Common Sense and Whiskey

Funny Place Names

These two maps are really entertaining. Just click through and go see:

Map of Orkney, Map of Shetland

Sir, New Mexico, Old Mexico, It Doesn't Matter

Those of us in Georgia were all considered impossible southern rubes when, the story goes, New Mexico resident Wade Miller tried to order tickets to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta was refused. It seems he gave his address as New Mexico and the Atlanta phone attendant refused to sell the tickets on the grounds that he or she could only sell domestically, and not to Mexicans.

So it's a little redemptive to read that

"London Olympic organizers mistakenly displayed the South Korean flag on a jumbo screen instead of North Korea's before a women's soccer match Wednesday, prompting the North Koreans to refuse to take the field for nearly an hour."

and then, there's this.

Fourth Wife Flies Free

Unusual promotion on South Africa's Kulula.com - via its Facebook page.

"Inspired by regular VIP travellers with sizeable spousal entourages, the offer is open to all fourth wives when the family travels together on the Jo’burg to Cape Town route."

Heartwarming New TSA Publication

Via We Meant Well.

Great Quotes Collection

"The last time I saw Jack the Whipper it was ten a.m. and he was picking a fight with a one-armed clown. "
 

- Possibly apocryphal, but attributed to Mick the Whip. From a very funny story about purveyors of leather goods who clashed in titanic whip competitions (like Two-Handed Whip Pyrotechnics and Synchronized Whipping) in the 1990s in Darwin, Australia. Heard on safari in Zambia, as told by Denis and Georgina, whose further identity, since they're still running a safari camp at an undisclosed location in Malawi, will be protected.

 

No Comment. Or Rather, Hard to Comment.

From a post called 50 Hard-to-Explain Photos at The Online Photographer.

Any similarity to the previous post is purely coincidental.

"I bet it will be vaguely disappointing."

Featuring "soft tortillas overstaffed with supper tangy chicken."

Cooking Tips from People Who Serve You Airline Food

This is pretty funny:

"In this episode Bobby and Sara test the myth: Can you make a grilled cheese sandwich in your hotel room with the hotel room iron?"

Lost in Translation

More fun from the people who brought you yesterday's Aftertaste perfume. Here's the link to all the rest of the World's Worst Product Names.

Midweek Miscellany

If I wait until I do a proper treatment of all these I may never get them online. So here are just a few quick items that have caught my eye lately:

- China's version of Google Maps is called Map World. "Map World only provides high-altitude images outside China, with the other side of the Chinese-North Korean border a stark white blank once a certain resolution is passed. Other countries also turn up a blank page at close resolution,” says Reuters." Still, it's fun to play with the world in Chinese. (via The Map Room.)

- Two of the longer flights we've been on, both through our home airport, have been ATL - JNB, 15 hours 20 minutes, and DXB - ATL, at 15 hours 45 minutes. The current longest scheduled nonstop is 18 hours plus. Take a guess on the route, and then click here for the answer.

- There's a story about how, shortly after 9/11, a very rural town nearby here in north Georgia, USA, applied for emergency FEMA aid for its post office - and after some snickering, was turned down. Here's a story about the most remote place in the USA and the emergency aid it's applying for - equalling about $3,500 per resident per year.

- Bad translations are always fun. For example, here's a tourism site offering "a wide range of gut-curdling activities." John Rahoi's May I Take Your Order, a bi-lingual restaurant menu in China, is a lot of fun. Next post we'll link to some fun photos of questionable products, including this one, the unconvincingly named Aftertaste perfume.

"fears visitors will be put off the Maldives"

"Couple blissfully unaware as 'minister' calls them 'infidel' and 'swine' during Maldives wedding"

 

Comment? No Comment

From Pyongyang. Via Joe Sharkey.

Never Say No to a Panda

Pretty funny compilation of ads from Egypt:

Thanks to A Bombastic Element.

Can't Find New York, But I'm Pretty Sure Where the Sky Is

American students may be deficient in their knowledge of geography, but here's a project that - chances are - they could do well on.

Happy Eid.

Just What We've Been Needing

Geez, you leave town for just a couple of weeks and come back to find the entire world of travel revolutionized:

"Tripbase has hired a pair of twin sister astrologers, one based in New York and the other in Seattle, to write customized travel horoscopes for every month," says MSNBC. 

The Camping Cook

 

Jeff Bartlett's got a nice niche. His blog promises camping cooking made easy. He says his recipes teach travelers how to cook nutritious meals on a single-burner camp stove. Does camping cooking gear reviews, too. Check it out at The Camping Cook. I'm putting it in CS&W's "Worth Your Time" links.

 

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare £125?

Readers of the Financial Times Weekend will be familiar with Tyler Brûlé, the peripatetic columnist who flies internationally like a fiend, and who wants you to know that he'd fly in better-than-first-class if only it were available.

He publishes a magazine called Monocle, available for a £75 annual subscription (which is $114.43 today according to the handy currency converter on the right of this page). It would be nice if you could help Mr. Brûlé with his next international airline ticket by dropping by the Monocle online shop. Perhaps you could buy a tiny bag of wood, which is currently priced at $190. 

(Thanks to The Smart Set's article, Printing Money.)

Travel Website Award

Very nice of the folks at U.K.-based IGLU Cruise to choose Common Sense and Whiskey in their IGLU Cruise Website Awards, as one of nine "Best Travel Information Websites," right up there beside Lonely Planet.

How about that? 

They say their winners are

"truly excellent information sites to help you both in the planning stages of your travel and whilst on the road. We are sure you’ll agree that the efforts of the writers and webmasters behind the following award-winning sites are amongst the best out there, combining highly useful content with superb presentation."

Thanks so much, guys.

Here's a screen grab of their winners, which you can also see here on IGLU Cruise's site:

Americans' Keen Focus on the World Beyond Our Shores

Monster Wreath Attacks President of Ukraine