1. Why only 101 airports? Far more than that offer commercial air service.

2. With three airports in the Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco areas why not also report average for the region? This would be a more realistic indicator of true choice for passengers in those markets. For example, when I fly out of Washington, I look to see the cost of flights at Regan National (DCA), Baltimore (BWI), and Dulles (IAD) all by using the code WAS (same for New York City with NYC).

3. Of the three airports in Washington, National is the “cheapest” at #23, followed by Baltimore at #74, and Dulles at #99. If you look at where flights from those airports go, you may notice that National is almost exclusively domestic flying (with some flights to Canada and the Bahamas) whereas Baltimore has limited international flights and Dulles is a major international hub for United Airlines. The more international flights an airport has, I would think the average ticket price would be higher as the result of business and first class seats being sold on international aircraft. (As a point of reference, the same can be said for New York City, with La Guardia at #9, Newark at #91, and JFK at #98).

While it is interesting that La Guardia and National (with their statutorily controlled slots) are cheaper than other area airports, what does this really tell you about air travel? There are many destinations (especially international) where you cannot get from point A to point B from La Guardia and National. If you live in a major metropolitan area, why would you chose to use those airports, regardless if they are “less expensive” if you cannot fly where you want or need to go?

Maybe next time, surveys like this will use a real methodology to actually say something about how people use these airports and not just have a blanket statement about average cost that is ultimately meaningless for most travelers.

PJ just released a cover of a Beatles tune, “Something” (with video). Enjoy it!

And here is the current schedule for PJ’s Summer tour! For my friends in NYC and New England, he will be all touring your neighborhoods all summer. Rumor has it that Jishman himself might hit a full band show in NYC this summer. And for all my NERFL members, we may have to head over to the All Asia bar after the NERFL Draft on August 28th!

A little background on the wine before my thoughts. The 2008 Sunrise Cabernet Sauvignon is made by Concha y Toro, one of the largest wine producers in Chile. They made very high end wines and low end wines that border on plonk. Sunrise is not their lowest label (maybe second from the bottom), Frontera has that honor. Because it is not a well known label and not the top end of the Concha y Toro brand, I did not know what to expect from the wine.

What Concha y Toro has done with the Sunrise Cabernet Sauvignon is experiment a little with the traditional way Cabernet is produced. With 70 percent of the wine for the 2008 aged in stainless steel tanks and 30% in three-year old American oak, they have decided to produce a wine that is not a complex, not as oaky, and not as big (only 13.5% alcohol). On the nose (smell) you get traditional Cabernet odors of ripe red fruit and a little cherry. The taste is not big, but very pleasant. There are hints of cherry, raspberries, and even a hint of raisin. Overall, this was much better than I expected, especially at the price. Since I, unfortunately, cannot afford to drink fine wine all the time, this will be mixed into my rotation when I want a Cabernet that is lighter and more malleable than others in its price range that often do not taste like Cabernet.

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We took the bottle out tonight to finish it and had a completely different experience. While the nose was similar, the bottle now has the classic sauvignon blanc fresh grass taste. While not my favorite characteristic of sauvignon blanc, this is a wine that I would seek out again, just to drink all in one sitting instead of letting it sit in the refrigerator overnight!

When Jishman and I started dating, I insisted that RMTJ would and could always be his pet project and that I was not really interested in being a regular contributor. Blogging just isn’t my thing though I certainly appreciate reading what many of you contribute to the site. But, this one time is different…

In January of this past year, my father was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; aka: Lou Gehrig’s Disease). ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. According to the ALS Association, there are approximately 30,000 people living in America with ALS. Every 90 minutes a person in this country is diagnosed and every 90 minutes another person will lose their battle against this disease. 5-10% of ALS cases are genetic and for those who have genetic ALS, each of their children has a 50% change of developing the condition. Dad’s father, my grandfather, lost his battle with ALS in 1966. It’s time to make sure that we find a cure so that future generations are not be forced to continue this fight!

May is National ALS Awareness Month and, in the spirit of education and advocacy, I ask that you please take time to learn a little about the history, research and realities of ALS. www.alsa.org and http://www.als-mda.org/ are two great places to start. My family will be participating in the ALS Association’s “Walk to Defeat ALS” in June. It’s a fantastic way to support the ALS community, to raise awareness and to raise money for research and patient care.
In 1939, after news of his diagnosis had spread far and wide, Lou Gehrig addressed 61,808 fans at Yankee Stadium and expressed his love for the sport and for his fans in a heart-felt speech that ended with, “I might have had a tough break; but I have an awful lot to live for.”

Over 70 years later, my Dad is tackling ALS with the same commitment to live life to the fullest. It is an important and inspiring lesson and I strongly encourage each of us to answer the call to do the same!

AT&T and Verizon will be lucky to get 13 markets up on LTE by the end of this calendar year. They might - MIGHT - get 20 markets up next year too. They won’t have the whole country blanketed in LTE coverage, and so your phone will drop calls almost as badly as when networks were FIRST being rolled out (or worse, if you have AT&T now, and live in DC, SF or NYC). For a company that has made it’s living on claiming it has the best network, why would Verizon take that risk?

On the other hand, getting a CDMA iPhone will be short term expensive, but will open up the phone to another potential 78 million customers. That’s a lot of people. And yes, I know there are payment issues (will VZW give Apple the same deal AT&T does per handset), but I say the above reasons make a lot of sense to make a CDMA phone if you are Apple for right now.

Thoughts?

Baseball was totally different. I never enjoyed watching baseball on TV. Baseball on TV felt like it had more commercials than actual game time. A friend of Mrs. Jishman once told me that there are only between 15 and 20 minutes of REAL GAME TIME in any baseball game. Even a high scoring one still only has about 20-25 minutes of real game time. It’s the same amount as a half hour sitcom! But the radio changed all that. I remember going to camp and listening to Yankee games on the radio. My friend, Matt, and I would gather around the radio and in between innings, we would argue about the benefit of keeping Andy Hawkins in or bringing in Dave Righetti in the 8th. When I was in high school, I would listen to Yankee games at night and would go to sleep listening to the voices of the great broadcasters. When I graduated, I would listen to Yankee games in the car and would drive for hours just listening, hoping the game would end before my ride did.

As a fan of radio both in general and as a professional later in life, I loved listening to the broadcasters - the players came and went but the broadcasters really brought the whole game together for me. They would give you both the action and the action between the action. In between pitches (which seemed interminable), you would listen to great stories and interviews.

Though I did not grow up in Detroit - nor got the chance to hear him too often - I will never forget one time when I heard him call an All-Star game on WFAN one year in college. He was expressive and interesting. His stories were poignant and well-spoken. His voice was phenomenal, but for me too, it was his language. He had catch-phrases (or poems/Bible phrases), of course, but he didn’t feel the need to use it every time he got on the mic (thank you, Michael Kaye, you a$$). It was probably the only All-Star game I listened to, in its entirety, on the radio. I have never forgotten that game, and listening to him again on Sportscenter, I hope I never do.

If you’ve never listened to a baseball game on the radio, take the time this summer to do it. Baseball was born in an era that was before television. Use one of the 130 remaining games to listen to your favorite team on the radio. I hope you won’t regret it.