On plane trips

[da]

31 hours after we left Ontario, we're back. It's beautiful out, huge snowflakes are falling, and both d. and I are exhausted. d's currently singing his 2nd of two concerts of this weekend; I'm doing a few errands like picking up the dog and making dinner, and we'll probably crash pretty early tonight.

In addition to discovering that the only substantially good thing about the city of Baltimore is the food, both d. and I have discovered that our names are on security Do Not Fly lists. So far, it's turned out to mean no more than 20 extra minutes at the start of each trip, as they called in our names and verified- I don't know what exactly, but they let us get on the planes both times. There's some sort of process we can follow to get... onto the Do Not Do Not Fly list? Fly List? I don't really care, so long as it works.

As far as I know, we're flagged by full name, and nothing else, though it's being difficult for me to find out for certain. The list seems riddled with errors, from what I've read online previously.

I did do an interesting experiment just now, which you can repeat.

Go to http://www.melissadata.com/cgi-bin/peoplefinder.asp and put in your name and any state. For my first and last name, and state of birth, it tops out at 100 responses, two with my same age and middle initial. There are at least one close match for most of the friends' names I've tried.

Why, oh why, didn't my parents name me Bartholomew?

Comments

[arcticturtle.livejournal.com]

I was only there one day, but I thought Baltimore was really cool architecturally. I walked all over the central city and saw maybe two plain, rectangular boxes. I don't know enough to tell good from bad architecture, but I do know enough to tell "trying" from "not bothering", and I like "trying" better.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

There were a lot of elements that actually seemed to fit into the "trying" category- they're trying to have a viable light-rail system, which I keep trying to be enthusiastic about because light rail should be supported in cities, and the downtown core and Hopkins campus are pretty. And lots of new buildings going up, which is a good sign.

But the downsides tend to be serious and systemic- the light-rail machines seem to not take bills larger than $5, and the north-south line has sporadic payphones, which cost us close to an extra hour getting back to the hotel (out near the airport), and it ran three times slower in the evening as in the morning, for another 45 minutes on the train.

The downtown is pretty, but much like DC, the city consists of these "islands" of safe areas, surrounded by really unsafe areas ("really unsafe" as described by residents, as in, don't walk where you don't know where you're passing through, during daylight). Such as, don't walk the mile from Hopkins to downtown...

But you're right, there is some really neat architecture. I wish we had time to look at the Symphony Hall on this trip, it looked beautiful from the outside. And I like the convention center.

I don't know, perhaps I'll feel like going back in some number of years.

VERY glad to be home, and going on vacation soon. :)

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

I really want to like Baltimore: my parents fell in love when they were Hopkins students, and as such, it should be special to me.

But there are all of these things about it that give one pause. There have been roughly 270 murders in Baltimore this year, in a city of 640,000. In Toronto, it's something closer to 60 murders, in a city of 2.5 million, and that's a scandal. When we were deciding not to live in Baltimore, in 2000, the statistic that struck me as most worrisome was that Baltimore has the highest syphillis rate in the US. That is the case because there are a lot of people selling sex for drugs.

Parts of it really are pretty. Charles Village (by Hopkins) is cute. The art museum is great. And at its best, the food is superb. But I see more burned out people per capita in Baltimore than in any other American city. I find it amazingly depressing to be in.