Good lord, this is a creepy story. It’s alleged that doctors Mark and R. Scott Blankenburg, twin pediatricians working in Butler County, Ohio, have been boning their underage male patients for decades. Well, not boning per se — but still doing bad things. According to the Washington Post, Dr. Mark fondled and blew several patients, [...]
In a hysterical post titled, “Do Guns at Political Events Disturb You? Then Consider Skipping Arizona for Now,” travel guru Arthur Frommer suggests that the Grand Canyon State should be boycotted by like-minded lefties. Here’s the original post in full — with good parts in bold.
Not that they ever had qualms in the first place, but these troubled times mean no stunt is too gross for travel companies promoting package tours. Last month, I was amazed by Hedonism II’s “Threesome is a Freesome” promo, which offered free floorspace to trios of sluts. Today, it’s the Singles Travel Company and the [...]
As covered in this space previously, nudists take their nudism seriously. They’re part of a liberation movement — not licentious swingers. Paradise Lakes Resort — just 15 miles north of America’s brown eye, aka Tampa — should’ve been more mindful of this when they promoted the Miss G-String International pageant, to be held on the [...]
Thinking about a tattoo? Planning a weekend in Venice Beach? Save time and money at Hotel Erwin: The Hotel Erwin in Venice Beach is offering guests a $119 voucher to get inked by the hotel’s in-house tattoo and graffiti artist, Norm. Costing $476, the “Ink & Stay” package includes a room, moisturising lotion, an icepack [...]
With family travel budgets tighter than Minnie Mouse’s pucker, this is no time to fuck around with public image. So what’s going wrong at Disney World? The Florida theme park has been witness to three fatal accidents in less than two months. In July, the world-famous monorail saw its first fatality when two cars collided. [...]
India’s media went wild over the weekend after a report that one of their biggest movie stars had been detained by security while exiting the U.S. via Newark airport. Shah Rukh Khan, affectionately and universally known simply as SRK, was taken for secondary screening. The actor blames his surname. Though the king of Bollywood managed [...]
As with so many wacky news items, this one probably isn’t funny if you’re involved. From afar, though, it’s hilarious. From the Orlando Sentinel: Lisa Kantorski took the call from the person who claimed to be a front-desk clerk about a gas leak in their hotel room near Orlando International Airport.
Just as the New York Times real estate section can’t resist creating an acronym for every sliver of neighborhood — DUMBO, Nolita, etc and so on — the travel industry can’t pass up a catchy nickname. In recent years, we’ve suffered through mancations, girlcations, staycations, momcations, culminating in the shockingly awkward edufuncations. Prepare for a [...]
If you’re looking for a new place to search for little green men this summer, forget Mexico City. Forget Roswell. Forget Marfa. Set your GPS for Kansas City, where the local director of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network), Marge Padgitt, reports at least sighting coming into her office each day. From the UFO Examiner, a sampling [...]
If you’ve ever wondered why in-flight magazines aren’t usually worth reading, let this email exchange shed some light on the industry. Dear Mr. Koyen, Good day! I am a researcher for Eastgate Publishing in the Philippines. We publish Mabuhay, Philippine Airlines’ inflight magazine, and are coming out with a new quarterly travel magazine called Mango [...]
It’s not a shortage of customers that’s hurting the chain of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums. It’s a shortage of oddities. Authentic shrunken heads, once available for $5,000, now command ten times as much, thanks to a new breed of private collectors. From the WSJ: Over the past four years, Ripley’s Believe It or [...]
In the hands of new investors who picked up the property in default for $23 million, Michael Jackson’s infamous 2,600-acre Neverland Ranch is being prepped for an eventual sale. From the WSJ: The amusement-park rides, elephants and orangutans have been hauled away. The two helicopter landing pads are empty. The private railway line stands idle [...]
Annice Smoel has bad luck when it comes to vacations. I first wrote about Smoel in May, when she was released from a Thai prison after serving 18 days for stealing a bar mat. Now she’s being denied entry to the U.S., where she’d hoped to have a Disneyland adventure with her kids. From News.com.au: [...]
At my most recent full-time job, I learned a lot about cruises and hotels. The latter knowledge remains useful — who doesn’t love a nice hotel — but the cruises? Bah. I’ve taken one, and I’ll never do it again. Inspired by the recent announcement that Disney was launching a Hannah Montana-theme cruise (without a [...]
The first Gay Day at Disney was held in 1991 when a man named Doug Swallow (yeah) invited several groups of gay friends to join him at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando. It quickly became a tradition, and the annual gathering — held on the first Saturday in June — now attracts more queers than [...]
Privacy advocates had cause to celebrate yesterday, if cautiously. The House passed the Aircraft Passenger Whole-Body Imaging Limitations Act, which would restrict the use of so-called “strip-search machines” at the nation’s airports. Otherwise known as full-body scanners, the machines use millimeter wave technology to search air passengers for concealed weapons. Forty such gizmos, which cost [...]
How else to explain Gadling’s ongoing installments of “passengers we love to hate,” if not a takeover by 60 Minutes‘ resident crankypants curmudgeon? Sure, blogging can get repetitive sometimes, but whose idea was this idiotic series? The first target was the so-called Escalator Obstacle: You know the signs all over the airport, posted on the [...]
If you were an Expedia customer between February 2003 and December 2006, you may be entitled to some money back. A Washington court has ordered the online ticketing company to pay $185 million to customers for misleading and/or hidden fees. From the Seattle Times: The plaintiffs alleged Expedia charged service fees under false pretenses in [...]
When it comes to authentic European-style beer halls in New York City, the local favorite has always been the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden in Astoria, Queens. Then came Studio Square in Long Island City, which is open-air but not exactly traditional. Soon, Manhattan may have its very own solution for communal boozehounding. From the [...]
