"Fun and frivolity in beautiful....

....Dallas"?  No, this isn't an April Fool's promotion.  April is no where near that foolish.  What brought this to mind was an ad I saw on TV this morning inviting people to vacation in Denver.

Denver?  My experience with Denver is it's where the plane lands and you pick up your rent-a-car before you head west to the mountains. Of course there are a few things of interest to see and some fine steakhouses there, but that would make for a mighty short vacation.  Am I missing something?

Dallas, on the other hand, is making a more believable pitch in their "Come to Dallas" TV spots.  Screw seeing the sights and having fun.  Leave your cameras and flip-flops at home.  Our C of C and their PR machine are inviting business people to visit Dallas and make money.  That's pretty much it.  Come here, wheel and deal, pack your suitcases with fresh Dallas cash, and go home.  

Sure, you can drop off the kids at Six Flags and some of your winnings at Needless Markup...er...Neiman Marcus, take a picture at the Kennedy assassination site and see The House In the Field from the opening scene of Dallas.  Oh, and drive by The House That Jerry Built (the "house" being Cowboy Stadium, and the "Jerry" being Jerry Jones.)  Just be advised to NOT mention his name in anything but a demeaning tone or you'll likely be pounded into the ground, Jerry being that unpopular here.

Nope, Dallas is where you make money.  That's what we do.  You wanna make a lot of money, you come to Dallas.  You wanna have fun, you fly into Denver, rent a car, and drive west.

Now, get to work.  Go smear black shoe polish all over the black toilet seats in the office rest room.  Have some fun...it's April Fools Day.  Just don't do that in Dallas.  We're too busy doin' deals.    ;)

S

Come help me re-name some airports....

The BBC headline read, "Baby born on Armenia plane named after stewardess".  The story went on to say the baby was named Hasmik after Hasmik Ghevondyan, who helped deliver her.  Ms. Ghevondyan later modestly recounted how "the whole crew helped deliver the baby."

Two comments:  Apparently political correctness hasn't yet made it to Armenia.  Years ago (before K) I dated a "flight attendant" and I can tell you they are very touchy about being called "stewardesses".

Secondly, if "the whole crew helped deliver the baby", who was flying the friggin' airplane?  I always feel better when my airline keeps one pilot (minimum) up front looking at least a little interested in keeping the wings level and pointed in the right direction.

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And in keeping with this post's aviation theme, have you ever thought about airport names?  New York has John F. Kennedy, Washington has Ronald Reagan, Houston has George Bush, New Orleans has Louis Armstrong, OK City has Will Rogers, and even some hole in Pennsylvania has an airport named after their hometown King of Pork, Congressman John Murtha.  

Paris has Charles De Gaulle, Tel Aviv has Ben Gurion, Warsaw has Frederic Chopin, and Istanbul has Mustafa Ataturk Airport.  Now I read  (again via the BBC) that Birmingham, England is considering re-naming their airport Ozzy Osbourne International Airport after the Black Sabbath musician and former resident.

Let me throw another few proposals into the ring:

Dallas/Ft. Worth could re-name their airport JR Ewing International.

  

Seattle's SeaTac could become Starbucks/Howard Schultz International.

Memphis...."The King".  Just The King.

Detroit Metro could become MoTown/Berry Gordy International.  

Las Vegas' McCarran could be re-named the Bugsy Siegel Casino, Wedding Chapel and Elvis Venue.  And Airport. 

Miami could re-name theirs the Ricky Ricardo World SmugglePort.

Newark Liberty could become Joe Pesci International.

Bogata, Colombia's El Dorado could become Juan Valdez International.

Astana, Kazakhstan could re-name their airport Borat Field ('cause, you know, it's just a mowed field).

Rome's Leonardo da Vinci could become the Sophia Loren Fountain of Eternal Youth and World Airport.  (Come on Leonardo....you and Michelangelo have Rome pretty well sewn up.  Share, OK?)

Help me out here.  There's bound to be lots more.  Dazzle me!  ;)

S