The week in travel: Oct. 1, 2010

Kids, I am not feeling so hot.

I have one wicked cold, a by-product of all travel and lack of sleep I’ve experienced as of late. I’ve loaded up on echinacea (which, I can only assume is made of echidnas), multi-vitamins, and consumed so much tea that my I’m beginning to wonder if man’s purpose in life is simply to redistribute water around the globe.

And if none of this is making sense, blame the NyQuil.

But, still, I post. Why? Because the internet is an awesome place. Especially when you are too sick to pay attention to the complexities of 22 minutes of television. Let’s talk about the awesome (and not-awesome-ness) of this week, both travel-related and otherwise.

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The Flintstones turned 50 yesterday. The real question, though, is how old were you when you realized that Fred was kind of an asshole? On that note, don’t forget to check out this old commercial of him and Barney smoking.

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Jodi of Legal Nomads was robbed – and the thieves took her camera, back-up drive, lap-top, and a ton of irreplaceable memories with them. The bottom line? Some people are jerks. Fortunately, most people in the travel community are downright wonderful … and rallying around Jodi. If you’ve encountered her in her travels, and have some photos with/of her, be sure to upload them to her Picasa album (you’ll need permission first).

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Rand and I occasionally talk about space, and how cool it is. The exchange goes something like this …

“Space is cool.”

“I know, right?”

This probably explains why I was so damn excited to learn that scientists discovered a Goldilocks-like planet: conditions are not too hot, not too cold, and could almost definitely sustain life. It might not be Vulcan, but as long as it doesn’t quash my Spock fantasies, I’ll run with it.

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Am I unemployed? Yes. Sort of. Mostly. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t LOVE this video, about a little kid, some moon shoes, and the dark paths we sometimes take. (via reddit)

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A man named Arnold Chrysler stole more than 40,000 hotel coat hangers (you know – the kind with the funny tops that are useless outside of hotels). He’s currently on trial in the UK. The transcript from the court case is, as Rand put it, “So awesome, I can barely believe it.”

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Since I don’t like to wait for a happy ending (and I hate suspense) let’s get to the good part first: he doesn’t die. No. He’s fine and recovering in a hospital. Now, for the rest of the story: a real estate broker got lost in Joshua Tree National Park for six days without food or water. He wrote his goodbye letters and stories to his wife and daughter on his hat, since he didn’t have paper with him. Fortunately, because he stayed still (can we talk about how important it is to stay still when you’re lost?) he was found. And he’s going to be okay.

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If you don’t forward a link to this website to 58 people … ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN TO YOU AS A RESULT (I mean, bad things might still happen, but don’t blame them on me). Why? Because I don’t believe that breaking a chain letter will cosmically curse you. But a lot of people do, and that’s part of why the history of chain letters is so darn interesting.

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A New York Times writer has a health inspector come into his home to see if his kitchen would be shut down. Spoiler: he doesn’t exactly make the grade, but few of us would.

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This is sure to offend nearly everyone, and yet, we shouldn’t ignore the important philosophical question it brings up: What if Jesus was an asshole?

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And lastly, Rand’s good friend Kim (and the best (wo)man in our wedding party) got hitched last weekend. The morning of the wedding, her husband-to-be and his groomsmen made this video:

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