Credit crunch gives Americans the flying blues for Thanksgiving

IT APPEARS that the Grinch has stolen Thanksgiving, too. ‘Tis the holiday season but Americans have a limited mood to party in these days of the credit crunch.
Data from the Air Transport Asso­ciation of America (ATA) showed that US flights, though 90% full throughout this Thanksgiving weekend, were serving 10% fewer passengers compared to last year’s holiday period.
This was the first decline in seven years during the Thanksgiving season, the ATA said in a statement.
The mood was captured well by a New York Post headline last week: “Airsick for the holidays”.
Delta Air Lines, for instance, will be the latest carrier to charge passengers US$15 (RM54) for checking in their first bag; US$25 (RM90) for the second one. This will start on Dec 5.
Most US airlines have had this practice in place much earlier. Ame­rican Airlines initiated such costs since June for all passengers except those who fly business or first class.
There are restrictions on the size and weight of luggage, too. The US$15 fee is applicable for bags that weigh less than 23kg. For those that are between 23kg and 32kg, the fee is US$65 (RM235).
“Most air travellers complain about crowded flights and a lack of leg room,” said Air Travelers Asso­ciation president David Stempler.
“But the fee for checked bags is what irritates them the most,” he said in a telephone interview from Washing­ton DC, where the ATA is based.
Airline scales have been scrutinised lately following all these charges for extra and overweight bags, according to the US media.
In New York, for example, the Department of Consumer Affairs has verified that most of the 810 scales in the two airports here were accurate; allaying fears of passengers that they might be overcharged unnecessarily.
Stemplar said airlines had not been profitable for some time mainly due to rising fuel cost.
“Here in the United States, there will soon be less domestic flying although international flights will increase,” he said.
He advised travellers seeking a good deal to look beyond a low-fare ticket.
“The ticket price may seem cheap but you would need to add up the baggage fee, drinks and so on,” he said.
At the end of the day, the total price would be different story altogether.
Airlines such as US Airways and United Airlines also charge between US$25 and US$30 (RM90 and RM108) more for tickets bought through call centres, reservation agents or airport counters.
The intention here was to drive customers to their websites, said George Hobica, the founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, a site for bargain-hunters.
“Airline websites are a marketplace where they want to sell you hotel stay, credit cards or whatever,” he said in an interview.
“That’s why they discourage customers from dealing with their agents. It’s not so much about cost-cutting there.”
Hobica, a travel writer who specialises in consumer issues, started Airfarewatchdog three years ago. Its slogan is “when fares are low, we’ll let you know.” Incidentally, a Penangite works there as a senior airfare analyst.
Hobica said airfares had been low for many years now.
“The average price has been going down. It’s just like LCD TVs; when you factor in the inflation rate, its cost remains low,” he said.
But with the US economy going off the cliff, Hobica said the airline industry would go through consolidation where the smaller players would be swallowed up by the big brothers.
“When that happens,” he said, “the price will go up.”
For now, there is almost no complimentary services offered by most US airlines except for fizzy beverages served onboard.
In fact, US Airways charges US$2 (RM7.20) for non-alcoholic beverages such as Coca-Cola and bottled water for those flying coach in domestic flights. Coffee or tea? US$1 (RM3.60), please.
If you prefer an aisle or window seat in the first few rows, that will be US$5 (RM18) for the airline whose slogan is “Fly with Us”.
Another US$5 will get you the headset to indulge in the inflight entertainment. At Continental Airlines, it’s US$1.
However, passengers are free to bring their own headphones.
Frequent fliers who want to redeem their reward points are not in for a good time either. Some airlines have begun to charge them a fee for these so-called free flights.
JetBlue Airways brought a little cheer this Thanksgiving when it announced last week that customers could check in one bag free during the Thanksgiving period, besides enjoying complimentary snacks on board.
But the airline has what it calls “no more dirty pillow talk”. For flights over two hours, a blanket and pillow kit is sold for US$7 (RM25).
It isn’t just the middle-income Americans who are not reaching for their wallet.
American designer Marc Jacobs, according to The New York Times,had thrown an annual holiday party for the past 18 years.
Last year’s was themed Arabian Nights where “bare-chested women bedecked in gold necklaces” and contortionists were available at the event at Rockefeller Centre.
However, there would be no such party this year “due to the financial climate”, the NYT quoted his business partner.
The only people hearing “ka-ching!” these days are perhaps the cobblers and tailors as Americans seek them out to mend their shoes or clothes that, in the good old days not so long ago, would have been tossed out.

Saving the humble house where Superman was born

THIS is a story about ordinary people, strangers who came together to rescue the legacy of Superman.
In the comic book, the superhero was born in planet Krypton but his original, more earthly beginnings, was a humble home in Cleveland, Ohio.Located at 10622 Kimberley Avenue in Cleveland’s Glenville neighbourhood is the house where Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman, spent his childhood. Siegel died in 1996 at the age of 81.
Along came Brad Meltzer, author of the newly published The Book of Lies that touched on the death of Mitchell Siegel, Jerry’s father.
Siegel junior was just 17 when his dad was gunned down during a robbery in 1932.
Meltzer’s research for the novel in the past two years took him to Cleveland to see for himself the actual house where the “Man of Steel” was born.
“I wanted to see the exact spot where young Jerry Siegel sat in his bed on that rainy summer night, where a 17-year-old kid stared at his bedroom ceiling and gave birth to the idea of Superman,” Meltzer wrote on his website.
But the author was devastated when he saw that the house, owned by another family now, was almost crumbling down.
He decided to do something about it. He rallied friends, the Siegel family members and Glenville Development Corporation, which is in charge of the neighbourhood.
What followed was an online auction of artwork donated by authors and artists.
Response from Superman fans raised US$107,000 (RM385,000), enough to save the dilapidated house.
Repair works have since begun, said Glenville Development Corpo-ration executive director Tracey E. Kirksey.
The chimney and roof have been replaced and other new construction materials are being ordered.
“We will maintain its original look,” she said.
The restoration effort is expected to be completed by next month “depending on Cleveland weather”, as this mid-West city is often buried in snow during winter.
According to Kirksey, the locals in Glenville had been galvanised by the effort to rescue Siegel’s home. The house, she said, had long been a magnet for Superman fans.
“There is a family living there but they are quite used to having people wanting to peek inside.”
Once the work on the house is completed, there will possibly be efforts to sell some of the bricks from the house or replicas of street signs bearing the names of the two Superman creators.
(Streets have been named after Siegel and Joe Shuster, the artist who co-created Superman. Shuster’s home, unfortunately, is long gone.)
But Glenville’s push to promote Superman-related products would need the prior approval of DC Comics, Kirksey said.
In an e-mail interview, Meltzer said the incredible response from the people to save Superman’s house proved that ordinary people could change the world.
That, by the way, is the name of his website, ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com, where he wrote about his search for Siegel’s house. It was also the site where the online auction took place throughout September.
Meltzer feels that Americans sometimes lose sight of their history.
“We are a country founded on our own legends and myths, but we don’t always ask which of those legends are true. My novel, The Book of Lies, is about exactly that.”
He said people around the world loved Superman because “he matters”.
Asked how his interest in Superman began, he replied: “I was seven. I read. I loved.”
Ironically, however, he prefers Batman.
“I like Batman better. But with Superman, the best part of the story is Clark Kent. Why? We’re all Clark Kent. We all know what it’s like to be ordinary and wish we could help people.”
He has an answer on how Superman was born. “Because a little boy named Jerry Siegel heard his father was murdered and, in grief, created a bulletproof man,” Meltzer wrote on his website.
To him, there is a Clark Kent in everyone; “the idea that all of us, in all our ordinariness, can change the world.”

Now to deal with post-polls blues

THE statues of George Washing­ton, Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi stand tall at Union Square Park in Manhattan.

Lately, however, the attention the­re is all on the next resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.

Obama calendars, Obama posters, Obama watches, Obama hand-painted T-shirts, Obama buttons; Ame­rica’s next top gun is available on merchandise for anyone seeking a piece of him.
CNN was at the park on Wednesday, interviewing souvenir hunters.

Election editions of Time and Newsweek have been sold out in major markets here.
After almost two years of courting history, Americans are now living it.

Campaign workers are getting a good night’s sleep now that the deed is done. These loyalists had often worked long hours. One Democrat volunteer had been standing at the Chelsea neighbourhood from 10am until late in the evening a fortnight ago soliciting support; his hands stiff from the autumn chill.

But it has not been entirely easy to close the chapter on a long and winding campaign for the White House. For election watchers, their days felt empty without the usual anticipation of passion and drama brought on by the Democrat versus Republican battle.

There are no more polls to check, no blogs to follow, no gossip to pass on. “What now?” they sighed. The 24-hour news cycle had given people a great diversion.

Nobody had dull days when the extraordinary campaign was going on. One woman reportedly forgot to fetch her son from school because she was too caught up with election news.

Jefferson A. Singer, a psychology professor in Connecticut College, has his own favourite story to tell.

“A close friend of mine approached me and said ‘I have a problem’. Knowing my background in treating substance abuse, it seemed like an important moment of disclosure.”

Instead, his friend made a different kind of confession. “I am a political junkie,” he told Prof Singer. He went on to talk about the blogs and websites that he scrolled, as cable news programmes ran incessantly in the background.

The political junkie was guilty of neglecting his work, telling his wife that he was grading papers when, in fact, he was reading political blogs.

“I am hoping that his ‘withdrawal’ will not be too severe, or he can found a Political Junkies Anonymous chapter,” Prof Singer quipped. “Of course, this is tongue-in-cheek."

“But he was spending inordinate amounts of time and energy following every twist and turn of the campaign.”

Prof Singer has sound advice for political junkies wanting to mend their lives.

“The healthiest thing they can do post-election is to refocus their energy on normal everyday activities." Take some of the time devoted to following the news and put it into becoming part of the societal and global change that is about to begin. “Become an activist rather than an addict,” he said.

New York magazine in its latest issue suggested ways to “detox” for those going through post-election withdrawal.The article identified five types of electoral junkies, among these the dataheads, scandal junkies and Palin haters.

Leila Luna, a Brazilian writer based in Gotham, has been waiting to exhale. She is one of those who are glad that campaign days are over, as it means that she will hear less of Sarah Palin. “I just can’t stand her yapping away,” she said.

Unfortunately for Luna, the Alaska Governor has frequently been seen on TV daily the past few days. Like her or loathe her, Palin seems to stir Americans out there. Cable and broadcast networks such as CNN, Fox News and NBC interviewed her from her Wasilla kitchen last week.

Post-election, however, is not an entirely dreaded time.

Happy parents from Kenya to the United States have reportedly named their newborn after the president-elect, hoping that some Obama traits and magic would rub off on them.

Some parents even dreamed that their baby Barack would grow up to a commander-in-chief.
Other reportedly favoured names are plucked from the rest of America’s newest First Family – Michelle, Malia and Sasha.

The Secret Service has different names for them, though. Obama is Renegade, mum is Renaissance and the girls are Radiance and Rosebud.

For some ordinary folk, they wonder why anyone would desire a career in Washington, as the Oval Office is arguably the toughest top job in the world.

“To run for president, you’ve got to have an ego the size of the Empire State Building,” a Phoenix resident said.

The United States’ 44th president, whose Wikipedia page is available in 116 languages, will take office on Jan 20. AP has reported that most hotel rooms in the US capital have already been booked by now.

“Obama is the new black” and it is a dream fulfilled, as messages on T-shirt say.

It’s swirling beneath the calm

IT WAS less than 48 hours after Barack Obama made history but on Dr Martin L. King Jr Boulevard in Harlem it looked like just another day.
There was limited display of Obamania; people went about their routine in this neighbourhood long known as the black capital of America.Passengers waited patiently as a man on wheelchair boarded a bus, one guy rummaged through a trash bin in Popeyes looking for leftovers, and hair-braiding salons opened for business.
Appearances, however, can be deceptive.
“Things have changed,” said schoolteacher Karen Kingsberry, who was lunching on fried chicken. “People feel more empowered now. They feel that their voices have been heard.”
She has been telling her sixth to eighth grade students to start behaving better. “They have to work harder and be an example to the community. I want them to know that with hard work, they can achieve things.”
An African-American, Kingsberry felt Obama’s victory was not so much about skin colour. “He was speaking for all Americans.”
Look at Iowa, she said. With a 94% white population, the Hawkeye State went to Obama.
Kingsberry, who has been teaching for 20 years, said Americans had shown the world that their country had gone beyond race. “It is about character, it is about humanity. Obama won not just for himself but for all of us.”
The new president, she said, would have to pay much attention to the average Joes. “We need jobs, we need healthcare.”
But she believed Obama would deliver the goods. Quoting Confucius, she said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
She also allowed herself to still savour moments from that unforgettable Tuesday night.
“I was jumping up and down,” Kingsberry said. Then she called her mother in Georgia. “She’s in her 70s. She remembered the difficult times in the past for the blacks, when they could not even vote,” she said. Her mother wept that night.
Andrew J. Nathan, a professor of political science at Columbia University, cautioned that America’s election of a president from a minority group would not necessarily lead to similar awakenings elsewhere.
“This is really something for each country to answer to,” he said. Bolivia, however, experienced something similar when Evo Morales, an indigenous, was elected president in 2006.
He thought that the economic crisis was likely the over-riding factor for Americans picking Obama.
“There is the perception that he is better equipped to deal with the problem. On TV, he appeared more presidential. He is seen to be more competent,” he said, “unlike John McCain who wasn’t as convincing. He did not run a good campaign.”
The economic meltdown, he said, was a multi-dimensional crisis. “There are many, many problems, all at the same time. Americans are desperate for someone who can deal with them.”
Also, he said, the electorate was tired of the Republican government under George W. Bush so McCain suffered from that.
“Obama also seemed a stronger candidate, with a better personality.”
But his triumph, Nathan said, did not mean that Americans had entirely looked beyond race once and for all. “Race remains a category in how we see people.”
It was a fact, he said, that African-Americans were at a disadvantage in finding good jobs.
For now, however, it is joy to the black community.
On Dr Martin L. King Jr Boulevard in Harlem, a makeshift stall has begun selling President Obama T-shirts. “The whole world has changed!” its 27-year-old owner Salou Boubacr said, doing a little jig.
The T-shirts, he said, were printed on Wednesday shortly after Obama triumphed over his Republican rival for the White House.
“Where are you from?” he asked. “Japan? This is America, a nice country! There are opportunities to make money.”
Indeed, there is money to be made in post-election America. Capitalising on the polls fever, advertisements have pushed for products from bras to The Sopranos DVDs using clever taglines and words related to the momentous chapter in US history.
The New York Times reported that a lingerie store in Manhattan tweaked a newspaper headline from “Obama” to read “O-bra-ma”.

Election humour reaches fever pitch

BARACK Obama has a step-brother, Obatma, who once lived in a cave near Nairobi. A half-man, half-bat, he is endorsing Obama so the Democrat presidential candidate is now assured of the mutant vote.
That was a so-called exclusive story from weeklyworldnews.com, a supermarket tabloid which disappeared from the shelves last year but resurrected online.
The publication, which has the “best damn investigative reporting on the planet” at least according to Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) in Men In Black, also broke a story about John McCain selling secret government artifacts on e-bay.
But the Republican candidate “doesn’t quite get computers, and sold it all too cheaply.” (The US media has previously mocked McCain for his not-so-savvy IT skills after he mentioned in a newspaper interview that he had never felt any particular need to send e-mails.)
In the spirit of the just concluded Halloween, politics can be bizarre, scary and fun in America.
Ricky’s NYC, a costume superstore in Gotham, offered Miss Alaska for US$22.99 (RM81.18). The costume included a pair of glasses and a sash with the words “Miss Vice-President” on the back.
A blog posting reported that the store had sold 600 Palin outfits within three weeks.
“The nation’s eyes aren’t just on Sarah Palin – they’re on her glasses,” as USA Today put it so well last month. Her Kazuo Kawasaki frames cost at least US$375 (RM1,324).
But a pair of fake Palin glasses to complete the Alaska governor’s look comes cheap at just US$9.99 (RM35.27), courtesy of Ricky’s NYC. “Sexy Palin wigs” are already sold out there.
Her wigs are popular even in a Brooklyn store that sells the accessory for Orthodox Jewish women, whose custom requires them to cover their hair.
Theirs are known as sheitel, a Yiddish word.
According to the New York Post last week, the shop sold about 50 “Sarah P” wigs in the past five weeks although it was by no means an endorsement of the Republican.
Joe the Plumber has a more expensive price tag compared to Palin at Ricky’s NYC. The costume that costs US$49.99 (RM176.51), includes a jumpsuit, cap, name tag holder and “best of all ... four interchangeable name tags to swap out on the fly depending on who you’re debating with at the party!” its website declared.
Obama masks are sold out at Halloween Adventure, the master of masquerade, and so is McCain’s.
One of the McCain masks available in stores has a label by Fright Factory.
Clearly, it’s party politics for the Americans.
Not everyone shares the enthusiasm, though. A writer in satirical newspaper The Onion remarked that “just contemplating all the sexy politics related costumes this year is enough to ruin sex, politics and Halloween simultaneously.”
Bookstores such as Barnes & Noble have been pushing titles such as Ghosts, Zombies and the Supernatural and The Zombie Survival Guide.
Then there is Bat Boy Lives!: The Weekly World News Guide to Politics, Culture, Celebrities, Alien Abductions, and the Mutant Freaks that Shape Our World which has a story on Hillary Clinton’s hot nights with aliens.
They say politics is dirty but here in pro-Democrat New York, T-shirt messages are equally dirty or rather naughty. There was one with the caricature of a donkey (the Democrat Party symbol) doing the unprintable to an elephant, the Republican mascot.
These days, however, the credit crunch is more frightening for Americans. So retailers tried to seize the day, using politics and Halloween to lure consumers to dig deep into their pockets.
“One thing Obama and McCain can agree on: Buying shoes is not debatable!” a sign outside a Steve Madden store boldly declared. Another store proclaimed “Vote for new shoes”.
Gap, the clothing store, asked shoppers to stand up for their beliefs, asking “What do you vote for?” and encouraging them to express themselves through videos and buttons.
Then, how about a toast to the “scariest wine sale of the year” which offered “frighteningly low prices”? And an advertisement for single-family homes and villas promised “No tricks, only treats”.
What about for Obatma? Apparently, the potential First Lady has not warmed up to him. “That boy is strange. He will not be coming near my house or my kids,” Michelle Obama reportedly said, as concocted by weeklyworldnews.com.
In real life, ordinary people such as Obama’s toilet repairman isn’t too keen either about visiting the senator’s home in Chicago these days.
Troy Dunn, who has been Obama’s regular plumber for four years, told the New York Post that he had never met the Democrat nominee but wife Michelle was a real nice woman.
“I’m not a big fan of going there right now, though, because of the Secret Service. It’s kind of a pain,” he said.