Soft Pretzel Logic

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – I was going to write this post from LaGuardia, but Mother Nature threw a spanner in the works that you can read about after the jump. So this post comes from the concourse at National Airport, where I’m sitting in a chair looking across the Potomac at the beautifully illuminated Capitol. But it just as easily could have been datelined Ithaca, Queens, or anywhere else between there and here.

On my last travel-blogging adventure, I flew on a big jet with satellite radio in the seats.

Today, I got to walk across a windswept, snow-covered tarmac to climb a folding staircase into a 34-seat turbo prop whose flight attendant didn't have the four hands needed to perform the preflight safety demonstration alone.

But at least the plane I flew from Ithaca to LaGuardia was made by Saab, which made the leather seats seem a bit more comfortable.

Then again, the takeoff was, shall we say, a rather tactile experience. Sort of like the potholes and delivery trucks I have to avoid on the days when I bike to work through Center City.

The landing wasn't much smoother, but it was nice to look out the window and get a glimpse of the National Tennis Center in Queens. Or at least, it was until Shea Stadium got in the way.

This one goes out to the journalists who read this blog.

While I was in Manhattan on Friday, I paid a visit to the famed Strand bookstore just south of Union Square on Broadway.

For those of you who haven't heard of it, the Strand has a huge array of used books as well as a lot of what are called "review books," overstock copies of new releases that are left over after the initial printing round is distributed to bookstores and book reviewers.

There's also a big display of Strand-branded bags, t-shirts, hats, mugs and so forth... almost enough to make you wonder about the anti-establishment image the rest of the place projects.

Next to the merchandise stand is a shelf full of Moleskine notebooks, the high-end cahiers supposedly used by Ernest Hemingway and actually used by Kyle Whelliston.

Like the books, Strand was selling the notebooks at a discount, almost to the point where I thought about spending $7 for a reporters notebook.

I really did. But a few minutes later, I realized that it would be totally worthless. That's in part because I can get free notebooks at work every once in a while -- not to mention the notebooks given to reporters at a lot of sporting events.

But even without that they're still cheap enough at office supply stores that I didn't feel a need to buy a really fancy one just to have as a status symbol.

So I walked away, wandered back downstairs to the review section, and saw a book I've been meaning to get for a while. It was in perfect condition and on sale for half the retail price.

That's more like it.

As I was walking up to the U.S. Airways Shuttle gates in New York, I heard an announcement for the last boarding call for the 4:00 p.m. departure. Since I was booked on the 5:00 flight, I tuned out the rest of the announcement and walked over to a food stand to buy a quick snack.

But then I heard something about later flights and passengers needing to board this flight, and wondered what the gate agent was referring to. Then I looked out the window and saw that it was snowing.

Hard.

The gate agent then asked if I had a ticket for the 5 p.m. flight, and half a second after I said “Yes,” he told me to get on the plane.

“But I have checked bags on the -- ” I stammered, before he cut me off and told me I’d be fine. So I gave him my boarding pass, got one more assurance about my suitcase and headed down the jetway.

When I got to the baggage claim after landing, the Philadelphian in me was quite surprised to find the bags already rolling onto the carousel.

The rest of me was just as astonished when my bag was among the first to arrive.

It had to be a fluke, right?

I vaguely remember what it was like when the Shuttle route between DC and New Yorkwas created in 1989. It was designed for business travelers, with hourly flights and a water taxi from LaGuardia to Wall Street.

There were some perks for flyers too, like free magazines by the dedicated shuttle gate. It became the chic way to travel between the two cities.

But around the turn of the millenium, Amtrak stepped up its game, improving its regular rolling stock and introducing the Acela. At the same time, the Shuttle got more expensive and flying became more of a hassle, with all the security measures we now see as the norm.

Suddenly, the 3 1/2 hour ride from Union Station to Penn Station (or vice versa) became about the same amount of time required to get from Capitol Hill to Midtown by air. Plus, the train had more legroom and power outlets at the seats that didn't require a funky adapter.

Nowadays, I take the train almost everywhere I go on the east coast. Covering Penn games for the Inquirer, I can get to Princeton, Yale, Brown and Columbia by train very easily. Even the 6 1/2 hour ride to Boston and Harvard is palatable -- not least because it has become cheaper than flying.

It's also easy to get to D.C. by train, for occasions such as tomorrow's Villanova-Georgetown game and other occasions when I'm down here.

But walking towards the gate at LaGuardia, I noticed that a lot of the old perks are still there: free magazines, workdesks with power outlets and a couple of Bloomberg Terminals (which are really awesome to play with). You can even rent a laptop by the hour, or a charging plug for your own devices.

As I got on the plane, I realized that Philadelphia never got to experience any of this. A Shuttle route probably wouldn't work in Philadelphia because New York and D.C. are so easy to reach, but honestly, I don't think we're really missing much.

It would be nice if flights to Boston were cheaper, though.