abstract design here which could easily be extended further. There is a grey shade which could be utilized (as it is on the engines, which look like they're lost and wandered onto another livery by accident) and there are infinite ideas to be had on the planet, and instead the majority of the plane is just white.

If one thing is thought of as my thesis from this post, let it be this, said for the third time: there is no such thing as default. Things like this wordmark placement, this type of font, and the primarily white fuselage are not default. The fact that they are common and boring does not make them inherent until replaced. They are still an active choice just as much as designing a livery that doesn't utilize these features is. It was proposed, iterated on, signed off on, and implemented. Airlines don't start with a template they then alter. They start with a vast world of infinite possibilities and decide they want to do the same thing as everyone else - that's a choice just how any other act of cowardice is a choice. I think the misconception that boring design is a result of inertia and lack of effort is a harmful one. It is a choice. They choose to do this.

They do not choose it because it is right for their livery, because they like it. They choose it because it is common, it is safe. It is reliable and it doesn't rock the boat. I've said this before discussing Southwest and Flair - low-cost carriers should be willing to rock the boat. If you're going to advertise yourself as the no-frills option you shouldn't try to look all composed and corporate. You have nothing to lose with being bright and pretty and interesting, so why aren't you?

And that cowardice is what makes me hate it so much. Some liveries are ugly, and some are almost ugly but stop halfway to cower in a Eurowhite bunker in an attempt to stem the bleeding, but there's nothing more tragic than a livery so afraid of being ugly that it cuts off and cauterizes something beautiful. The fear of ugliness is the death of beauty. condor is worth one billion Eurowings.

(No, Eurowings does not fail the Star Alliance Test, though.)

Like many of these designs that sort of just decide to stop after the tail, the longer a plane is the worse the Eurowings livery is on it. This is a very nice tail attached to a big white tube. Sure, Eurowings mostly operates somewhat short aircraft, but that wasn't the case when the livery was designed - back then they had A330s. Even now they have A321s.

Frustratingly, given how much I've ragged on this livery, I do still really like the tail. Even more frustratingly, you can see how easy it would have been to not have it be this way. The end of the cyan stripe almost begs to be held onto, weaved onto the rest of the fuselage, but it just isn't. It looks unfinished. It looks sad.

With all these shades of cyan and magenta to play with, the light heavily alters the way the colors on the tail look. They're never not pretty. It's a lovely colorscheme that's dramatically underutilized. The way it weaves together has so much potential, and it's attached to a white body. It looks like the paint job is unfinished. And that's what I hate the most about Eurowhite - good ideas left to languish, where a bit of custom letterhead does a better job of expressing your identity than an airplane livery.

The one feature Eurowings has towards the front of the plane is this little cheek decal of the Eurowings logo. Nice thought, but it almost looks actively worse when it stands out like that among an otherwise blank space. Plus, it's so small it might as well be a dot. It's cute, but in terms of overall effect on the livery it has the effect of making something mostly white look cluttered, which is just downright bizarre.

Obviously I can't endorse this. While not quite at the Lufthansa Line, with the actual bit of design happening on the tail instead of a sterile block, it doesn't cover much more fuselage than a proper exemplar of the phenomenon, and that's just always going to be a bit of a kneecap. Eurowhite is a state of mind, so much so that I almost think an unremarkable sans-serif font is as much of a codifying feature as a white body despite not being specified anywhere in the term. The same decision-making process leads both places, and the little black outline and cheek stamp and nice tail design just cant overpower that.

I'm giving Eurowings a D+.

Eurowings reminds me most of Saudia. They both have gorgeous colorschemes wasted on a design which burrows itself down as far into the substrate of artistic cowardice as physically possible. It's especially tragic and leaves me fighting myself over my final ratings. It feels wrong to grade such a gorgeous tail so harshly, but the good design features just make the bad package even more insulting. And at the end of the day I just have to put my foot down.

Sometimes I'm generous with grading because an airline is new, or because they're iterating on something that could be taken in a good direction. Eurowings isn't in the process of developing towards something nice, it's just Eurowings. It's an airline that stranded people in Cuba for 60 hours and Lufthansa seems to want it dead. I don't think we'll be getting a Eurowings livery overhaul anytime soon and I'm pessimistic about its longevity in general. Low-cost carriers and subsidiaries of large airlines are both easy come, easy go. Tears in the rain. 'Twas ever thus. Try not to get too attached.

Remember that plane from earlier? Yeah, I've got no clue what airline it flies for, but I don't think I can rule out it being Eurowings. 'Twas ever thus.

[salvadorbonaparte]

About the courier thing. I looked at the Lufthansa website would you recommend it if someone had never flown before? Like I'd need to get a passport for this, only traveled by car/ ship so far.

About picking the deliveries up and delivering them, if I live in town A and the company is in City B do I have to go there to pick it up? Will it be at the airport? Bc the website made it look like you get the message that they need you, then you basically that instant jump in your car drive to the company drive to the airport and jump into the plane, land jump into a taxi and go to the place you need to be.

My concerns are that I'll only get reimbursed for things like the taxi bc they need me to have an international CreditCard... Could you describe how tight these times are? Like what happens if I don't have the time to catch the booked flight bc they booked it too tightly for it to be realistic?

When I land in other countries, what exactly is common place there? Will I be expected and picked up or will I have to find a taxi to the company myself?

If there isnt an instant flight back, do they pay/book or only reimburse you for finding a hotel/ hostel? What happens if you miss your flight back?

You can probably tell lol but I'd be interested but I'm pretty anxious about all the stuff they don't specify on their website. Like I'm not willing to risk having to pay for a flight back home from the US because there was a traffic jam and I missed my booked flight

Also, talking about safety lol, would you recommend this to a woman? The people that left glowing reviews about how great the job is only had masculine names afaik.

And do they give you the info you need for the countries you travel to? Like if I, as a woman, would travel to a country that requires me to wear something to hide my hair would they tell me that? Or would uncultured little ol' me have to frantically google what kinda clothes I would be able to wear? And what kinda attire would they expect at the companies you're supposed to deliver to? Like if I look like shit after a 10 hour flight and deliver a contract or a designer dress they aren't gonna kill me right?

Also the website said to always have a light bag ready which is fair but if I show up with a small case that I wouldn't be able to take with me to my seat are they gonna say I'm taking too much time while I wait for my baggage?

Hello! Thank you for reaching out. I am going to try and answer these questions to the best of my ability, but I've only flown two missions and both were the same company and destination, so I am not an expert on this.

You'd definitely have to get a passport. I don't know if I'd recommend it because I don't know you personally. I flew for the first time when I was two and flew alone for the first time when I was five. I lived abroad for a while and had to fly back and forth between semesters. I know my local airport like the back of my hand and feel pretty comfortable flying. OBC missions can be really stressful, and never having flown before could add to that stress. On the other hand, maybe you thrive under that stress. Maybe it can be an adventure.

The pickup location can differ afaik. I had to pick up the cargo both times at a company close to the airport but I've also heard of cases where the cargo is in a different city and you're supposed to pick it up or where it is picked up at the airport. Same for the drop off. Both of my missions were airplane parts so my drop off was outside the airport. I heard that occassionally you'd have to take a taxi to some company but they would tell you about the drop off location or at least whom to contact once you land. International airports always have taxis outside and usually public transport so you should be fine as long as you have an address. You have to be flexible. The timing is also different. I once had to cancel a request because they wanted me to be in Hamburg within an hour (the high-speed train alone takes longer than an hour). Yesterday I got the message in the early afternoon and the flight was in the evening so I had time to prepare. You don't have to answer requests if you don't have time or think you can't manage the pickup time. They usually message everyone on their list who lives in a certain radius and then whoever answers first and can do it gets the mission. If you're on a mission and something goes horribly wrong, I guess you have to contact the company and sort it out together with them. I have no idea how that works because that never happened to me luckily. I only accept missions that I think are realistic and I guess if I were to miss a plane or connection they'd have to rebook me since I am the one with the cargo and finding someone else that late in the process would be even more expensive? I don't know what happens if you miss your flight back and I assume it depends on if it is your fault or something unforseen.

About the money thing I think it depends on the company again. I flew with Wings Onboard the last two times and they book your flight and hotel so you only need to cover things like transport, roaming, excess baggage if it comes up. Having a visa card or similar is really important for this and also having a little money on it for emergencies. For example, I paid 80 Euro for taxis plus 130 for excess baggage this time that I will get reimbursed. Last time I only paid like 2 Euro for a parking ticket and that was it. You need to be prepared for emergencies but you should get everything but food reimbursed.

About the gender thing, I am seen as a woman and I am pretty short and I did not accept a mission last time because I felt uncomfortable flying to that country at night. In general, it can be dangerous as a woman everywhere so take the normal safety precautions and listen to your intuition if something seems dangerous. Other than safety, being a short female-perceived person has its upsides because my cargo was 30kg and men helped me carry it lol.

I received no cultural insights like that but I also flew to my neighbouring country so I don't know if they would tell you. I'd google just in case. What they will tell you however, at least Wings does, is if there is any visa or customs regulations you need to be aware of, which I think is even more vital. About clothes in general, since it is pretty spontaneous missions no one minded so far that I was wearing jeans and t shirts. Most of them never had to deal with OBCs so they are mostly just curious. You're not technically employed by them, you're just delivering something, and they care a lot more about the cargo than you.

I always have a little backpack packed, which is more practical than a case, because it can fit under your seat or in the overhead compartment. The important part is that it is small enough to be counted as hand luggage for most major airlines. If you have cargo that counts as hand luggage you can take it with you and maybe fit it in the bag. If the cargo is large enough for checked baggage you still have your essential things with you and can grab them quickly without having to wait for them too. The company will book your flight for you and will opt for the cheapest option, which is usually economy with either only hand luggage or hand luggage and one piece of checked luggage. As long as you have your phone, charger, money, passport, perhaps a pyjama and toothbrush and empty water bottle you should be fine.

In general, it can be stressful and you have to be flexible and spontaneous when things go wrong, but the past two missions I noticed that a courier is already so much cheaper and faster for them that small delays don't matter. I hurried so much to check out my cargo and go to the drop off point and when I called them they were like "both our cars are busy right now, it will take maybe 15 minutes" and then took over 30 minutes to arrive. As long as you make the flight and the cargo is safe they don't care if you took five minutes longer to find the exit or went to the bathroom. Five minutes longer still beats the time or money they'd have to put into other logistics solutions.

You can DM me for more questions and I can even send you some (censored) mission briefings if you want to know how much information you get. I hope this was helpful!

[alexiusgoesrogue]

Status Update: Emirates and Dubai (DXB)

The check-in at the gate was a mess and easy at the same time. The announcer voice did not make it very easy to hear whether Group B or Group E would be boarding next. But with that sorted out quickly, with delay thanks to the Lufthansa strike, I was on my way down into my first ever shuttle ride. Meanwhile dad watched from the rooftop of the car park since the viewing platform was closed off for construction.

And of course, I got “lucky”. Two crying infants/toddlers just a row ahead of me. I at first tried to sleep through the flight, like the girl sat to my left did, but even noise cancelling headphones have their limits, and I can’t sleep upright. I am yet to figure out how to kick back my seat.

Curious thing I noticed, the monitors in the seats occasionally show when the next prayer time would be for muslims according to the local timezone, with a graphic showing the direction of Mecca. Also, there’s three cameras on the plane which I could switch between freely to look around outside. I just barely used the feature, it was mostly pitch black for my night flight.

Before flying over Bucharest, food was served. I was asked whether I’d like beef or chicken. But the constant language switching today made me not realize that I asked “nochmal?” in response. The curious look the steward gave me made me realize my mistake.

I chose beef, and was handed a full tray just a minute or two later

Food Ranking

Noodles: 4/5, a weird taste for noodles, but tasty nonetheless, and the bell pepper (?) was a good touch

Main Course: 5/5, first time eating what I assume to be spinach. In itself, not my thing. But with the side dish (no idea what it was, tasted like a tasty, decently spiced, coarse version of mashed potatoes), it was absolutely tolerable. The meatballs and sauce were great, too.

Cheddar: 3/5, a bit unusual texture and taste compared to non-airplane-food cheese, but fine.

Bread roll: 4/5, totally fine to eat on its own when failing to realize there is also a piece of butter on the tray

Crackers: 3/5, basically just a softer version of tuc

Belgian Cookie: 2/5, very soft baked, yet a gooey (?) texture, and a strange, at most tolerable taste

Cheese Cake: n/a, I was too stuffed to try it

***

Another interesting discovery, when the canon is dark, the ceiling has small lights to look like the night sky.

Additionally, I watched a few available episodes of Bluey before takeoff. The headphones provided would make a fine video on Dankpods for sure, and not to be praised.

What I take away from this first leg of the tour done:

-don’t store your bag under a seat, or you will have no legroom. And six hours suck with my busted knees.

-figure out the seat position feature before everyone has boarded

-avoid switching between English and German, only do it if necessary

-never again settle for a middle seat. Go window or aisle, either is far better than the awkward middle.

The flight has been survived though. As of writing, I am currently waiting at the gate for my next flight, twice the length. Send help

The Dubai airport (DXB) is big, yet it doesn’t feel that way. Genuinely, you only feel the size when you see how far up the elevators go, or when you have to take a small train to get to your gate. London Stansted is several times smaller, yet feels endlessly long.

Next achievement I unlocked was finally paying with credit card in person. Only took five tries, but I got my food after all. And I am still unsure whether I like the different taste of McDonald’s food in Dubai.

[ceescedasticity]

I really feel like tumblr would appreciate some of Monty Python's takes on the police, particularly this one, picking up mid-sketch in episode 27:

Judge What is it now, you persistently silly usher?

Usher He can't hold the Bible m'lud.

Judge Well screw the Bible! Let's get on with this bleeding trial, I've got a Gay Lib meeting at 6 o'clock. Superintendent Lufthansa will you please read the charge.

Superintendent Is a charge strictly necessary, m'lud?

Judge (heavy aside) The press is here.

Superintendent Oh sorry! Right, here we go. You are hereby charged. One, that you did, on or about 1126, conspire to publicize a London Borough in the course of a BBC saga; two, that you were wilfully and persistently a foreigner; three, that you conspired to do things not normally considered illegal; four, that you were caught in possession of an offensive weapon, viz, the big brown table down at the police station.

Judge The big brown table down at the police station?

Superintendent It's the best we could find, m'lud ... and five... all together now...

The whole court shout together.

Court Assaulting a police officer!

Prosecuting Counsel Call Police Constable Pan-Am. (Pan-Am runs into court and starts beating Njorl with a truncheon) Into the witness box, constable ... there'll be plenty of time for that later on. (the policeman gets into box hitting at anyone within range; his colleagues restrain him) Now, you are Police Constable Pan-Am?

Constable No, I shall deny that to the last breath in my body. (superintendent nods) Oh. Sorry, yes.

Prosecuting Counsel Police constable, do you recognize the defendant?

Constable No. Never seen him before in my life. (superintendent nods) Oh , yes, yes he's the one. He done it. I'd recognize him anywhere, sorry, super. (the superintendent looks embarrassed)

Prosecuting Counsel Constable, will you please tell the court in your own words what happened?

Constable Oh yes! (refers to his notebook) I was proceeding in a northerly direction up Alitalia Street when I saw the deceased (points at Njorl) standing at an upstairs window, baring her bosom at the general public. She then took off her ... wait a tick. Wrong story. (refers to his notebook) Ho yes! There were three nuns in a railway compartment and the ticket inspector says to one of them. (the superintendent shakes his head) No, anyway I clearly saw the deceased...

Clerk Defendant.

Constable Defendant! Sorry. Sorry, super. I clearly saw the defendant ... doing whatever he's accused of...Red-handed. When kicked... he said: 'It's a fair ... cop, I done it all ... Right... no doubt about... that'. Then, bound as he was to the chair, he assaulted myself and three other constables while bouncing around the cell. The end.

Spontaneous applause from the court. Shouts of 'more! more!'. Pan-am raises his hands and the clapping and shouting dies down.

Constable Thank you, thank you... and for my next piece of evidence...

Superintendent I think you'd better leave it there, constable.

Prosecuting Counsel Excellent evidence, constable (the constable is removed, flailing his truncheon the while) ... Thank you very much. Now then Mr Njorl, will you tell the court please where were you on the night of 1126? (silence from the bandages) Move any part of your body if you were north of a line from the Humbet to the Mersey. (silence)

[fleurywiththesave]

For the minifics, #11? Mattdrai?

11. things you said when you were drunk

The only thing Leon can hear at first when he answers the phone is the thump of house music. He actually winces and pulls it away from his ear, then rolls his eyes at himself for acting like an old man.

“Matthew?”

“Leeeeon,” Matthew’s voice finally comes through. “Didja know that sometimes, ‘ven when you lost the Stanley Cup finals, people still buy you drinks?”

Aha. Matthew’s finally been off painkillers long enough that can safely drown his sorrows in alcohol.

“Is that right?” Leon says. “And how many drinks might that be?”

“Ummmm…might hafta ask Brady. He went t’ college, you know.”

“I’m sure that makes him far more qualified to keep count,” Leon answers, trying not to laugh.

“Everyone’s being really nice. They’re not…not mad at me, that I lost.”

“You didn’t lose, baby. You dragged your team as far as you could.”

“Yeah…”

“I mean it,” says Leon firmly. They’ve had this conversation a few times, and he knows he’s not the only one trying to get it through Matthew’s thick skull that he is not the sole arbiter of the Panthers’ fate. It’ll sink in. Eventually. He’s pretty sure.

“You are very far away,” Matthew suddenly says, voice going wistful. It does something funny to Leon’s stomach, that pleasantly twisty little ache that’s become so familiar over the last season. He secretly calls it The Matthew Thing because it doesn’t seem like anyone else manages to have that effect on him simply by being really charming or really obnoxious or really sweet.

“I know.” He feels very far away. He kept arguing with himself about pushing back his flight home so he could stay with Matthew while he recovered, but Matthew insisted that he needed some time with his parents. Leon knows he feels bad about how much he gets to see his own family during the season, especially Brady, so he relented. He shouldn’t have. Maybe he’ll move up his return flight after he’s convinced Matthew to go home and go to sleep.

“Why is Germany so far away? ‘S dumb. We should move it closer.”

“I’m not sure that’s realistic.” He can practically hear Matthew pouting through the phone, but luckily he can turn on a dime when he gets like this.

“Oh hey, hey! I had an idea.” He definitely sounds perkier now, which hopefully means he’s not about to turn around and try to convince a complete stranger to take a saw to the German border. “We should get tattoos!”

Well, Leon can’t say he was expecting that. He’s literally never heard Matthew talk about tattoos before.

“Tattoos?”

“Yeah! Not like, like matching ones. Just something t’ have, of each other. You could pick one for me an’ I could pick one for you. I promise it won’t be a panther.”

Okay, he knows better than to put too much stock into any bright ideas from someone as drunk as Matthew is, but it sounds like something he actually did think about before the shots got to work, and, well. Leon kind of doesn’t hate the thought of it? Something to have of each other.

But that’s a conversation to be had when everyone is sober, even if only because Kim would never stop making fun of him if he got a tattoo just because one or both of them was drunk.

“Hey, baby, where’s Brady?”

“Over there,” Matthew answers helpfully. Leon sighs.

“How about you go get him and find a taxi? I think you’re going to crash soon. I’ll call you later and we can talk about it more.”

“‘Kay.” He’s turning compliant, which means he’s definitely going to crash soon. Leon should probably text Taryn. She’s going to enjoy this opportunity to be in charge of her brothers.

“I love you,” he says. His ears still go hot whenever he says that. Matthew likes it, likes to trace the shell before saying it back.

“Love you too.”

When the call cuts off, Leon shakes his head. Then he opens the Lufthansa app.

[qatarairwaysnewyork]

Sailing the Skies with Lufthansa: A Miami Adventure

Introduction:

Miami, a vibrant city known for its sun-soaked beaches and lively atmosphere, served as the backdrop for my recent journey with Lufthansa. The German airline has long been synonymous with quality service and efficiency, and my traveling experience from Miami International Airport was no exception.

Check-In and Departure:

My journey began at the Lufthansa Miami Airport counter in Miami International Airport, where the check-in process was a breeze. The staff, clad in the distinctive Lufthansa uniforms, exuded professionalism and warmth. The efficiency of the check-in process set a positive tone for the rest of the journey. The departure gate was easy to find, and Lufthansa's punctuality ensured a timely takeoff.

In-Flight Comfort:

Stepping onto the Lufthansa aircraft, the sense of comfort was immediate. The spacious seating, accompanied by a well-thought-out layout, contributed to a relaxed atmosphere. The attentive cabin crew provided a warm welcome, setting the stage for a comfortable and enjoyable flight. The in-flight entertainment options were diverse, ensuring that every passenger could find something to suit their preferences.

Culinary Delights:

Lufthansa is renowned for its commitment to culinary excellence, and my in-flight dining experience was a testament to this. The menu featured a delectable array of options, blending international flavors with a touch of German finesse. The attention to detail in presentation and the quality of ingredients showcased Lufthansa's dedication to providing a memorable dining experience at 35,000 feet.

Transit at Frankfurt Airport:

My journey involved a layover at Frankfurt Airport, and Lufthansa's flagship hub exemplified the airline's efficiency. Navigating the airport was seamless, thanks to clear signage and helpful staff. The airport's amenities, including lounges and shopping options, provided a welcome interlude in my journey.

Arrival and Conclusion:

Touching down at my destination, the Lufthansa experience came full circle. The disembarkation process was organized, and the efficient baggage claim underscored the airline's commitment to a smooth end-to-end journey. Reflecting on my travels with Lufthansa from Miami, it was clear that the airline's dedication to customer satisfaction and attention to detail set them apart.

Conclusion:

Flying with Lufthansa from Miami International Airport was an experience that blended efficiency with comfort and culinary delights. The airline's commitment to providing a seamless travel experience, from check-in to touchdown, makes Lufthansa a top choice for those seeking not just a flight but a journey characterized by excellence and attention to detail. The skies have never been friendlier than when sailing with Lufthansa from the vibrant city of Miami.

[salalalad]

Nobody on this 10 hour 45 minute Lufthansa flight from SFO to Frankfurt imagined that the quinoa “salad” on offer with the economy lunch could come adorned with more than the tomato slice accent. Lo, after some fork prodding, the “salad” revealed itself to be a salad, with not only tomato but the white ends of green onion, corn, and possibly red pepper. If indeed the small red chunks found buried within the quinoa are red pepper, their taste was indistinguishable from tomato. Which is to say they were flavorless, lifeless. “Subtle” would be a euphemism. What was not subtle was the aggression of one of the passengers sitting a few rows behind me. We were all in the back of the plane. Numerous other passengers had complained. He was telling people, instructing them, to return to their seats unless they were using the bathroom. No loitering, was his message. No standing next to his seat. No one was permitted to stretch. On the friendly Kiwi sitting beside me, this aggressive man laid a hand. Word had gotten around to the flight attendants that someone in our back section was causing trouble. As the flight progressed, the Kiwi would turn around and check in with the people in the row behind us. “You two doing okay?” He leaned over me to confirm with the passenger across the aisle. “He’s not still giving you any trouble anymore, right? Let me know if you need back up.” There was solidarity in our back section. There was even camaraderie. I never took a bite from that centerpiece tomato slice. That monument to tastelessness. Neither did the Kiwi sitting beside me take a bite from his.

[lowryinbohemia]

I am currently sitting at the desk in my hotel room in Istanbul, bedtime approaching, the call for prayer being sung outside my window through the city. Mom, Pat and I got here around 1pm today and have hit the ground running already.

Not much to share about the flights over, though I will say that Lufthansa has a very Prussian way of dealing with annoying teenage boys who disobey the “no congregating near the lavatory” rules. I did try and get some sleep but as to be expected, it was hard for my brain to turn off. But I did get a couple of good cat naps in before we landed in Turkey, and our adventure began.

We have been lucky that we have a really great tour guide, Sergun, who got us exploring right off the bat so there was no time for jet lag. We got to spend some time in a rug store/shop where I got to practice the very delicate and painstaking art of silk rug making. It was so cool to hold strands of real woven silk in my hand and then weave and knot them on a loom. We also got to learn about the remnants of the Roman Empire on the city, and how with the changes of power, the changes in architecture & statues rose and fall.

But the two major highlights of the day were getting to visit the Blue Mosque & then the Haga Sophia. I will admit I have not had a lot of experience visiting the inside of a mosque, but it was utterly gorgeous and holy to see. The level of artwork, detail and formation of the Blue Mosque took my breath away when we first stepped in, and I just stood and stared at all the colors and details of the walls, the glass windows and the fixtures. Sergun told us a lot about the changes Blue Mosque underwent and how it came to be was fascinating, as well as the descriptions of how the artwork honors the major figureheads of Islam without making an idol.

And then right next door was the Haga Sophia; one of the most beautiful places I have ever set foot in. The photos I have seen could not even capture the magnitude of this holy place, nor the small details that can only be enjoyed by seeing them in person up close. Mom and I of course had lots of questions about the history (the three separate times the Haga Sophia was rebuilt, the ornate fixtures, the frescos, etc) but I often caught myself just looking up and staring at the incredible ceiling. The dome is so high and so ornate, with the pillars decorated in careful decorations & sigils, and you get both the feeling of calm and deep reverence all at the same time. I will admit, I did get emotional when I was standing there because I honestly never thought I would ever get to see this beautiful place in person.

As to be expected, by the end of the day Mom, Pat and I were exhausted and also hungry, so we were brought to a wonderful fish restaurant where we three girls feasted on the freshest fish I have had in YEARS. Now that the sun is down and the city has started to grow a bit quieter, I am happily going to settle into bed and get some rest, so that I am ready for more adventures tomorrow.

TTYL! 💜

[engbergeurovacay23]

Thursday, Travel Day! France to Spain to Germany

With the shutters down in the Ax-les-Thermes place, it was hard to know when it was daylight!  I don’t love them all the way down, but I seem to be in the minority in my family. Anyway, I slept quite well, although Rowan has been getting up overnight for a few days, blowing his poor nose.  He does not seem to feel otherwise ill, but the nose-blowing has been persistent.  When he gets up in the night and blows his nose in a place with stone floors, it is an echo-y situation. Anyway, we didn’t have anything planned for Thursday morning, other than getting all of our stuff together so we could leave the Airbnb by 11-ish.

I have amply mentioned the fact that the Ax-les-Thermes Airbnb came with no toilet paper, which they did eventually provide, but it also featured the coveted “no hot water” effect for about the last 18 hours of our stay.  It was so odd.  I mean, it was a really nice place, but the hostess seemed a bit aloof, with her “we forgot” with the toilet paper inquiry and this failing of the hot water, which in our messages back and forth about check-out, I mentioned.  She never responded to any of my messages near the end of our stay, so she did not address the “no hot water” situation, either.  So odd.

We left Ax-les-Thermes on a beautifully sunny Thursday, at about 11:30 a.m. We has plenty of time to make our way south to Barcelona, to catch our plane to Munich (which left at 6:30 p.m.).  The scenery was incredible, as you should be able to guess by now, and the Pyrenean peaks and valleys just awed us all along the way, for quite a bit of the journey.  Once we passed through a long tunnel about 45 minutes outside of Ax-les-Thermes, we were very close to the French/Spanish border, and started to see houses flying Catalonian flags.  You’d think that after a very long tunnel through a mountain that you’d be to Spain again, when there are mountains at the France/Spain border.  But, actually, the border is not right on one side of the mountain.  Anyway, the town right near the Spanish border that we stopped in is called Puigcerdà; it was –and I almost hate to say it, because it makes me sound like a non-liker of France, which I am not—kind of a breath of fresh air to be able to speak Spanish again and be understood.  And it was sunny and cheerful and just a very lively town right near lots of mountain outdoor activities, since it is near La Molina ski area and lots of camping, equestrian activities, and biking opportunities.  Puigcerdà seemed very cool.  If we ever come back to Spain to ski at La Molina (since, as I established, it is cheaper than much skiing in the U.S.!), then staying in Puigcerdà would be a smart choice.

So, we stopped briefly in Puigcerdá because the kids were hungry and we went into a supermercat and they were having some “spin the wheel” promotion when you left; and Cece got to spin the wheel!  The lady, who was super nice, overseeing this promotion let Cece spin three times until she won something that was appropriate for her age; rather than a bottle of wine or a can of tomatoes, Cece won a bag of chips.  We all enjoyed these winnings all the way to Barcelona! We surmised that maybe this spin-the-wheel thing was to celebrate the grand-opening of the store?

There’s not much more to report about our drive.  We arrived to the Barcelona airport and returned our car and then went through security for our flight.  Even though we all just came with a ”personal item” (i.e. backpack) plus a roll-on suitcase, we were advised in an email from Lufthansa that we might need to check our roll-aboards.  We waited in the check-in line for a little bit, but, I don’t know what it is about major European airports, but there is always a massive line to check luggage.  Also, there are no set ticket counters for each airline.  There are screens that change to tell you what airline is now using that spot; it is a very different “feel” than an American airport with the check-in procedures we’re used to (which, don’t get me wrong, are still very annoying).  The European check-in halls are always super chaotic, with a “stockyard” kind of feel, like, cattle moving every which way, in very long queues--in a gargantuan building typically with lots of glass and high celilings.

We decided, because the Lufthansa baggage/check-in line was so long, we’d roll the dice and take our bags through security, and, if we had to gate-check, so be it. We still had several hours before our flight, so we went to an airport lounge (Eric is king of the “airport lounge shuffle,” as I call it, as a result of all of his credit card maneuvering, which he tracks is a surely very impressive spreadsheet).  The Barcelona lounge we visited was a really exceptional lounge. (If you’re not hip to the airline miles game, there is  lot to learn, and I stay out of it.  But sites like One Mile at a Time and Frequent Miler can get you up to speed pretty quickly on which lounges and programs and credit cards have the most advantages.)  At the lounge, I immediately noticed there were some professional-cycling-looking people moseying about. Some wore Jumbo Visma shirts and some UAE Emirates shirts.  So, sitting right next to us were two UAE Emirates riders.  We looked up the team roster (because we’re not as thoroughly immersed in pro cyclist names and faces as we once were), and sitting next to use was Brandon McNulty!  He is a young guy from Phoenix who is U.S. time trial champion!  He was chatting with his team mate and we could overhear some topics about their training and what happened in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France.  We were at our table forever since we had so long to wait and at one point, Brandon’s teammate got up, so he was sitting there alone, and we chatted with him a bit – but really tried to not bother him.  He was super nice.  Eric looked up his “palmares” (which is a cycling term for his list of achievements) and he has been doing so well!  I mean, I think he’s 25, and to be a prominent rider on the team he’s on—with some really well established, frequently winning guys!—is such a big deal and means he’s probably been living a pretty unique life for several years, living in Europe (he lives in Girona, actually), and traveling hither and yon for races and training.

So, we eventually got to go to our gate and I asked the gate attendant whether we needed to check our bags and she said, “oh, you’re traveling with kids?  Stay here.  You can board early.”  Now, we don’t try to do this very often anymore, because the kids are 8 and 10, but she offered!  Who were we to refuse?  We do actually benefit from more time, because Eric lifts all of our roll-aboards on and our kids are, well, a lot ;)  We got in our seats and we were getting settled in and Eric was putting the bags up and the Lufthansa flight attendant literally screamed  at him, I mean, like screamed, because he was putting one of the roll-aboards in with the wheels the wrong way.  She kept saying “TURN IT!! TURN IT!!” and she was like, very briefly, furious!  It was so crazy.  If she had simply said  “wheels in, handle out,” there would’ve been no problem.  It was just crazy how she just lost her cool entirely for a brief moment.

So, the flight was pretty uneventful.  And, get this, there were more professional cyclists sitting behind us!  There were members of two additional teams: Jayco and Ineos.  So, turns out, everyone is flying to compete in the Tour of Poland.  When we were about to de-plane in Munich, we talked briefly to the rider sitting behind Cece, the like five-time time-trial champion of Ethiopia--Tasbu Grmay!  So, there are not a lot of cyclists of color in the professional peloton, and I could dive into here why that is (reasons related to socio-economic factors in cyclists’ home countries, the infrastructure for development programs, the needs of the team sponsors to sell their products via a cyclist's wins to folks who live in a country where that advertiser has a big presence and people with ample disposable income can buy their products, etc. etc.). This Ethiopian rider was super nice.  He is a climber and Cece told him that daddy enjoys climbing most but does not enjoy descending because he finds it scary—and this rider said he feels the same way ;) I don’t know who the other riders in the row behind us were, but we are now always going to cheer for our Ethiopian plane-mate!

Once we arrived in Munich, we made our way to the Sixt car rental counter.   We’d reserved a Tesla Model Y, but the very jauntily-dressed (they have a wide array of really pretty amazing work attire at Sixt) employee said, well, “what kind of car do you want?”  I mean, they had like every luxury car you could want; it’s like that is all they had.  So odd.  It is very odd in Europe, and Germany in particular (I’ve said this in previous years), that there are just so many BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes on the roads; there are other brands, too, but these car brands are commonplace (a high percentage of taxis in Munich are butter-colored Mercedes).  Anyway, Eric really wanted the Model Y, so we stuck with that.  It is so fast, and has such powerful acceleration that I am thinking it’s really a bit much.

I’d booked us a hotel with parking on site, in the city center, for one night, so we could spend part of Friday sightseeing in Munich.  It was a Holiday Inn and check-in was smooth, and since we’re Platinum members (they’re a member of the IHG hotel group and it’s another mileage perk of Eric’s that we have this status), we got two free drinks upon check-in!  The kids were so tired that, despite some typical night-time hi-jinks, they fell right to sleep.  Eric and I took our drinks into the bathroom, where we wouldn’t disturb the kids while talking, and we chatted for about 45 minutes.  Classy!

So, Friday was going to be a half-day of Munich-adventures and then some driving, and then our arrival to Lehen, Austria, for four nights! 

Oh, I meant to mention, have you noticed Rowan’s fanny pack in some photos?  He was really excited to have a “kit” of note-taking supplies always at the ready.  He’s been writing down the names of all the places we go in to shop or eat and all the names of the airlines that are new to him that he sees.  He’s been very diligent with this!  I hope he enjoys looking back at his book (which he has now color-coded, even) for many year down the road.

[your-dietician]

Europe’s best airlines revealed at ‘aviation’s Oscars’

New Post has been published on https://medianwire.com/europes-best-airlines-revealed-at-aviations-oscars/

Europe’s best airlines revealed at ‘aviation’s Oscars’

What’s the number one quality you look for in an airline? After a chaotic summer at Europe’s airports, punctuality is probably up there.

But there’s much more that goes into a good experience in the skies. Now with seven years at the top of the league table, Qatar Airlines appears to have the winning formula according to its passengers.

The Gulf state’s national carrier was voted the ‘World’s Best Airline’ at the 2022 World Airline Awards last Friday. Known as ‘the Oscars of the aviation industry’, it is run by UK-based consultancy Skytrax, with all awards based on a global customer satisfaction survey.

“Qatar Airways was the largest airline to have flown consistently throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with their network never falling below 30 destinations, and that determination has clearly been well recognised by customers with this award,” says Edward Plaisted of Skytrax.

The airline’s boss, Akbar Al Baker, gave the credit to its employees, whose “continued dedication and drive is to ensure our passengers have the best experience possible when they fly with Qatar Airways.”

Like any airline, Qatar doesn’t have a spotless reputation however. Its record on gender equality has frequently made headlines, especially concerning the carrier’s predominantly female crew.

Until recently, women could be fired if they became pregnant. In 2018, Al Baker suggested that a woman would not be able to do his long-held job as chief executive. And in 2020, several passengers were forced to undergo invasive gynaecological examinations at Doha Airport.

What is the best airline in Europe?

European airlines didn’t dominate in the global rankings with just a handful coming in the overall top 10.

Singapore Airlines came second in the World’s Top 20 Airlines – and also scooped the World’s Best Cabin Staff award.

UAE flag carrier Emirates landed third, followed by Japan’s ANA All Nippon Airways in fourth, and Australia’s Qantas Airways in fifth place. More than 350 airlines were included in the survey results.

The top-rated European carrier was Turkish Airlines with satisfied customers putting it in seventh position. This is despite the airline cancelling the most flights in at one point this summer, according to analysis by travel data firm Mabrian.

Air France, Swiss International Air Lines, British Airways, Lufthansa and KLM made the top 20 too, and British Airways was the winner of the Best Airline Staff Service in Europe.

The national airline of Latvia also triumphed at the awards. AirBaltic won the Best Airline in Eastern Europe for the first time, as well as the Most Improved Airline in Europe and the Best Airline Staff in Eastern Europe.

Read full article here

[runwayrunway]

Well, there it is. The end of my spiral dive directly into jetBlue's wild ride, except it stopped being about jetBlue in the end. Fair warning, the most recent post is a bit heavy at times. Not un-cynical. I might, at some point, make a second version which cuts out everything except the parts which are actually reviewing a livery, but if I do it will be a little later. I never expected to write something like that for this blog, and it's nice to be done with it for the time being.

Don't expect anything of that magnitude for a while. I'm not saying I will never find myself pontificating on airlines and what they say about society and all that, because I'm sort of prone to doing that, and the low-cost model in particular lends itself to a lot of analysis. Airlines are part of society, after all.

And I don't want it to come off the wrong way, as me hating aviation or anything like that. Nothing is free of the sort of caveats airlines are bound to. I still think Kalitta Air's livery is very good, and jetBlue's could be better, and Lufthansa's is atrocious. I still intend to continue expressing this in needlessly wordy ways.

Again, I have to repeat...how could they blue this to me?

(Very excited to stop making dad jokes as well.)

[youmightfindyourself]

It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp Donald Judd 1993

In the middle 1980s I wrote that in the middle 1960s someone asked me to design a coffee table. I thought that a work of mine which was essentially a rectangular volume with the upper surface recessed could be altered. This debased the work and produced a bad table, which I later threw away. The configuration and the scale of art cannot be transposed into furniture and architecture. The intent of art is different from that of the latter, which must be functional. If a chair or a building is not functional, if it appears to be only art, it is ridiculous. The art of a chair is not its resemblance to art, but is partly its reasonableness, usefulness, and scale as a chair. These are proportion, which is visible reasonableness. The art in art is partly the assertion of someone’s interest regardless of other considerations. A work of art exists as itself; a chair exists as a chair itself. And the idea of a chair isn’t a chair. Due to the inability of art to become furniture, I didn’t try again for several years. However, I’ve always been interested in architecture and continued to sketch ideas.

Of course if a person is at once making art and building furniture and architecture there will be similarities. The various interests in form will be consistent. If you like simple forms in art you will not make complicated ones in architecture. “Complicated,” incidentally, is the opposite of “simple,” not “complex,” which both may be. But the difference between art and architecture is fundamental. Furniture and architecture can only be approached as such. Art cannot be imposed upon them. If their nature is seriously considered the art will occur, even art close to art itself. The mistake I made with the table was to try to make something as unusual as I thought the work of art to be. Back of this was the assumption that a good chair was only a good chair, that a chair could only be improved or changed slightly, and that nothing new could be done without a great, strange effort. But the furniture slowly became new as I dealt easily with the reality. A good chair is a good chair. The particulars slowly created the general forms that could not be directly transferred. I can now make a chair or a building that is mine without trying to derive forms from my own works of art. After a few years I designed a pair of sinks for an old building that I bought in New York City and for which I’ve designed much subsequently. These were designed directly as sinks; they were not a conversion; I didn’t confuse them with art. The basin of the sink is an ellipse, which so far I’ve never used in art, instead of a circle, which I do use. I also designed a large table with chairs, somewhat like benches, to be made of folded one-eighth-inch stainless steel, brass, or copper. These were never made because the fourth floor of the building in which it was to be is very open, primarily two planes, floor and ceiling, while the table and chairs are very closed. The latter would ruin the space. I later made some bookshelves for the third floor.

I kept the building but moved to West Texas with my two children, where I rented a small house on the edge of town. The house was quartered into eleven-by-eleven-foot rooms. There was no furniture and none to be bought, either old, since the town had not shrunk or changed much since its beginning in 1883, or new, since the few stores sold only fake antiques or tubular kitchen furniture with plastic surfaces printed with inane geometric patterns and flowers. The two small children played and slept in one of the four rooms. In order to give them each an area of their own notwithstanding the one room, I designed a bed which was a closed platform of one-by-twelves with a central, free-standing wall, also of one-by-twelves. The bed was designed so that the lumberyard could cut the few different lengths to size and I could then nail them together in place. I liked the bed a great deal, and in fact the whole house, for which I made other furniture. Later, in a large place in town, I designed desks and chairs for the children using the same method of construction. More furniture developed from this beginning.

It’s impossible to go to the store and buy a chair. In North America since the “Mission” style became unfashionable in the 1920s and in England since the similar furniture derived from William Morris also became unfashionable, there has been no furniture which is pleasurable to look at, fairly available, and moderate in price. The only exception is the bentwood furniture developed by Thonet, which became less fashionable in the 1920s but has continued to be made until now by Thonet and others. This is still not expensive but it is not down the street in the store. The furniture designed in the 1920s by the well-known architects that continues to be made is expensive for most people, although not as expensive as the materials and the construction imply, and is hardly nearby to purchase. Neither is all of it agreeable. Mies van der Rohe’s is still the best and should not be considered as only a worn status symbol. As bad ideas should not be accepted because they are fashionable, good ideas should not be rejected because they are unfashionable. Conventions are not worth reacting to one way or another. Most of the other furniture in production, such as Breuer’s Wassily chair and Le Corbusier’s furniture, is an early civilized and almost forgivable sentimentalizing of the machine. The chairs of both architects are derived from the better camping and military chairs of the nineteenth century. Old good ideas made new and shiny are now a dismaying precedent. Sentimentalizing the machine is now a malignity of the century. This is present in most available furniture and in most buildings. It is extreme in Pompidou and Lloyd’s. In furniture this puerility is usually combined with the puerility of domesticity, the societal progress of the machine with personal progress in the society.

Almost all furniture made since the 1920s and much before in any of the “styles,” “modern” and “traditional,” has been junk for consumers. As I’ve written, the ornate and overstuffed furniture of the last half of the nineteenth century, crowded into corresponding rooms, was not supplanted by simple and functional modern furniture. Instead, this was turned into Victorian furniture, also crowded into matching rooms. Decoration isn’t just applied; a chair is decorated. Modern, progressive furniture has been corrupted into the opposite. Primarily, “traditional” furniture, Victorian furniture, continues. It’s ordinarily what’s in the store. This is what most people have to choose from, whether in Yellowknife or New York. As in politics, this furniture is not traditional and conservative but is an imitation of past furniture. The appearance of the past represents status by invoking a higher class in the past than the purchaser is in in the present. The imitation old furniture symbolizes up and the imitation modern symbolizes forward. Usually the first is in the home and the second is in the office, sometimes one or the other in both, and seldom the reverse. Good office furniture is also difficult to find. The bizarre and complicated “modern” office of the rich executive, who has photographs on his desk of his wife and children in their traditional setting, is a summation of the surrounding corporate headquarters. Since he or his wife is on the board of the museum, it must look progressive, like the headquarters, but with a touch of tradition, for her, for upward mobility to the past, for something better than business, such as learning, although there is nothing better, and, generally for the gentility of art, which symbolizes all of these. Then, also, he may be on the town council, or he builds shopping centers, or he builds apartment houses, giving the people what they want, to go with the furniture in which they had no choice. Upward and forward, and lower every year, not only in architecture and art, but economically and politically, since reality is equally absent. Anyway, what kind of a society is it when you can’t even buy a chair?

Architects, designers, businesspeople, even politicians, say that they are giving the people what they want. They are giving the people what they deserve, because of their negligence, but they are presumptuous to claim to know what they want. What they want is what they get. An exception to imposing upon the public what they want, or perhaps a rare good guess, is the design of Sony television sets and other equipment of some other Japanese companies and of some European companies. This has no relation to traditional Japanese architecture, which is fortunate, because if it did the new version of the old would be just as debased as it is in the United States. Department stores in Osaka are floor after floor of kitsch, as they are in New York. And always surprisingly, and always everywhere, new Japanese and Korean architecture show no fundamental lessons learned from their past architecture, the same as in Paris. In the United States the television machine began disguised and continues as at once the myth of the machine and the myth of the old home. The Americans gave the Americans what they wanted; they didn’t want it. Neither did anyone else. In addition to the success of Sony’s design, there is the smaller success of Braun, whose design must be the model, somewhat better, as earlier usually is, for Sony’s design. A few months ago there was a curious article in Lufthansa’s magazine justly praising Braun and its chief designer, Dieter Rams, praising “German” design of course, but explaining that “German” design was now second to “Italian” design (consumer products are not where nations differ in design) but that Germany would catch up. This means become worse. “Designer” Italian furniture is the world’s worst. The only things as bad are the plastic bottles for liquid soap. It is an exception and a possibility that you can go down the street and choose a TV and enjoy looking at it when it’s turned off. In Texas, when I made the first furniture, I wanted a television set. This wasn’t down the street, but almost so, twenty-five miles away. All the sets were American, all were made of plastic imitating wood, some like your Anglo grandmother’s sideboard, some like your Italian grandmother’s credenza, some like your Latino grandmother’s aparador. I chose an Anglo set by Zenith. Again as usual, the design and the technology were congruent. The color was that of the first colored comic strip, printed during an earthquake.

Most of the furniture that I have designed remains fairly expensive, because of its methods of construction, and it is not easily available. We have made a serious effort to lower the prices but the furniture is handmade, basically even the sheet-metal pieces made by Janssen, one by one. These would be cheaper made by hundreds but still there would be considerable handwork. The wooden furniture cannot change. Lower prices require great numbers, which require a large distribution. This usually leads to the department store. The distribution of furniture, and of books, probably of most things, are monopolies against diversity, which eliminate exceptions and complication, which have an invariable scheme for production and for costs, and of course for appearance, and, for books, subject matter. For both furniture and books the designer and the author absolutely receive very little. The production cost of furniture is not as fixed as the cost of the designer, but it is low. The cost of the designer must have developed from that of real modern furniture, since the architect was always dead. The producer, not the factory, and the retailer, or both as one, receive the most money, some as profit, some for the expenses of the distribution and the salesroom. This makes an impossible price. And of course it seems that the middleman should get less. The larger the distribution the more to the middleman. Therefore the best method is a small distribution, which is what we do. And, importantly, we are the producers, which combines that profit and my profit into one, leaving only the retailer as extra. Our furniture goes around the world, but only one by one. Most things could be made in the area in which they are consumed, eliminating the big distributor, often one company charging for three functions, instead of two for one as in our case, charging three times as the distributor, the producer, and the manufacturer, that is, profiting as corporations. Almost anything they can do anyone can do anywhere. And obviously even cars and TVs could be made by any large city or small country. I have always thought it strange that there are no cars built in Switzerland. I have heard that there was once a company. Why should Texas import cars and trucks from Michigan? The oligarchy of monopolies of distribution prevents innovation, invents only restrictions, and raises blank walls. The flat and boring society is a maze of blank walls just above eye level. This prevents new and real inventions, so obviously there is no chance for only a new chair or a little book. The purpose of big business is to maintain its oligarchy rather than to do anything else, for example, to fulfill two of its biggest claims, competition and innovation. Efficiency is another claim, part of progress, efficiency for profit, not necessarily for production, and not for the public. Only in the mythical “progress” is there a suggestion of benefiting society. Most businesspeople think that such slight altruism is part of their advertising. And “free enterprise” is a slogan of the Pentagon.

Noam Chomsky writes:

Free trade is fine for economics departments and newspaper editorials, but nobody in the corporate world or the government takes the doctrines seriously. The parts of the US economy that are able to compete internationally are primarily the state-subsidized ones: capital-intensive agriculture (agribusiness, as it’s called), high-tech industry, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, etc.

The same is true of other industrial societies. The US government has the public pay for research and development and provides, largely through the military, a state-guaranteed market for waste production. If something is marketable, the private sector takes it over. That system of public subsidy and private profit is what is called free enterprise.

My experience is that both furniture distribution and book distribution are impossible. On the other hand the art business is such a one-horse business that something larger seems better. But this is perhaps because the context for art is so weak. The only possible way, perhaps, to make cheap mass-produced furniture is to start with a construction cost and to design accordingly. At present we would have to debase the construction of the existing furniture for mass production. Beginning from a fixed construction cost still leaves the questions of too little to the designer and too much to the producer-organizer-wholesaler and to the retailer.

The roughly made pine furniture made by me and others in Texas was made first, with a few exceptions. So far this has not been made for sale. Next, well-made furniture in fine solid wood was made for my building in New York and then in small numbers to sell, as it still is. The wood and the craftsmanship make this the most expensive. In 1984 I designed some chairs, benches, a table, and some beds in sheet metal, which were painted one color to a piece. There were also a couple of chairs and a table made of copper. This was for myself but also was the first furniture to begin as furniture to sell. Since this was sheet metal and the construction is common, I thought it would be cheap enough to be used outdoors in public, but there is still too much handwork. Until then, except for the first pine chairs, all of the furniture was somewhat heavy. Five years ago I designed some light chairs and two tables in solid wood. These are simply but well made in Yorkshire. Similar ones were made recently for outdoors in galvanized steel and of granite, again heavy, and also in Texas in painted steel and of slate. A few years ago, first for use, then for sale, desks, tables, and a bench were made in Cologne of clear plywood. The sheets of plywood are cut as little as possible and are slipped together, interlocking, like a children’s toy, an old idea. These also, sometimes with the plywood coated commercially with a color, as well as chairs like those in pine, are made in New York.

I am often asked if the furniture is art, since almost ten years ago some artists made art that was also furniture. The furniture is furniture and is only art in that architecture, ceramics, textiles, and many things are art. We try to keep the furniture out of art galleries to avoid this confusion, which is far from my thinking. And also to avoid the consequent inflation of the price. I am often told that the furniture is not comfortable, and in that not functional. The source of the question is in the overstuffed bourgeois Victorian furniture, which, as I said, never ceased. The furniture is comfortable to me. Rather than making a chair to sleep in or a machine to live in, it is better to make a bed. A straight chair is best for eating or writing. The third position is standing.

First published: Donald Judd Furniture: Retrospective, exh. cat. (Rotterdam: Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1993), 7–21.

Donald Judd Text © Judd Foundation

[ark3750]

25 Amazing FACTS, not fiction for all those who consider Hinduism to be irrelevant, obsolete n unscientific! (2/2)

May 08, 2022

The original name in Sanskrit for Hinduism is Sanātana Dharma, which means the Eternal way of Salvation. The word Hindu or Indu comes from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, meaning a large body of water or River. It was coined by the Greeks to describe the people who lived around the Indus River in the Indus valley.

Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages in the world having a history of more than 3,500 years. Many linguists consider it to be the mother of many (almost all) languages. It belongs to the language family of Proto-Indo-Aryan, Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Indo-Europian Languages. It is also been proven that Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computers.

Why is the German national Airlines called ✈"Lufthansa"✈ ? The word, Lufthansa is derived from the two Sanskrit Words,- 'Lupth' (लुप्त) & 'Hansa'(हंस) meaning, the Disappearing Swan (लुप्त हुआ हंस). When the German airline service first started commercial flights in 1926, the aircraft they employed in service were pure white, resembling huge white swans. When these aeroplanes would fly into the sky and slowly grow smaller and smaller before disappearing, they resembled large white swans, flying up, up and away before disappearing into the vastness of the sky. In Sanskrit, the phrase that could aptly describe them was ‘lupth-hansa’, (लुप्त हुआ हंस) or Luft-hansa,- the disappearing swan!

There Is No single founder of Hinduism Most religions have a founder such as Prophet Muhammad for Islam, Jesus for Christianity, Buddha for Buddhism, Mahavir for Jainism and so on. Hinduism, however, has no single founder and no one knows the exact timeline for when the oldest religion on Earth originated.

The Only Religion That Doesn’t Have A Conversion Rule Hinduism is the only religion that never invaded any country or other religion to convert them into Hindus. Hinduism has no rule or ritual for conversion. But it doesn’t restrict those who wish to practice it and attain salvation from embracing it.

The Hanuman Chalisa predicted the distance between Sun & Earth Hanuman Chalisa is a prayer offering to Lord Hanuman written by Santh Tulsidas in the 16th century. In a verse of this prayer, it’s written as follows,- “Yuga-Sahasra-yojana para Bhanu Leeloo Tahi Madhura Phala Janu” According to the above verse, the distance between the Sun and Earth is Yuga-Sahasra-yojana. As said by Hinduism, 1 yuga is 12,000 divine years, Sahasra means one thousand and Yojana means 8 miles. Now equating this calculation we get 12000 x 1000 x 8 = 96 mn miles, which is 154.4 mn kms approximately, much closer to the 20th-century calculation of 152 mn kms at Aphelion (Longest distance between the Sun and the Earth). WOW!

The Rig Veda is the oldest of the four Vedas It is the oldest Indian & one of the oldest Indo-European texts. On the basis of astronomical calculations, it is dated back to 8,000 years and some calculations date it back to 10,000 years. It is a religious text, composed in Sanskrit, that originated in ancient India (1,800-1,100 BCE.) The Rigveda is regarded as one of the most sacred texts of Hinduism. It has fascinated scholars and historians due to its significance and antiquity. It is a collection of ancient Vedic Sanskrit hymns.

Feel proud to be born a “Hindu”, live as a devout Hindu, inspire n create more Hindus n later, move on n seek moksha as a Hindu! Jai Shri Ram! जय श्री राम! 🙏🏽 Ohm Namah Shivaaya! ॐ नमः शिवाय! 🙏🏽

[kvetchlandia]

Blues Singer Champion Jack Dupree     Uncredited and Undated Photograph

“...Champion Jack Dupree was one of my favorite blues singers and piano players.  He was originally from New Orleans, but in the late 1950s he moved to Europe and ended up settling in Germany.  In the 1980s I started to tour over there a lot, and for a while it seemed as if we were playing tag across the continent.  I would hit town, and there would be posters plastered all over the place: “One Night Only! Champion Jack Dupree! You Just Missed Him, Schmuck!” or “One night only! Champion Jack Dupree! But you’ll be playing in Dusseldorf that night!”  So, I never got a chance to meet him, but you could not be a blues musician in Europe and not hear Jack Dupree stories.  The man really carved himself out a legend, and this story is a good example.

Sometime in the early 1960s Jack was living in Hamburg, and he got a call from an agent there.  The guy said, “Jack, I’m going to put you on the tour of your life.  We’re going to start you in Stockholm, and we’re going to send you from Lisbon to Leningrad.”  It sounded all right, so Jack signed on.  He was traveling with a small band, and they trundled from country to country, town to town, and eventually they got to Kiev, I think it was.  That was still the Soviet Union, and this was the height of the Cold War - how they arranged to get in there at that time is anybody’s guess.  In any case, they were there, and all of a sudden, the tour just evaporated.  There Jack was, stranded in Russia, with no money, three or four musicians, and no way to get home.

God knows how he wiggled out of that one, but musicians get to be very good at that sort of thing - our improvisational skills are by no means limited to music.  In any case, somehow or other he limped back to Germany, licking his wounds.

The years go by, and then one fine day he gets a call from the same guy, with the same offer:  “Jack, I’m gonna put you on the tour of a lifetime.  We’ll start you in Stockholm, you’re gonna be Lisbon, in Marrakech, in Kiev...”

Dupree said, “Now wait a minute, I remember you.  First of all, I am going absolutely nowhere unless I have airline tickets covering every single stop on the tour, in my pocket before I leave my house.”  There was an audible gulp at the other end of the line.  And Jack added, “I fly first class.”

There were more gulps, but eventually the guy said, “Well, OK, Jack.”

Jack said, “All right, I’ll be at your office tomorrow morning, and you just have those tickets ready.  Then we can talk through the rest of the terms.”

The next morning, Jack showed up at the agent’s office, and the agent handed over a sheaf of tickets for him and for his band that looked like a Gutenberg Bible.  Jack went through them carefully, checked that they covered the whole tour, from beginning to end, and said, “Yes, this looks all right.”  Then he left, went over to the Lufthansa office, cashed them all in, and went home.

Man, to an over-the-road musician, that is sheer poetry.”

--Dave Van Ronk, with Elijah Wald “The Mayor of MacDougal Street”  2005