In the New Yorker...

[Jeff Wrangler]

When I buy a plane ticket it gives me a bunch of options of times, prices, etc., including whether it's direct or not. The ones with layovers aren't necessarily cheaper, so I don't get why anyone would pick those, but maybe they just bundle a regular flight from Denver to Chicago and one from Chicago to Miami in case anyone wants to do that.

It's been so long now since I've flown anywhere (other than Boston--P'town) that I don't think I even know how to book a ticket anymore unless I know an airline serves Philadelphia and the place I want to go.

Cape Air Boston--P'town is the exception, of course, because there is no other airline serving that route.

I got a Real ID for just that purpose--flying--and now they've pushed the requirement for that back again! 

[Front-Ranger]

...As for layovers, can't you book a direct flight from there?

Depends on where you're going and when you want to travel. For instance, if I wanted to go to western Nebraska, most anyplace in Wyoming, or Northern Arizona, I just couldn't do it by air. If I wanted to fly to Colorado Springs, I would need to drive east to DIA, pay for parking, walk half a mile, and do the same thing in reverse in the Springs. I would probably drive farther than if I just took a car straight there.

I once took a flight  from Minneapolis to Atlanta that went through DENVER, which definitely doesn't make sense from a climate-change standpoint.

So, once I flew from Detroit to San Diego. Had to make two connections to get there. On the way back, my nonstop flight was rerouted to Atlanta! And I had to stay overnight. All this with a 6-month-old baby in tow. Another time, I had to go to Saskatoon. The inbound flight was pretty smooth; only one stop in Calgary (we went over Saskatoon on the way). But on the return, I had to fly first to Toronto to catch a nonstop to Denver! And customs was so backed up that I missed my flight! I had to go to Philly and spend the night in the airport, catching the first flight home the next day.

[serious crayons]

Depends on where you're going and when you want to travel. For instance, if I wanted to go to western Nebraska, most anyplace in Wyoming, or Northern Arizona, I just couldn't do it by air.

You mean you couldn't get somewhere rural in those places by air, right? Because you can fly directly from DEN to Flagstaff or several Wyoming cities. (DEN to Grand Island, NE, on the other hand, would take all day, cost over $1,000 and you'd have a layover at DFW).

Anyway, if this is about the practicality of the electric plane in the article, it might not be a replacement for giant planes for now but for going somewhere that it makes more sense to drive to, an electric plane would save energy and money.

I would bemoan the absence of trains in the United States but I think at this point a switch to electric vehicles, perhaps driverless, makes more sense. I'd like to be like a European and just hop on something spontaneously and be transported to any city in the country.

[Jeff Wrangler]

At lunch today, I finished the excerpts from Thomas Mallon's diaries (Dec. 12). I recognize the name, and I should have googled him before writing this, but, oh, well. It was fascinating to read about gay New York City in the mid-1980s in the midst of the AIDS pandemic. On the other hand, I'll admit, no doubt out of pure, unadulterated jealousy, it annoyed the hell out of me.

The man was 33 years old in 1985. He bought an apartment in NYC that year. He was teaching at Vassar. He was, or was becoming, a published author. He knew Elizabeth Hardwick (all I know of her is what I've read in TNY). He was consorting with New York lawyers. He was having (obviously) safe sex with numbers of very attractive men and was himself an attractive man. He knew lots of gay men who were dying of AIDS (all of us who lived through those times knew lots of gay men who died of AIDS). Now his diaries are in the Library of Congress.

The man isn't a real person; he's a character in an Andrew Holleran novel. ...

OK, that's snarky; I admit it, but, really, those diary entries read like the record of a character in an Andrew Holleran novel. They really do.

[Front-Ranger]

...The man isn't a real person; he's a character in an Andrew Holleran novel. ...

   I confess, I would feel confused and betrayed.

[Jeff Wrangler]

  I confess, I would feel confused and betrayed.

I have since looked him up. He has led a rather charmed life.

[Front-Ranger]

Lately the most interesting things I've read in the New Yorker were online. When I tried to find them in the magazine, they weren't there. Here's an example, an actually amusing Shouts and Murmurs.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I have the impression that print version is a week behind the online version. At least, occasionally a NY piece appears to show up in my news feed, and a week later it shows up in my print copy.

[serious crayons]

I have the impression that print version is a week behind the online version. At least, occasionally a NY piece appears to show up in my news feed, and a week later it shows up in my print copy.

Seems likely. At my newspaper, the digital version comes out the day before the print.

[Front-Ranger]

I put off reading Thomas Mallon's diary from the December 12th issue but finally read it and I'm glad I did. He's the same age as I and while I was navigating the typical ordeals of young adulthood, he was in the midst of the AIDS crisis in New York City. If only I had read his diaries as a young woman I would hope I could have offered friendship and help to my gay acquaintances sooner rather than later.

After finishing it I ran to my computer to find out if he succumbed to AIDS like so many of the people he came into contact with. There were several presumably straight Thomas Mallons whose obits were posted but he is well and alive and living with his long-time partner in the DC area. And still publishing.