This is being (hurriedly) written from the skies of Delta, where eBay is giving cards so fliers can sample its new sky WiFi that will run $9.95 — a reasonable price for a connection far better than I’ve had in most hotels or airports. And so we enter a new era where you’ll look around and see other passengers seriously intent as they go through emails, write business email, surf the web or write blogs such as TMV.
And if you see some passeingers trying to hide their laptop screens from fellow passengers, then you’ll know what they’re reading…
Now if I can equip my laptop with a battery that lasts four or six hours, life will be beautiful.
Footnote: I’m flying from JFK to San Diego, after 6 days on the East Coast. During that time I had the sublime pleasure of visiting TMVer Bob Stein in his wonderful red Connecticut New England home, complete with picture window framing a babbling brook outside.
I also picked up a Quote of the Day from Lillian Chasnoff, a friend of my 88-year-old mother at the hotel-like seniors independent living facility where they live. When the subject of how emotional people become about politics my mother’s 93-year-old friend said:
“I never discuss politics with my friends. Half of them are Republicans and like money. The other half like people.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.