Subject: Passenger Air Transportation

• Scorpion on a Plane!

  January 10, 2007

• Breaking News, Sorta

  August 11, 2006

• So Long, Friendly Skies

  August 10, 2006

• Please Check Your Seatbacks -- and Pilot

  July 25, 2006

• Memories of Pauline and Mike Holovak

  January 29, 2008

• No Panic Yet At Spec's

  August 4, 2008

• Aftermath: The Black Keys at Meridian

  October 1, 2008

• News of the Weird

  October 14, 1999

• L'Italia Classica

  Simposio

  April 19, 2001

• West Coast Cool

  L.A. curator turns "The Big Show" into a breezy stroll along Santa Monica Boulevard

  July 19, 2001

• High-Speed Rail Coming To Texas, Once Again

  Last week, the Houston Business Journal reported that high speed rail  is coming to Houston. At a speech at New York's Penn Station, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced that her office will soon begin "accepting expressions of interest to finance, design, build, operate and maintain high-speed trains on the Northeast Corridor and in 10 other federally-designated corridors around the nation."And wonder of wonders - Houston is on one of the corridors.Just think -

  December 23, 2008

• Southwest Adding Flights To See Obama Get His First Executive Experience

  As we've noted before, Houstonians are going wild over the chance to be in DC for Barack Obama's inauguration (assuming it still goes on, after the world discovers The Truth about his birth certificate.) More proof: Southwest Airlines is adding flights to Washington just to handle the increased demand, and Houston is one of the cities included. The airline is adding one non-stop from Hobby to Baltimore on January 17; the only return flight added, oddly, is on January 18. It's not much, bu

  November 21, 2008

• At Least Someone Wants To Come To The Texas Bowl

  Okay, so Notre Dame somehow preferred the Hawaii Bowl to the Texas Bowl. Some people just prefer Honolulu to Houston, we guess.But ND's replacement, Western Michigan University, is pleased as punch to be coming here.That can happen when you live in Kalamazoo (Motto: No, We Are An Actual City).The announcement story in the Kalamazoo Gazette showed just how thrilled everyone is.Mainly because...ummm....it's easier to get to than Shreveport, WMU's other option, and it won't be snowing here.

  December 9, 2008

• Tough Month To Be A Houston Flier

  October was really a tough month to be an air passenger in Houston.The federal Bureau of Transportation has released its latest survey of flight delays, and Houston plays a prominent role in it.The third-worst airline when it came to on-time arrivals was our very own Continental. Almost 19 percent of the airline's arrivals were late in October.But it's in the category of "Longest Tarmac Delays" that Houston really shines.

  December 10, 2008

• You Are Now Free To Bounce Around The Runway

  Think you had a bad weekend?It could have been worse: You could have been coming home from Denver on Contintental.As you've no doubt heard, a Continental jet skidded off the runway into a ravine while trying to take off Saturday.Continental has issued an Official Statement: "The care of our passengers, crew and family members is our highest priority and they will receive any assistance necessary," said Larry Kellner, Continental Airlines' chairman and chief executive officer. "We are deeply conc

  December 22, 2008

• Southwest Airlines Going All International On Us

  You are now free to move about...another country?Has Southwest Airlines, the little Texas company that introduced cattle-call boarding, going all international on us?The airline announced today it's taking the first steps to offering flights to Canada, which is a country somewhere to the north of the U.S. It has different money, some people there speak French, and they drink a lot of beer.There is already a sneaky way to book Canada flights through Southwest and WestJet, its Canada partner, but

  December 23, 2008

• That Snowstorm Was No Fun For Fliers Or On-Time Statistics

  Remember that freak snowstorm that hit Houston late last year? Fun, right?Not if you're an airline worried about your on-time statistics.The federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics has released its latest report, and while overall airline performance improved -- mostly because there's fewer flights these days -- the December 10 snow and ice storm wreaked havoc with Continental.The category most fliers hate to be on -- the five flights with the longest tarmac delays -- were all Houston flight

  February 10, 2009

• Erin Andrews: Playboy's Sexiest Sportscaster

  Photo by speedye The competition has ended, and just like the Philadelphia Phillies putting down the upstart Tampa Bay Rays in last year's World Series, ESPN Erin Andrews' dominated her competition once again to repeat as Playboy.com's Sexiest Sportscaster. Playboy.com attempted to toughen things up this year, so they made it a two-step competition. But despite their best efforts, and despite my attempts to get people to write in Suzy Kolber and Carrie Milbank, Erin Andrews easily won this com

  February 13, 2009

• Houstonian Survives First Day Of Amazing-ness

  Photo courtesy CBSHoustonian Jodi Wincheski and her partner have (apparently) survived to live another day on The Amazing Race.The reality-Tv show's 14th season premiered last night, and Wincheski was on one of the teams, partnered with a fellow Southwest Airlines flight attendant.According to this report, they came close to being eliminated but managed to come through at the end.Also according to that report, The Amazing Race is a show we'd never, ever want to watch. (And yes, we know it's won

  February 16, 2009

• A Last Bite of '97

  January 1, 1998

• Hot Plate

  February 26, 1998

• What, The Name "Death To Jews" Was Taken?

  Photo courtesy Qatar AirwaysQatar Airways is making a big move in the Houston market -- it's got ads on the air touting its luxurious service, it's got a giant new 777 plying the new Houston-Doha route.One thing it's probably not doing -- advertising in Houston's Jewish Herald-Voice. Or, if they are, they're probably not headlining the name of the new 777 flying exclusively from Houston to Doha.Qatar Airways has named it the Gaza.The airline names all its planes after cities or geographic locati

  March 4, 2009

• News of the Weird

  November 12, 1998

• Life On The Rodeo Road: The Road Was My Home

  Photo by Paul KnightScotty Drennan Rodeo cowboys basically live on the road, traveling with a herd of men and women crazy enough to ride, rope and wrestle live animals for a paycheck. Each day, Hair Balls is asking a different cowboy to tell us a little bit about himself and his wildest story from a life of rodeo. In the end, we hope, we'll have a collection of stories that re-enforce our Texan ideals that rodeo cowboys still like to raise hell. Name: Scotty Drennan Age: 36 Hometown: Buffalo, T

  March 6, 2009

• Business As Usual

  January 7, 1999

• Playing the Games

  May 27, 1999

• The Former Chron Employees' List, So Far (Updated April 3)

  So far we've been limiting our list of laid-off Chron people to names readers might recognize; we've heard from some current and ex-Chronsters that they'd like a master list, since no centralized information is coming anywhere else.With that in mind, here's what we've heard so far. Other names are still to come (we believe a lot more copy-editing types are victims, as all the separate departments' copy desks are rolled into one), and if there are any mistakes on the list we'll be happy to fix it

  March 24, 2009

• Cowboy in the Kitchen

  June 8, 2000

• Best Japanese Restaurant

  September 21, 2000

• Erin Andrews: Playboy's Sexiest Sportscaster

  Photo by speedye The competition has ended, and just like the Philadelphia Phillies putting down the upstart Tampa Bay Rays in last year's World Series, ESPN Erin Andrews' dominated her competition once again to repeat as Playboy.com's Sexiest Sportscaster. Playboy.com attempted to toughen things up this year, so they made it a two-step competition. But despite their best efforts, and despite my attempts to get people to write in Suzy Kolber and Carrie Milbank, Erin Andrews easily won this com

  February 13, 2009

• The 1940 Air Terminal Museum’s Aviation History Day

  March 19, 2009

• Flying Objects: "Jac Leirner" at Gallery Sonja Roesch

  Jac Leirner transforms daily life's debris into art

  February 7, 2008

• Junction Jog

  May 25, 2006

• Caroline Herring

  Friday, January 23

  January 22, 2004

• Image-Free Art

  Julian Dashper gives us audio but no visuals in his recordings of the museum exhibit environment

  November 6, 2003

• We're (Kinda) Sorry

  The Chron finally gets around to apologizing for being wrong about the supposed Clinton-staff vandalism scandal

  June 14, 2001

• Air Sic

  In cargo holds or plane cabins, critters are taking more than flights of fancy

  May 17, 2001

• District ZZZZs Triumph

  Hordes of city candidates block-walk, while voters sleepwalk

  September 30, 1999

• Alison Cook looks back at 1996: Year of the Rat

  December 26, 1996

• Continental Airlines: Work Hard, Fly Right -- Unless You're A Kid

  For the second time in a week, Houston's Continental Airlines has admitted they sent an unaccompanied minor passenger to the wrong destination.One 10-year-old girl who was trying to get from Boston to Cleveland ended up in Newark. (The only time ending up in Newark is "not so bad" is when you were intending to go to Cleveland.) A, 8-year-old girl trying to get to Charlotte from Houston ended up in Fayetteville. Not Fayetteville, North Carolina -- which would have been close, at least -- but Faye

  June 17, 2009

• Southwest Airlines Offering Some Really Cheap Seats

  Photo by ACommentSouthwest Airlines has created a huge amount of buzz among low-fare junkies this morning with the announcement of a two-day sale where all tickets cost either $30, $60 or $90 one-way.As the Dallas Morning News' aviation blog puts it: Southwest calls it "one of the biggest fare sales in the company's history."Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com called it "one of the most unusual system-wide airfare sales we have tracked in [the] past five years.""For those who have been waiting for th

  July 7, 2009

• Larry Kellner Out At Continental Airlines

  Larry Kellner, the head of Continental Airlines and a prominent guy in Houston political, social and charitable circles, is gone.The airline announced that he "has decided to return to private equity at year-end after 14 years with Continental, the last five of them as chairman and CEO."Taking his place will be Jeff Smisek, the airline's president and COO. "It has been a great honor to lead the professional men and women of Continental and be part of the premier airline in the industry," Kellne

  July 16, 2009

• Continental Airlines Manages To Piss Off India

  Continental Airlines is having a tough stretch -- its CEO quit, its recently announced earnings are dismaying Wall Street (What do those two things have in common? Hmmm....), its laying off a bunch of workers, and now it's got the parliament of India all in an uproar.Indian politicians are shocked, dismayed, disheartened and pissed off about the airline subjecting a former Indian president to a security search that included a frisking.The Associated Press quotes Indian civil aviation minister Pr

  July 21, 2009

• Southwest To Make Guinea Pigs Out Of Passengers, All In The Name Of The Environment

  ​We've heard of test pilots, but Southwest Airlines is offering the chance to be a test passenger.The airline is introducing a new "Green Plane," one where the materials used on a lot of things are lighter, resulting in a plane that uses less fuel to fly.If it works.One aircraft will be outfitted with new rugs and two new types of seat covers that save two pounds per seat, the airline says.There's also this:  Life Vest Pouch -- more environmentally friendly because it offers a we

  October 21, 2009