Bookstores are making a comeback in the U.S.

Posted on December 13, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

After more than a decade of bad news stories about the imminent demise of the American bookstore it seems that things are looking up for a change.

 

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I hang on the edge of this universe

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I hang on the edge
of this universe
singing off-key
talking too loud
embracing myself
to cushion the fall

I shall tumble
into deep space
never in this form
or with this feeling
to return to earth

It is not tragic

I will spiral
through that Black hole
losing skin limbs
internal organs
searing
my naked soul

Landing
in the next galaxy
with only my essence
embracing myself
as

I dream of you

—-

Sky Diving
Nikki Giovanni RIP

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Traveling Light

Posted on December 11, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

In my planning for an upcoming trip to Japan, I stumbled upon a very clever service aimed at visitors. Any Wear, Anywhere is an inspired clothing rental plan that allows tourists to literally travel light.

The negative environmental effects of flying were weighing on Miho Moriya. “I love to travel but also felt guilty about using flights that produce CO2,” says the 40-year-old accountant based in Japan. So when her employer, Japanese trading house Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., held its annual entrepreneurship competition in 2019, she pitched an idea that could make a tiny dent: a clothing-rental service for travelers. Instead of flyers hauling luggage—the weight adding to a plane’s carbon emissions—they could borrow clothes on the ground.

The idea became Any Wear, Anywhere, part of a venture between Sumitomo and Japan Airlines Co. Travelers arriving in Japan can now rent clothing for as little as $31 for up to two weeks, delivered to their hotel. The online service, more for the utilitarian-minded than the fashionista, rents sets—including perhaps three pairs of pants, three tops and a couple of jackets—all secondhand or sourced from overstock to keep with the eco-friendly vibe. It offers seven size options for adults and nine for children, with sweaters and jeans for winter and shorts and T-shirts for summer.

The service is currently available only in Japan, which happens to be enjoying a tourism boom. But traveling entirely suitcase-free is still just an aspiration: Shoes, underwear, PJs and toiletries aren’t yet part of the pitch. Moriya, who left her job in accounting to help operate Any Wear, Anywhere as its project leader, says going green feels good, but traveling without carrying luggage is even better. “My ultimate dream,” she says, “is making it possible to travel anywhere in the world hands-free.”

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Good News For Flyers

Posted on December 10, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Under consumer protection rules that the U.S. Transportation Department announced earlier this year, airlines may owe travelers money back when services that passengers paid for go awry. Some of those rules went into effect October.

Here’s what air travelers in the U.S. need to know:

Refunds for canceled flights and big delays

Since May, when President Joe Biden signed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill into law, passengers have been entitled to a refund without them jumping through hoops if airlines cancel or significantly change their flights and they choose not to rebook or take the changed flight.

Under the law, airlines are required to proactively offer refunds rather than vouchers or credits without passengers having to ask for it. The money is due within seven business days if the ticket was bought with a credit card and within 20 business days for other transactions.

The law also spells out for the first time how long a delay must be to qualify as “significant” enough for a refund: three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international trips.
“This is a protection for airline passengers that’s long overdue,” Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said in an email.
Before the rule, Murray said, airlines “often slow-walked” refunds they were obligated to provide for cancellations. “That’s not allowed anymore,” she noted.
Murray said some passengers might not want a refund; they might just want to get to their destination as soon as possible. But for those who do want their money back, they should get it without hassle. “The starting point should be that if you do want a refund, you get it quickly and without delays or marketing tricks,” she said.

Refunds for checked luggage fees

Regulations cover refunds for other parts of a flight. If a traveler pays a checked-bag fee but their luggage is mishandled, they are entitled to a refund for the baggage if it is not delivered within 12 hours of their arrival for a domestic flight. For international flights, the threshold is either 15 or 30 hours from arrival, depending on how long the flight was.

Refunds for broken WiFi, seating fails, passengers who pay for WiFi, a specific seat assignment or in-flight entertainment are also owed a refund for those fees if the airline isn’t able to deliver what it promised.

Refunds for other changes Under the new regulations, travelers are also owed a refund if they choose not to take a flight that was significantly changed because of factors that go beyond delays, including an increase in the number of connections; a downgrade of cabin class or service; departures or arrivals from a different airport or certain changes that make travel less accessible for travelers with a disability. (…)

Airlines for America, an industry trade group, said in a statement in April that the 11 largest passenger airlines in the country had issued $43 billion in customer refunds between January 2020 and December 2023.

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Some Comic Relief

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

 

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All day the stars watch from long ago

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Canada for free

Posted on December 7, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

It’s been a very stressful time for most folks in the U.S., but our neighbors to the north in Canada might have a timely gift. Destination Canada, the nation’s tourism board, is offering the chance to experience the joy and beauty of winter in the frozen north by giving away 50 prizes of two economy round-trip tickets each on Air Canada.

The new promotion, which launched on Cyber Monday, is called “SnOOOw Days” (the three capital “O”s being a play on “out of office”).

“Canadian winter is a time for joy, trying new things, and reconnecting with our inner child,” Gloria Loree, senior vice president of marketing strategy and chief marketing officer at Destination Canada, said in a press release. “The ‘SnOOOw Day Giveaway’ is our way of encouraging Americans to step away from their busy lives and immerse themselves in the wonder of Canada’s winter landscapes.”

To enter, travelers need to visit www.snowdaycanada.com between now and December 20, 2024, and fill out the online entry form with their name, zip code, email address, and phone number. The only stipulations are that entrants need to be a legal resident of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia and be at least 21 years of age.

Winners will be notified via email sometime in January 2025 and will have three days to claim their prize before another winner will be randomly chosen. They will have until March 2026 to use their free airline tickets, with the only blackout dates being between January 3 and 6, 2025; December 20 and 23, 2025; and January 3 and 6, 2026.

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A Farewell to Arms (copyright)

Posted on December 6, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

It’s that wonderful time of the year when we anticipate all of the amazing works of art and literature that will lose their copyright protections. So, if you’ve been hankering to write that sequel to A Farewell to Arms or paint your own version of Hopper’s Clop Suey, get ready for January 1st.

Examples of important literary works entering the public domain include Ernest Hemingway‘s novel A Farewell to Arms, William Seabrook‘s novel The Magic Island (the first book to introduce the concept of a zombie). Ellery Queen‘s detective novel The Roman Hat Mystery, Margery Allingham detective novel The Crime at Black Dudley, the first English translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Alfred Döblin’s novel Berlin Alexanderplatz in its original German, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s novel Pather Panchali in its original Bengali, Lynd Ward‘s wordless novel Gods’ Man, William Faulkner‘s novel The Sound and the Fury, Dashiell Hammett‘s novel Red Harvest, Edgar Rice Burroughs‘s novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire, Ruth Plumly Thompson‘s novel Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, Bertrand Russell‘s book Marriage and Morals, Patrick Hamilton‘s play Rope, A. A. Milne‘s play Toad of Toad Hall, Virginia Woolf‘s essay A Room of One’s Own, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s essay Some Remarks on Logical Form and the first part of the 14th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (full in public domain by 2029).

Important artworks entering the public domain include René Magritte‘s painting The Treachery of Images, Salvador Dali‘s paintings The Great Masturbator and The Accommodations of Desire, Wassily Kandinsky‘s painting Upward, Edward Hopper‘s painting Chop Suey, Kawamura Kiyoo‘s painting Founding of the Nation, Julio Romero de Torres‘ painting La Fuensanta, M. C. Escher‘s print Strada di Scanno, the first design of the Barcelona chair and August Sander‘s photograph Berlin Coal Carrier and other photographs from his 1929 photobook Face of our Time.

 

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Today is a fog bank in which I am hiding.

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

PENTATINA FOR FIVE VOWELS

Campbell McGrath

Today is a trumpet to set the hounds baying.
The past is a fox the hunters are flaying.
Nothing unspoken goes without saying.
Love’s a casino where lovers risk playing.
The future’s a marker our hearts are prepaying.
The future’s a promise there’s no guaranteeing.
Today is a fire the field mice are fleeing.
Love is a marriage of feeling and being.
The past is a mirror for wishful sightseeing.
Nothing goes missing without absenteeing.
Nothing gets cloven except by dividing.
The future is chosen by atoms colliding.
The past’s an elision forever eliding.
Today is a fog bank in which I am hiding.
Love is a burn forever debriding.
Love’s an ascent forever plateauing.
Nothing is granted except by bestowing.
Today is an anthem the cuckoos are crowing.
The future’s a convolute river onflowing.
The past is a lawn the neighbor is mowing.
The past is an answer not worth pursuing,
Nothing gets done except by the doing.
The future’s a climax forever ensuing.
Love is only won by wooing.
Today is a truce between reaping and rueing.
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A Merry Middle Earth Christmas

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Now that we have officially entered the Christmas season in the U.S.A., what could be more festive than a claymation special starring Gollum and the Hobbit gang. Christmas in Middle-Earth is the wickedly charming musical brainchild of actor/musicians Brendan Dalton. Dalton used his free time during the lonely days of pandemic life to compose an album’s worth of Tolkien-inspired Christmas jams. As he explains on his website:

Christmas in Middle-Earth, the brainchild of 8 years worth of Tolkien fanaticism, was the result of a drunken joke that just never ended. “What if they celebrated Christmas in the Shire and sang drinking songs about it in the Green Dragon? What if we wrote one? Wouldn’t that be hilarious?” It wasn’t, but we did it anyway. And thus, an unhinged bit was born that went on for way too long. 8 years to be exact.

It began as a sporadic release of demos – because who needs regular album drops anyway? Then came an epic plot twist: 2020’s quarantine united our fictional band to ‘fix, remix, and remaster’ the entire album. It’s like ‘The Two Towers,’ but with mixing boards instead of towers! …too far?

 

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