{"id":205,"date":"2006-06-25T23:32:23","date_gmt":"2006-06-26T04:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2006\/06\/25\/you-can-get-there\/"},"modified":"2006-07-17T10:12:56","modified_gmt":"2006-07-17T15:12:56","slug":"you-can-get-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/06\/you-can-get-there\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can Get There"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE AIRPORT — We got to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport before 7 a.m., because My Beloved Wife and I are experienced post-9\/11 travelers. Northwest Airlines, however, no longer behaves like an experienced carrier. Elaborating will just make me mad all over again. But we arrived at the airport in New Hampshire after 11, got the rental car and arrived at our motor court in Ogunquit<\/a>, Maine, a bit after midnight, not the planned 7 p.m., entirely because of flub-ups by NWA (that’s Northwest Airlines abbreviation for itself, while our home airport is XNA).<\/p>\n

OK, a snippet: The NWA agents at XNA were two amiable and patient young men in polo shirts and cargo shorts; they were luggage handlers substituting for the two agents on break at the same time and for well over an hour. We had been rerouted, and NWA sent the e-mail to an incorrect address. The first flight left at 6:15.<\/p>\n

The twenty-something couple behind us learned from the guys they were rerouted and would have several unexpected hours waiting in the Memphis airport. Then a woman got in line, a one-time Wal-Mart exec just hired by another company, who told us her flight number was right but it had left a half-hour earlier than she had been told. MBW or I should have phoned the airlines a week earlier and obviously also a day earlier to reconfirm but: It wasn’t just us.<\/p>\n

Handler One: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dude, what’s the abbreviation for Manchester?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Handler Two: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let me look it up. Dude, it’s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMHT.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE AIRPORT — We got to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport before 7 a.m., because My Beloved Wife and I are experienced post-9\/11 travelers. Northwest Airlines, however, no longer behaves like an experienced carrier. Elaborating will just make me mad all over again. But we arrived at the airport in New Hampshire after 11, got the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boston-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":428,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/sign-sign-everywhere-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":205,"position":0},"title":"Sign Sign Everywhere A","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"American Airlines is a proud member of something called the Oneworld Alliance, which is a group of 10 airlines combining for the booking of reservations etc. but otherwise independent from one another. Or is it? Are they? From an American jet we took Friday, taxiing to the gate at Dallas\/Fort\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":218,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/07\/epilogue-or-a-look-ahead\/","url_meta":{"origin":205,"position":1},"title":"Epilogue, or a Look Ahead","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 5, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"DETROIT -- Automatic soap dispensers were in restrooms of a number of stops throughout this trip, including Detroit's airport in general and its Northwest Airlines World Club in particular. Does everything have to be automatic, run by an infrared electric eye? This one is particularly wasteful; a number of times\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Boston Blotter"","block_context":{"text":"Boston Blotter","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/boston-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/cut-wont-buy-a-cup\/","url_meta":{"origin":205,"position":2},"title":"Cut Won’t Buy a Cup","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We have yet another charity that we can help for pennies a day. Yes, friends for just over $1 a week, you can feed an Arkansas legislator's soul. He or she will feel satisfied now and for two more years, for having fulfilled a campaign promise. You can keep the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5564,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2017\/02\/canopy-cassoulet\/","url_meta":{"origin":205,"position":3},"title":"Canopy Cassoulet","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As a volunteer with the refugee resettlement group\u00a0Canopy Northwest Arkansas, I made a family's first meal in their new home. The mom and dad, ages 30 and 28, have been living\u00a0in camps since fleeing Democratic Republic of \u00a0Congo in 2003. Their son just turned 6. Who knows what they've been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Logo of Canopy Northwest Arkansas, a refugee resettlement service","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/CanopyNWA-logo-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":326,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/06\/philadelphia-phreedom\/","url_meta":{"origin":205,"position":4},"title":"Philadelphia Phreedom","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA -- The annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists begins Friday at 8 a.m. Well, Thursday evening is the informal mixer that has become more organized over the years. Most conferees have arrived, as have some speakers, including Dave Barry. Little thus can be reported yet. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philadelphia Phreedom"","block_context":{"text":"Philadelphia Phreedom","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/philadelphia-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3903,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/10\/the-paper-is-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":205,"position":5},"title":"The Paper’s Back","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The newspaper is here. It's unopened in its yellow rain bag, middle of the driveway. I'm savoring the moment, the anticipation. Also, I wanted to write my rationale first. This being Northwest Arkansas, it's really two newspapers bundled. If this was elsewhere in America, it would be one newspaper with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC aka NWA Media","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/NAN-sense-300x187.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}