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Smokers Airline To Fly Next Year

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Its not exactly the most appealing of ideas, but by next March, Smintair or Smokers International Airways is planned to take to the skies.

The novel idea of smoker’s airline is the brainchild of former stockbroker Alexander Schoppmann (obviously a pack-a-dayer himself), who plans to offer flights from his hometown of Dusseldorf to Tokyo, another smoke-friendly destination.

Its all about service and the luxury of the old days, he says, and smokers will now be able to travel in comfort and style. Cramped economy seats will be non-existent and every smoke-friendly seat will be either business or first class quality. Havana cigars will be at hand, as will modern frills like internet, phones, DVD and flight attendants decked out in couture.

The German entrepreneur explains:

“I’ve been an airline passenger for 50 years….It made me very angry that the gap between service and price became so big with regular airlines. Especially in the first class and business class, service is at its lowest point ever.”

And how much is this new level of comfort going to cost smokers?

“We are on the same price level with Lufthansa, British Airways and other airlines that operate on similar routes…..Frankfurt-Tokyo and back costs $12,500 with Lufthansa for the first class and $8,125 for business class both ways. And those are exactly our prices.”

[tags]Smoking,Travel,Airlines,Germany,Tokyo,Dusseldorf,Luxury Travel,Air Travel[/tags]

Al Gore Wins The Quill Literary Prize

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Al Gore recently won the prestigious Quill Literary Award for his acclaimed book on the startling state of the environment, “An Inconvenient Truth”.

The ex-vice president and former electoral Bush opponent has been applauded lately for his staunch efforts on promoting environmental awareness, mostly through his book, which has been also made into a film. The book, which talks about climate change, was awarded the Quill prize in the history, current events and politics category.

The Quills, which just started last year, hope to be likened to the famous Pulitzer and National Book Awards, and was created to promote literacy and gain exposure for authors. The prize was voted by the public, who cast their votes online.

tags]Al Gore,Environment,Quill Prize,Book Awards,Books,Film,An Inconvenient Truth[/tags]

Pumpkin Season

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Its pumpkin season all over the world again, and in the news, the great orange veg is back in the spotlight. Yes, good old Jack will be lit up and ready to greet trick or treaters by the end of the month, and the web is flooded by pumpkin stories – both interesting and silly.

Here’s some of them:

The 1,223 lb Great Pumpkin

Washington state farmer Joel Holland wins for the second year running for his larger-than-life pumpkin. The pumpkin contest in Half Moon Bay, CA was part of the area’s annual arts festival and also awarded prizes for biggest in California and most beautiful.

Pumpkin Searches Spike Up

According to Yahoo, searches for the words “pumpkin carving”, “pumpkin crafts“, pictures, stencils and the like have risen by more than 120% and still moving upwards. So yes, Halloween is definitely in the air.

Jailbird Jack o Lanterns?

School kids in the Lancaster, Ohio, area getting pumpkins grown at the Southeastern Correctional Institution. Inmates have harvested about 400 pumpkins grown at the prison farm. The other day, Warden Mark Saunders and some other prison employees dropped off pumpkins at the Tallmadge Elementary School.

Pumpkin Crimes

Two men are facing charges, including felony assault, after police arrested them this weekend for allegedly dropping pumpkins from highway overpasses onto cars along a 40-mile stretch of Route 2. The incidents left two people injured.

Instead of junk in the trunk, authorities spotted three stolen pumpkins in a car driven by a man suspected of drunken driving, a South Lake Tahoe police officer said.

Another sign of the season occurred about a week before the failed pumpkin heist when youths were caught smashing pumpkins in a commercial area. Under the eye of police, the youths picked up the orange squash scraps.
[tags]pumpkins,halloween,carving pumpkins,pumpkin crafts[/tags]

7-11 Gets Very Patriotic

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After my post a few days back on Venezuelan President Chavez‘ somewhat amusing oration at the United Nations, it was even more amusing for me to see how his words, dismissed as mere “thug talk” by the Bush folk, has indeed hit some sour feelings with America’s patriots.

I’m talking about convenience store giant, 7-11 (where you can pick up some necessities like blue slurpies and overpriced chips, anytime anywhere in the world), who, has dumped Venezuelan-owned Citgo as their petroleum supplier.

In spite of the converience store chain’s 20-year-old relationship with the supplier, they’re sudden decision to change was partly because of “political reasons”. They made no excuses for this and even seemed proud to have acted in this patriotic (and emotional?) manner.

Of course, 7-11’s officials later took back what they said and in a very politically correct commercial fashion said that it was because they simply wanted a cheaper supplier.

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