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Mileage Run segment on the today show

Lots of flyertalkers have been doing mileage runs to Dublin, and the today show had a segment on FT member skye1 as he did a "true" mileage run, doing a same-day turnaround. Another FT member, schmutzigMSP, was nice enough to  post the segment clip here.

USA Today published a mileage run article today, too- not sure how accurate the info is, though.

Hear Here! (Soundwalk audio tours in the Washington Post)

A few years ago, I received a cool 3xCD audio tour of the Bronx from Soundwalk as a promotion (bundled w/ index mag, perhaps?).

No I never made it to the Bronx.

Soundwalk now has a range of NYC tours (and one each for France and India) available as CDs or .mp3s, as the Washington Post outlined today in an article on Soundwalk and other audio guides:

...Soundwalk tours include familiar neighborhoods, which become even more so after walking them with an insider. A walking tour of Little Italy, for example, is narrated by "Sopranos" cast member Vinny Vella. Writer Paul Auster narrates a walk through Ground Zero. Auster augments the walk by talking with historians, a poet and Mohawk ironworkers who helped build the World Trade Center. A woman talks about the phone message she received from her husband there; standing not far from where he died, you hear him saying goodbye.

Outside the tourist haunts, you can, for example, follow the voice of hip-hop veteran Jazzy Jay through the Bronx. Or tour Williamsburg's Hasidic community in the company of Joseph Piekarski, a Lubavitcher.

2006 World Cup Germany- the Guardian's guide to the host cities

Remember that you have until 1/15 for this round of ticket requests at FIFA World Cup.

The Guardian's guide to the host cities is here.

Edit- the Sydney Morning Herald has their entry ("Achtung! Herr we come"), as well

Passenger 57- life imitates art

I've already mentioned Passenger 57 (starring Wesley Snipes, Elizabeth Hurley, and her eyebrows) here once before. Now, from Reuters/Yahoo news:

British actor Bruce Payne, who has appeared in numerous Hollywood movies, was cautioned by police following his arrest for "threatening behavior" aboard a transatlantic flight, a police source said Friday.
...

[His agent] added Payne's role as a ruthless terrorist in Passenger 57 had caused him problems in the past.

"When he flies in real life there are people who are unable to separate fiction from reality and who get nervous," he said.

UA 15% off offer

Via NakedSky travel blog, here's a link for Hilton HHonors members to register for a 15% off United Air Lines cert, good for travel through 2/28 (follow the link for the T+Cs)

Skyteam intercontinental flight bonus

(via the first class flyer) To celebrate its 5th anniversary, Skyteam has a bonus offer for travel next year:

Step 1 - Enroll:
Enroll for this promotion between December 5th, 2005 and January 27th, 2006. Click here to enroll

Step 2 - Travel:
Simply purchase a ticket for one of the hundreds of Intercontinental flight options offered by the participating SkyTeam member airlines. Travel between February 6th and April 30th, 2006 and get 2000 bonus miles for every eligible segment flown.

Full T+Cs here. Note that Delta and Northwest are taking part, while Continental has opted out.

Fine on media: Blixa Bargeld is "Collapsing New Appliances"

It's kinda the German equivalent of "James Earl Jones reads the phone book"- Business Week's Jon Fine writes about the ads frim Hornbach (the "German Home Depot") starring Blixa Bargeld, head of Einsturzende Neubauten:

According to Trouser Press, the once-fiercely confrontational Neubauten (who alsmot burned down a club in New York during a concert in 1986) is not exactly new to this kind of thing, having previously scored a Jordache commercial. But while the new ads are enjoyable in and of themselves, they’re also evidence that other countries are far ahead of America when it comes to enveloping the most unregenerate gutter-rat art degenerates into the comforting embrace of the mainstream. (Lest my intent be misunderstood, a glance at my record collection offers ample evidence that I mean this in the best possible sense of "unregenerate gutter-rat art degenerates.")

You be the baggage screener

Via the LAT's Daily Traveler, MSNBC has an interactive game here.

Update- Great Canadian Mileage Run

As reporter earlier, Marc Tacci has become another pudding guy, of sorts:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - After two months of zig-zagging across Canada by plane, frequent flyer Marc Tacchi has reached his goal of accumulating one million miles of credits -- and become something of an Internet celebrity in the process.

On his blog "The Great Canadian Mileage Run 2005," Tacchi reported on Wednesday that he had racked up 1,003,625 mileage points and spent 56 of the last 61 days in an airplane.

"I myself need to get to bed in a prone position for some serious rest," he wrote.