The Accidental Tourist

Lufthansa Airbus A321 landing at London Heathrow

“The Accidental Tourist” is a wonderful book by Anne Tyler and an equally endearing film adaptation starring William Hurt, Geena Davis, and an obstreperous Corgi named Edward.  Macon Leary (played by Hurt) is a reluctant traveler and writer of guides for those who don’t like travel and want to maintain the highest degree of home-like comfort.  Macon can tell you, for instance, where to find a real American meal in London.

While this is a poor philosophy (foreign cultures are to be experienced and enjoyed) there is absolutely nothing wrong with traveling comfortably.  And in this last decade since we were attacked by pitiless terrorists, travel by air has become very frustrating.  In addition to running the gauntlet of TSA security, the airlines pack the very few available seats like sardines due to spiraling fuel costs.

In face of this, it is most important to maintain your equanimity, to be relaxed, and to enjoy the larger journey. Here are a few tips to make your passage more pleasant.

• When packing, remember that all liquids must stay at home unless in 3.4 oz. (100 ml) or smaller containers.  (Half-full larger containers are not allowed).  All such liquids must fit in a single, quart-size, zip-top, clear plastic bag.  There is no wiggle room.

• The definition of liquid is fluid (sorry).  For instance, stick deodorant is considered a solid and may be packed away in your luggage.  But gel or aerosol deodorants are considered liquids and must meet the 3.4 oz. limitation.  Toothpaste is a liquid – go figure.

•  Leave early for the airport.  Most have decent restaurants and facilities inside of security.  It is far more relaxing to wait for your flight inside of security rather than fretting outside.

• Have your current, unexpired ID ready.  Ensure sure that you have a boarding pass, not a ticket receipt.  Once the TSA-screener has initialed your boarding pass, put it away... you won't need it again until boarding the aircraft.  Your ID may be stowed completely - you won't need it until renting a car or checking into your hotel.

• You cannot bring bottled water through security if greater than 3.4 oz.  You may purchase water inside of security and carry it aboard, but here is a little known economical tip… you may pass through security with empty plastic bottles and fill them at a bubbler (water fountain to those who don’t speak Rhode Islandese). 

• While scissors longer than 4” and all knives are prohibited, you may carry aboard a fingernail clipper.  These come in very handy when opening that impervious bag of trail mix.

• Men, wear a sports coat. Ladies, a bush jacket.   They have lots of pockets and will get you through security with great aplomb.  Before entering the security line, empty all of your pants and shirt pockets into the sports coat.   Take off the sports coat and put it into a bin.  Remove any other articles of outer clothing and place in the bin.  Also, your 1 quart plastic zip-top baggie of liquids and your belt, all in the same bin. For you old-timers, this includes your handkerchief… all pockets must be empty.

• Put your laptop computer in a separate bin along with any large, cassette video cameras, full sized DVD players, or game consoles.  Bulky electronics must be screened separately.

• Wear shoes that are comfortable and easily removable.  Remove your shoes and place them on the conveyor with your bags (no need for a bin).  You are now ready to pass through the security gate, be it an old-fashioned metal detector or the new backscatter X-ray screening device.

• On the other side of screening, reclaim your belongings.  Simply don your sports coat; you can repopulate your pockets later.  Don’t forget your laptop.

• Once boarding has begun, keep an eye on the overhead bins ahead of you.  If it appears that bin space is running short, put your large bag in the nearest available bin (and remember which row).  DO NOT put both of your bags in the overhead – nothing will more quickly arouse the wrath of your fellow passengers.  Put the smaller bag under the seat in front of you.  Once the aircraft is aloft, you can pull the bag back under your knees and extend your legs into that space.

• Purchase an inflatable, U-shaped pillow.  This will keep you from dozing off and drooling on the shoulder of your seatmate.  She will appreciate your consideration.

 All of these simple suggestions are intended to get you through security the first time, without re-screening, stress, and delays.  Once inside find a Dunkin Donuts and have a nice latte.  Buy a healthy sandwich and carry it aboard as the snacks served in flight tend to be expensive, unhealthy, and unsatisfying. Since you are running early due to the aforementioned suggestions, you may relax, read a newspaper, and participate in that all-time favorite pastime, people watching.

Have a nice journey and be kind to your fellow passengers. After all, they are being treated like idiot cattle, too.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

Madonna and Child, Raphael, c. 1503

It is confusing to be a kid today.  What is the holiday season all about?  Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year all in quick succession.  It involves holiday trees in Rhode Island, the tiny state that also bans the menorah, terming it a holiday candelabra.  (Oh, they don’t?  Well, maybe they should).

The winter solstice is another event of the season.  Many cultures celebrate it as a rebirth – the promise of a new year and a new growing season to come.  It is proof that nature is well, that  another crop is forthcoming, marking the end of the sun’s southward journey and the beginning of its return to the succor of summer.

But there is no confusion in the Italian American community.  The season is all about Christmas (Christ’s Mass), the celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus.  The stories of the three wise men, the guiding star, and Joseph and Mary taking shelter in a manger are not inconsistent with Santa Claus, his reindeer, and their overnight visit to delight us with gifts.

One of the most pleasant (and delicious) traditions is the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Originating in southern Italy and Sicily, this Christmas Eve celebration, also known as La Vigilia (the vigil), marks the wait for the midnight birth of the divine infant.  For whatever reason, this wait is more easily borne by eating a large dinner containing seven different seafood dishes and accompanying coffees, desserts and pastries.  Who knew that a vigil could be so gustatorily agreeable?

But in the grand scheme of things, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Wiccan, we seem to agree that the season is about giving.  We find it pleasant to drop a buck into the Salvation Army bell-ringer’s bucket.  Some of us, anonymously, pay off strangers’ layaway accounts at K-Mart, and we all enjoy pleasing our loved ones with a thoughtful present.  Of all the season’s traditions, this is by far the best.

On Christmas morning, up early to solitarily contemplate the blessings of Santa’s visit, spend a few moments to remember and thank those who have made a significant difference in your life.  These are the gifts that truly matter. And then consider giving such a gift.  Your mentoring can literally change the life of a bright young mind that needs only some experienced direction and inspiration.

The little known battle of Wake Island

Wake Island - destroyed Marine F4F Wildcats, VMF211.  National Archives Photo 80-G-179006

Today we really love our Toyotas and Hondas.  Japan is a close friend and ally of the United states and a major trading partner. But seventy years ago, Emperor Hirohito’s forces attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and at tiny Wake Island on December 8^th.  (These attacks were nearly simultaneous, as Wake Island lies across the International Dateline some 2,000 miles to the west.)  It is difficult to appreciate the bleakness of those times, with war seeming a poor reward for a decade of economic depression.

The story of Pearl Harbor is well known; Wake Island, less so.  Annexed by the United States in 1899, Wake remained desolate for many years.  Pan American Airlines built a facility there in 1935 to accommodate their flying boats, the famous Clippers which plied the Pacific in the pre-war years.  As tensions with Japan mounted, the Navy established a garrison in 1941 and by December had staffed it with 449 United States Marines, twelve Grumman F4F-3 Wildcats, 68 Navy personnel, and a contingent of over 1,200 civilian construction workers. 

The garrison was incomplete, lacking revetments to protect parked aircraft from shells or bombs, and no radar was yet installed.  On the morning of December 8^th (the 7^th in Hawaii), the garrison received a radio warning from Pearl.  Navy Commander W.S. Cunningham ordered four of his Marine pilots to take to the air to establish an air screen, thereby saving them from destruction.  At noon, a large force of Japanese Mitsubishi bombers from the Marshal Islands attacked and decimated seven of the eight F4F Wildcats remaining on the ground.  The eighth was later disabled in a taxiing accident.

Pan American’s facilities, including a hotel, warehouse, and fuel tanks, were destroyed by the raid. A moored Pan American airship, the Philippine Clipper, was riddled with shot and shrapnel but remained airworthy.  Her civilian crew, passengers, and ground employees were able to jettison unnecessary baggage and equipment and escape to Midway Island in a fortunate side note to this grim battle.

In spite of daily air attacks, the Marines were able to keep their small fleet of four remaining Wildcats serviceable, and their intrepid pilots served both as early warning for incoming air raids and to claim their share of downed enemy bombers. 

On December 11^th, the Japanese attempted an assault from the sea.   A seaborne force consisting of three light cruisers, six destroyers, and two armed merchantmen approached during the night with the intent of landing 450 troops.  But the defenders were able to sting heavily with coastal artillery and their few remaining aircraft.  Four Japanese ships were destroyed and several more damaged, and they were forced to withdraw.  This was the first defeat for the Japanese, who had till now seemed invincible at Pearl, Guam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.  The home front rejoiced at the news. But there was great cost to the Marines; two of the surviving F4Fs were destroyed leaving only two of the original twelve operational. 

Knowing the fate of the Marines, sailors, and civilians on Wake was precarious, the Navy mounted a relief force from Hawaii led by the carrier USS Saratoga and three heavy cruisers, ten destroyers, and a number of support ships.   But the Japanese were approaching Wake with a large task force consisting of two fleet carriers, many attendant cruisers and destroyers,  and a landing party of 1,500 men.   On December 22, the last two Wildcats were lost to carrier-based Japanese Zeros, and on the 23^rd the invasion was in full swing.  Realizing the strength of the Japanese armada, Pearl ordered the American relief force to turn back as it was deemed essential to insure the defense of Hawaii. Thus was sealed the fate of Wake’s defenders. 

The Marines fought defiantly, valiantly, and courageously, but were overwhelmed.  (Marine Captain Henry T. Elrod was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for bravely piloting his F4F Wildcat to down two Zeros and sink a destroyer.  He was later killed protecting his men as they carried ammunition to a gun emplacement).  The Japanese bombarded for hours and then landed over 1,000 men, overpowering the island’s defenses.  By afternoon, Commander Cunningham was forced to surrender the garrison.  There followed a dark time of incarceration, hard labor in POW camps, and atrocities better forgiven than avenged.

Dark times, indeed, but those on the home front rose to the challenge, not only in the Pacific but also in Europe and around the world where Allied forces were amassing.  Our spirit, spunk, and perseverance led the Allies to the post-war world we have all enjoyed for over six decades. (Even Japan and Germany, the world’s 3^rd and 4^th largest economies.  Oh, to be defeated by those steely but benevolent Americans).

The veterans who formed the sharp tip of our spear in those years are quickly disappearing.  They who served in the early war years are approaching 90 years and beyond.  The incidence of veteran obituaries from that era has long since peaked and dwindled – few of them remain.  If you are fortunate enough to know a World War II vet, or are kind enough to visit a veteran facility, take a moment to listen to their stories and give them great thanks.