The Big Squeeze

As someone who flies fairly often, I just love this. This is the reason we need newspapers, to reveal the kind of B.S. companies like airlines pull: The Incredible Shrinking Plane Seat

I also love how the legacy airlines advertise that if you get their credit card or sign up for this or that, you can check your first bag for free, as if that is this amazing gift they're giving us! You used to always let us check our first bags free until you took that away from us and made us pay for it just in the past few years! ARGH! Talk about Chutzpah!

>That's why, given the choice, I'll take the train any day...

TWA at JFK

One of the best things about living in Forest Hills is its proximity to the major NYC airports. Since I have to travel fairly often for work, when I moved to Forest Hills I was thrilled to discover that I could get to LaGuardia in about 5 minutes and JFK in about 20 or so on a good day. What a luxury -- especially after having lived in SoHo in Manhattan, where it could take like an eternity to get to the airports!

I've always loved going to the airport, something I just kind of picked up when I was a kid. It was such a thrill to go to Kennedy. for instance, which I associated with a feeling of international excitement that was so missing from the sleepy Long Island town where I was living. And, of course, I also always associated my trips there with either going away on a vacation or having my grandmother or other family members or friends come to visit.

So when I heard that Open House NY was opening the landmarked TWA terminal at JFK for a few hours to the public this Sunday, I jumped at the chance to once again visit this famous, wing-shaped building that I knew so well from my childhood. After all, in recent years, I've only recently gotten a chance to see the inside of it in some movies, like Catch Me If You Can, for instance.

The terminal, which is now a historical landmark, was designed by Eero Saarinen and opened in May 1962. It was used until 2001, when American Airlines bought out TWA. Since then it has only really been in use for occasional special events -- such as parties and movie shoots. But it could possibly reopen as a boutique hotel in the near future.

Whatever happens to it, its landmark status prevents it from being demolished or altered in any significant way.

Here are some photos and a short video I shot at today's event. Hopefully it will bring back some memories for some of you. I myself can still see, like it was yesterday, my grandmother waving goodbye as she entered the famous red-carpeted tunnel to catch her next flight.