Flying to the Other Side of the World

So, I set out to fly from Burlington, Vermont to Singapore. The ticket I got was a phenomenal bargain at $825 round trip. I priced it at $1300 and then came back a week later and got it for $825. Go figure.

Now, I have flown to Beijing and Seoul before, but this is further. It is not only twelve time zones away (as far as you can get without someone saying you should have taken the short cut and gone the other way around) but it is also down near the equator. Sure, the ANA (All Nippon Airways) flight I got from Washington did take the polar route to Tokyo, but then I have a seven-hour flight from Tokyo to Singapore. The total time from Vermont to Singapore is 29 hours.

I really enjoy the ANA flight from Washington to Tokyo. They had great food (spicy pork one meal and lasagna the next with a sandwich in between, three food services in 14 hours) but they also had personalized movies at every seat. They had over a dozen movies to choose from, so I wasn’t stuck to Garfield 2 or some other trash. I got to watch ‘Tears for You” an excellent Japanese film I really enjoyed as well as a Kurosawa classic, “Yojimbo.” OK, so I also watched Casino Royale and found it less boring than most modern action films. I also read an entire issue of The Economist and tried to catch some sleep. Sleeping was the thing I was the least successful at. I felt sorry for Bojana, who is flying from Europe to join me for the workshop In Singapore and took Lufthansa.

Those who read my blog might remember my last stay in Narita, the worst flight experience of my life, where I was forced to sleep on the floor overnight and then got kicked off the plane to Seoul the next day by the USA female pilot of the United flight. I will be glad to put Narita behind me.

I type this from my Narita watering hole that looks out over the airport. The drinks are not any more expensive than they are in the Burlington airport. So, I stand up from here and take a seven-hour flight to Singapore. Min Cheong is meeting me there and whisking we away to a boutique hotel (I had to Google what a boutique hotel is, sounds nice) where I can pass out and then wake up on Sunday and prepare for the debate across the curriculum workshop I am doing for the Singapore Ministry of Education.

Duty free in Narita actually has Cuban rum, so I snagged a bottle. Unfortunately, the bar only has Bacardi and Captain Morgan.

Let OJ Do the Carving

Sorry, but this was too spooky a picture to pass up. The smile is very special and gives us time for thought about how we create and use celebrities.

Unlawful Accommodation of Donkeys Act 1837

I read it before the Galway First system crashed, but the effects on the web are quite interesting to observe. This story just could not wait for the review of stories for March. It is important not to marginalize the great cruelties that humans so often do to animals. The other added details seem really hard to accept. This is a story designed to titillate the web of 2007.

Galway First seems, on my inspection, to be a reputable group, so the story must have been planted, or some editor was asleep, or ... it may all be true.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/02/donkey_shocker/

Irish donkey sex case shocks net
By Lester Haines
Published Friday 2nd March 2007 12:18 GMT
Updated Netizens have reacted with a mixture of horror and disbelief to a story which recently appeared on Galway First entitled "Lonely man brought donkey to hotel room, court told".

We say recently, because the stampede of surfers rushing down to check the outrage for themselves appears to have brought down galwayfirst.ie.

No matter. Here's a handy grab of the orginal story, and the full text below:



A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised "to get out and meet people," the local court heard last week.

Thomas Aloysius McCarney, with an address in south Galway, was charged with cruelty to animals, lewd and obscene behaviour, and with being a danger to himself when he appeared before the court on Friday. He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage. Solicitor for the accused Ms Sharon Fitzhenry said that her client had been through a difficult time lately and that his wife had left him and that his life had become increasingly lonely.

"Mr McCarney has been attending counselling at which he was told that he would be advised to get out and meet people and do interesting things. It was this advice that saw him book into the city centre hotel with a donkey," she said. She added that Mr McCarney also suffered from a fixation with the Shrek movies and could constantly be heard at work talking to himself saying things like "Isn't that right, Donkey?"

Supt John McBrearty told the court that Mr McCarney who had signed in as "Mr Shrek" had told hotel staff that the donkey was a family pet and that this was believed by the hotel receptionist who the supt said was "young and hadn't great English."

Receptionist Irina Legova said that Mr McCarney had told her that the donkey was a breed of "super rabbit" which he was bringing to a pet fair in the city. The court was told that the donkey went berserk in the middle of the night and ran amok in the hotel corridor, forcing hotel staff to call the gardai.

McCarney was found in the room wearing a latex suit and handcuffs, the key to which the donkey is believed to have swallowed. He was removed to Mill St station after which it is said he was the subject of much mirth among the lads next door in The Galway Arms.

He was fined €2,000 for bringing the donkey to the room under the Unlawful Accommodation of Donkeys Act 1837. Other charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Astounding. We emailed Galway First to request confirmation of McCarney's fine and to ask for Ms Legova's phone number. The editorial team has not yet replied.

Update
We're obliged to Galway First's Keith Lynch for getting back to us this afternoon. Here's his response:

Sadly Ms Legova has now gone into hiding following the incident. The man at the centre of the case, Mr McCarney was heavily fined and is rumoured to now be bankrupt.

But, most importantly, we have highlighted a serious issues. Donkey crimes like this are all too common in Ireland's west. The gardaí have intensified their efforts to stop this horrible abuse. We were just glad we could bring it to the people.