Over on Consumerist, a reader chimes in with a tale of how Delta tried to stick him with a $70 change fee when he tried to change to an earlier flight on the same date as his original booking.
Astute readers will recall a similar tale on MrShafrir from way back in November 2006.
How do companies get away behaving like this? Or is the more obvious question how do bankrupt companies become bankrupt?
OK, not really, stealing another favorite Gawker headline seemed appropriate.
Anyhow, my sister is leaving Gawker today!
There goes my tenuous grip on New York City celebrity.
Well, that certainly explains this:
I just hope my dad doesn't see this.
Fred Wilson opines that JetBlue has grown "too big for it's britches" at the JFK JetBlue terminal. I would've titled the post "I Still Love JetBlue, but air travel in general really sucks," but that's just me.
The last time I flew JetBlue out of JFK they drove us to an auxiliary terminal for the flight. It wasn't a big deal, but it certainly seemed like temporary overflow housing.
It's not so much JetBlue though that has outgrown its housing at JFK. It's the idea of using JFK as an airport for short-haul flights. I'm no transportation expert, but it seems logical that the tri-state area should be using LaGuardia, White Plains, and Islip as the short-haul domestic airports, and JFK and Newark as the airports for cross-country and international flights. That's basically how they were used in the past (especially JFK) but it seems like the frequency of flights at JFK is causing problems for JetBlue. And given the overcrowded, increasingly expensive state of domestic air travel, that's a really bad thing for an NYC-based traveler like myself.
I have a decent amount of travel through this summer and I'm not looking forward to any of it (the travel part, not the actual destination).
And while we're on the subject of travel, let me confess my love of Kayak.com. It's a comparison site/engine for travel that includes, unlike Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity, fares on JetBlue. Their user interface is really intuitive, well-thought-out, and constantly evolving as well (a huge bonus).
Ahhh, I remember it like it was yesterday.
School ends in June, you pack up the trunk, say goodbye to your parents, and hop in the private jet to take you up to summer camp.
Seriously?
Un-ironically, Robin O'Hara of Great Neck, explains:
"The bus takes 31/2 hours. It is crowded, and it's always a very dramatic scene," said O'Hara, of Great Neck, L.I."This year, she is not going with her [older] sisters, so we want to make it a special, unique experience for her.
"It's a trend. A lot of my friends do it," O'Hara said. "They play videos, they serve kids' food, sometimes, we'll have a manicurist on board."
What will they think of next?
There's something about turning the corner and seeing the giant inflatable rat. It gets me every time.
JetBlue is a fantastic airline; despite the fact that most of their flights from New York leave from JFK, they are my overwhelming choice for most of my air travel.
This winter they had a pretty embarrassing system-wide meltdown that grounded thousands this winter.
Befitting a company that describes itself as a "customer service company that happens to be an airline", JetBlue's CEO, David Neeleman, went into full apology mode. He hit the national media, drew up a Passenger Bill of Rights, and began proactively offering vouchers for flights that were delayed.
It wasn't enough, unfortunately. Neeleman was forced out as CEO today.
I hope that the new CEO brings JetBlue's operations up to the level of their customer service, and not the level of their customer service down to their operations. That would be a big shame.
Nick Douglas first appeared on my radar screen about a year ago as the first editor at Valleywag. He seemed intelligent enough but never really brought much to the table to turn Valleywag into a must read.
When I first saw him at the Web 2.0 conference last year in San Francisco, it all made sense. He really fit the definition of a smarmy internet blogger...he was small, nerdy looking, and clearly seemed to be relishing in his pseudo-notoriety.
But from time to time (and really since getting fired from Valleywag) he puts out some decent copy. Like this piece, entitled "Dear bubble veterans. We get it. Now shut up, you're harshing out buzz." Well said!
It's been a hectic month. Too much work, too little blogging...or something like that.
So let's break it down, list style:
1) American Idol is a massive disappointment this season...I have no idea who is going to win. There isn't one person on there that I find myself rooting for, although Jordin Sparks was pretty good last week.
2) There's another Michael Shafrir out there. I kid you not. I had known about him for a while but had never really acknowledged his existence. Now we've been trading messages on Facebook. He was born in Tel Aviv, lives in DC, is 2 years younger than me, and might be the same person. Here's proof.
3) Fun ways to get woken up on a Sunday. A phone call from your buddy Sleezer telling you that your older sister is quoted in this month's Playboy. I can't find a link, but Sleezer tells me that in the print edition it's the article right before the shot of Britney's exposed crotch. Lovely.
4) I've been wanting to take a long vacation for a while now.
This drive seems really nice. So does this one. And while we're at it, throw in some Nicaragua, some Thailand, and some Peru. After trips last year to Israel and Japan (plus like 10 other cities in the US), I've got the travel itch again.
5) I don't talk much about Chowhound.com, but it's probably my favorite site. For one thing, it's moderated, so there's no shilling, the conversation never really degrades into a flame war, and the people that are regular posters are knowledgeable, helpful, and passionate. As an example, here's a 119 message thread about the best item's at Trader Joe's. And here's 27 entries about the lack of good Vietnamese food in New York. It's a great site for living vicariously through others' food experiences, it's encouraged me to try new cuisines, and it's a fantastic way to kill a few hours on Sunday nights.
6) Kobe Bryant is going nuts. He's the purest scorer in the league (or the "Association" as Boonton likes to say) and is going for his 5th straight game of 50 points or more. Just a real pleasure to watch for hoop heads like me.
7) I am unhealthily obsessed with bulldogs. This guy is AWESOME. (Thanks to Barker for the link).
7) Marc was on Fox and Friends this morning talking about the 7 Deadly Sins of Interviewing.
1) Is there a site that gives you the HTML code to embed stock charts on your blog?
2) Why does http://pr.monsterworldwide.com/ redirect to the
Investor Relations site for Mastercard? UPDATE: fixed
It's good to see that the statute of limitations on stupid ways to describe people hasn't expired.
Back at the ol' alma mater, my fraternity brother Satoni starred in this spoof trailer for "American Jedi".
He's the guy who's the dead ringer for Jason Biggs.
Thanks to the glory of the Internet and its pipes, you can watch it here:
I don't mean to make light of what's obviously something very scary for all involved, but...Tony Blair flies commercial?
One of my favorite blogs, i.e. one that I read every day, is Fred Wilson's "AVC". His blog is a mix of music, business, Internet, investing, New York City, and anything else that's on his mind. He also updates it daily which is nice (hint, hint MrShafrir).
He always hints that he's had some successes in the VC world (proof is here and less so here), but in general, you'd assume he's your average New York City millionaire (and I don't really mean that tongue-in-cheek).
Except his house in on the market for $37.5 million...good times!
Fresh Pepper, you will be missed. I look forward to your book.
By the way, if any of you blush easy, you should just take my word that Fresh Pepper is hilarious.
Japan entries coming right up...just waiting for the massive pile of work to magically do itself and for the jetlag to set in, crush my soul, and then leave.
Thanks to The Dishonest Male Perspective for the genius that is this t-shirt.
NFL coaches around the League let out a sigh of relief today when Paris Hilton announced she's going celibate.
Or at least that's the headline I would've written.
First my mom completely misses the obvious Dumb and Dumber reference in the post below, and then she sends my sister and me this email:
"so ben had to go 55 in the 100 meter freestyle to make the NYU team. he just made it."
followed by:
"wait i think it was 100 yards..."
Confused by this out-of-the-blue-but-potentially-relevant-because-both-my-sisters-and-I-were-swimmers email, I respond "who is ben?"...
Then this shows up in my inbox:
"did you ever watch felicity? it was felicity's california boyfriend."
I think it's time for the weekend...
If anyone would like to join me, tonight I'll be celebrating my latest Alexa ranking.
That's right, according to Alexa, I'm the 4,179,474th most visited site on the Internet.
I'd really like to thank all my readers. Without you, rankings like this wouldn't be possible.
p.s. Mom, if you could just click around a bunch every time you visit, that would be great. Thanks!
Looks like I'm starting to get some comment spam...I've upped the spam trigger thing-a-majig, so if your comment doesn't get posted right away, that's why.
Sorry to all two of you this affects...
So you're on a nice weekend shopping trip with the lady. You know "Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time." That kind of trip...
Anyway, you get home, unpack your stuff, and find two 50-pound bricks of pot and 3 kilos of coke. Instant party!
I've made it to Gawker.
OK, so it's not a link to something I wrote, but my picture is up there, snarky comment and all.
Check it out (scroll to the bottom).
That's right boys and girls, it's time for The Hills, everyone's much anticipated Laguna Beach spin-off.
The DVR Season Pass is queued up, fo sheezy.
I'm often asked if I am an LC fan or a Kristin fan. I'm firmly in the LC camp. Why? LC seems like the type of girl, who, if everything fell exactly into place, all the stars aligned, and we finished off about 15 beers a piece, I could've hooked up with in high school. Or, definitely not.
In any case, here's a picture of everyone's favorite The Hillsstar.
There are some great web sites out there. Ones that inform, ones that educate, ones whose only purpose seems to be to waste time.
Then there are sites that transcend all of these qualities and manage to entertain for hours on end. By the time you
close this site down, you will have laughed, you may have cried, but, most importantly, you are given the opportunity
to look deep inside yourself and question exactly what it is that makes you tick. That, my friends, is one hell of a
site.
Motivational Buck, here's to you.
Here's another blog to waste some time to:
Gone Living
It's written by a guy that used to work at Yahoo (I'm guessing he made some loot off of those trusty stock options) who is now travelling around the world. He's in Thailand right now and I'm very jealous.
SNL does...good/scary stuff...
Click here if the embedded object doesn't appear.
Update: Apparently the video is no longer available on YouTube. You really have to appreciate a company like NBC that appreciates the value of viral marketing.
Here's a suggestion if they don't want this "unauthorized" video on YouTube. Create their own clip with a 30-seconds of advertising before the video. Upload it to YouTube. I'd watch that.
Well, not quite, but I did add a little widget to my blog called "Who Linked"?
Basically, it tracks websites that link back to your site/blog/etc. In my (pathetic) case, we can see 4 people nice enough to give me props out in cyberspace.
Of course, I'm assuming that like most "cool" things online these days, this will just turn out to be another way to spam me, send me spam, spam my blog, refer to spammers, or who knows what else. So if you see it go away soon, that's why.
I should add a blogroll one of these days...people seem to get a kick out of that.
Americans, ages 18 to 24, don't know shit about geography.
My family takes its geography seriously. My grandfather, who has been to something like 120 countries, used to quiz us on world capitals when we were younger. There are few things that get my dad riled up more than people not knowing geography. If you want to get into a two-hour discussion with my dad, either bring up gun control or the fact that Americans know nothing about the world they live in.
A few of my favorite stats from the study:
- Seventy-five percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.
- Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East.
- Half or fewer of young men and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map [50 percent and 43 percent, respectively]
And, the worst one of all, considering, oh, I don't know, HURRICANE KATRINA:
- Thirty-three percent of respondents couldn't pinpoint Louisiana on a map.
Again, we're talking AMERICANS. 1/3rd of AMERICANS age 18-24 CAN'T FIND LOUISIANA!
Here's a hint: Take a right at myspace.com, hang a left at facebook.com, and once you're staring Texas in the face, look to your right. That's Louisiana.
Yikes.
Dylan Drew points to a live reenactment of level one of the original Super Mario Bros. game.
My first question: What can't you find on the Internet today?
My second question: Who thought of the fireball bit towards the end?
I think the Sports Guy says it best (speaking about finding some old clips of 1980's WWF wrestling shows):
So here's my question: In a million years, did you ever think this would happen? One decade ago, I didn't even have an e-mail address or know what the Internet was ... now I can watch Piper slam a coconut against Snuka's head whenever I want? What will the world be like 10 years from now? Is it possible to procrastinate for 24 hours a day? Are we headed that way?
If that's the case, I'm in trouble.
What I really find amazing is the crowd at this thing. They are going WILD. Did people actually pay to go to this? Was this part of some booze-filled "Spring Weekend" where everyone is either too drunk or too stoned (or both) to know any better?
Of course, who am I to judge? When I was a sophomore, we entertained ourselves by faking fire alarms in our fraternity house, even going as far as to let off the extinguisher (we were a responsible bunch) before waking people up at 3AM to "evacuate". And yes, we taped the whole thing. But dammit if we weren't five years before our time. We could've been online celebrities!
I'm not sure what the joke is here, and, considering someone died...
But the funniest part is this:
McMillan said neither the rescue workers nor the court building had defibrillators, which can sometime revive patients by delivering shocks to the heart.The county allocated money last year to buy the paddles but has been studying where they are needed.
I can think of one spot.
Congrats to Katie and Tom!
Tom, enjoy the placenta.
Katie, enjoy the...hmmm, can't think of anything here.
My 401(k) has investment options like "Aggressive", "Income", "Growth", etc. Why can't I just let it all ride on "This kid will NOT be normal"?
Update: If were as funny as Gawker, this would've been my punchline:
The press release is thin on details like, say, when exactly the child was born, but the poor thing weighed in at 7 pounds and 7 ounces and is reportedly named Suri, which means “doomed†in Hebrew and “utterly fucked†in Persian.
Ah, the glories of the Internet.
First, a dude out in San Diego (is there anyone in San Diego besides a "dude") splices the audio broadcast from Game 6 of the 1986 World Series with a recreation of the action on, yep, RBI Baseball. For those of you who can't imagine this, it's basically Vin Scully talking over an exact action replica of the game.
Then the dude gets an interview on Yahoo Sports, where he comes off as surprisingly normal. Plus, an exec from a movie production company saw the video and hired the dude as a Production Assistant. Not bad for 10 hours (yep, 10 hours) of work.
So, what do we learn from this?
1) Bill Buckner committed an error that broke the hearts of Red Sox fans everywhere.
2) We (yes, we) had already choked a two-run, two-out lead in the bottom of the ninth away. Somehow, this is always
forgotten when people rush to blame Bill Buckner for all things wrong in the world (pre-2004 when the Sox finally won
the damn World Series). Oh, and we lost Game 7 too, just for kicks I suppose.
3) Make a cool video, become a semi-Internet celebrity, get a job, get interviewed on Yahoo Sports. Almost the same
career trajectory as Paris Hilton, minus all the nudity.
It's a tough day in Detroit.
First, it loses the Real World Season 18 to Denver of all places.
What, Cleveland was busy? Pittsburgh was all booked?
And then, this.
Tough day.
Here's something I didn't want to read this morning:
My contact solution is MAKING ME BLIND. Hopefully I'll drink some cyanide-laced milk tomorrow with my cereal.
Poor form Seth Cohen.
The way you treated Summer tonight was unacceptable.
Lying was one thing, but then intentionally hurting her while holding on to the lie...how dare you.
Facebook, according to BusinessWeek, has passed up a reported offer of $750 million and is holding out for, yes, it's true, $2 billion.
I suppose anything that my little sister uses must have some legs. She's one of those too-cool-for-school types, but she seems to be pretty into Facebook. Good for them.
Apparently, I was the most successful air-to-air missle in the Yom Kippur war (1973).
Check me out!
That actually makes two Shafrir's flying through the skies during that war as my Dad, Avishai Shafrir, was an IDF Paratrooper at the time...