The airline says few people are wiling to shell out $5 for headsets anymore. No surprise there. Eliminating in-flight movies will save the airline $10 million a year. Among the reasons why: Just removing the player systems, which, according to Bloomberg News, weigh about 500 pounds, will help save fuel. (via Today in the Sky)
Related on World Hum:
* The Long Descent: US Airways to Charge $2 for Soft Drinks
Sure, maybe the first thing you’re thinking about Sunday morning is lazing in bed. The most strenuous activity on your mind might be lifting a pudding-filled pastry.
Da-da-da-duh! Adventure Woman is here to save you! (Are you grateful? Good. …
Ever been to a rodeo? The bronc riding is no sport for sissies, but it looks like knitting compared with bull riding.
Getting bucked off a horse is about as fun as a root canal, but after you’ve parted company with him, Mr. Horse doesn’t want to hurt you. …
USA TODAY’s Gene Sloan is reporting live from Europe this weekend as Holland America unveils its newest ship, the 2,104-passenger Eurodam.
USA TODAY’s Gene Sloan will be among travel writers and agents getting a sneak peek of the vessel this weekend before it is christened on Tuesday. Have a question about the ship? Leave it here.
Oh, the hyperbole! I’ll bet the first minute and a half of this clip offers more entertainment than the 400-foot-tall Great Orlando Wheel ever will when it opens in central Florida in 2010. See for yourself.
UC Irvine history professor and World Hum contributor Jeffrey Wasserstrom is determined to pump you up—intellectually speaking—for the Olympic Games. Last November, we noted his suggested reading list, which included no fewer than 12 books.
It’s all in Names on the Land, George Rippey Stewart’s soon-to-be-reissued 1945 book about how America’s “creeks and valleys, rivers and mountains, streets and schools, towns and cities, counties and states, the country and continent itself” were named. In Slate, Matt Weiland calls the tome “a masterpiece of American writing and American history.” Among the tidbits he highlights: “The original name proposed for the state that became New Jersey was Albania.”
Related on World Hum:
* What’s in a Place Name?
* Esquire Complains About Hotel Bar Names
Consider the numbers: By 2020, it’s estimated that 2 billion people worldwide will be learning or using English, yet only 15 percent of them will be native speakers. Thus, according to an intriguing story by Michael Erard in Wired, English will evolve, with pieces of Chinglish, Singlish and other mash-ups native speakers often poke fun at comprising large chunks of the world’s most dominant language. The fracturing isn’t unique. For instance, see: Latin.
In Chicago. In 1930. Gene Weingarten’s story, which chronicled what happened when “internationally acclaimed virtuoso” Joshua Bell busked for 43 minutes at the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington D.C., unknowingly covered ground already trod in the Windy City.
