RoadsideOnline

I removed a chunk out of the middle of this article from the Wall Street Journal to get to the meat of the matter. Frankly, I find it refreshing to see a little turnabout here. The airline industry has received billions and billions of "hidden" subsidy from the Feds in the last 80 years, most thank to indirect investment by way of defense contracts. And who could forget the $9 billion "loan" the airlines received after 9/11? (Thanks to Dave Lee for the tip)

LaHood to Airlines: Get Onboard the High-Speed Train

The airline industry was left fuming last year when some $8 billion on federal stimulus money was appropriated for high-speed rail while air-traffic control modernization got no new funds.

[snip]

Mr. LaHood gave a politician’s answer about how important the NextGen air-traffic control modernization effort is to the Administration. Then he paused and went off-script.

“Let me give you a little bit of political advice: Don’t be against high-speed rail,’’ Sec. LaHood said. “It’s coming to America. This is the president’s vision, this is the vice president’s vision, this is America’s vision…. We’re going to get into the high-speed rail business.’’

In two or three decades, Mr. LaHood said, U.S. cities will be connected by high-speed rail – whether airlines like it or not.

“People want alternatives,’’ he said pointedly. “People are still going to fly, but we need alternatives. So get with the program.’’

Full article here

Here's a nice little ray of California sunshine for our readers that comes by way of the Los Angeles Times.

California's main squeeze

Orange-shaped juice stands recall state's simpler days.

By Martha Groves

As they motored through the scorching Central Valley in the family station wagon, Mel Haynes' nine children watched for the juice-and-fruit stands shaped like immense oranges that dotted California 99, symbolically proclaiming the Golden State's eminence as the king of citrus.

"Those guys could spot those orange stands from five miles off," said Haynes, 78, "and we had to stop at most of them."

Inspired by those family memories, Haynes satisfied his own thirst 11 years ago by buying one of the giant orange stands at the southern edge of the Northern California farming town of Williams from an owner who sold it as part of a package with the motel next door.

Haynes thus finds himself the proprietor of one of California's six known remaining "oranges," 20th century relics that a national preservation group has named to its list of the nation's 10 most endangered roadside places.

Squeeze out the rest of the story here...

Doc's Little Gem Diner in Syracuse, New York is up for sale. Once again, we have yet another diner case study on how not to run your diner. Another "I told you so". Despite all efforts from diner people for over a decade, Doc argued for too long that people should be able to smoke in his diner, and as a result he lost alot of customers. From my own experiences, and having spent considerable time in Syracuse, I never ate at Doc's because of the smoking. I spent my diner $ elsewhere.

Doc also disliked Syracuse, New York Fire Dept regulations too, so instead of finding a more eye-pleasing solution, he bludgeoned his diner to spite them all — cutting awful holes in the Formica ceiling and installing an unsightly sprinkler system — the cheapest type he could install — just to prove his point. Ugly, exposed bare, unpainted metal pipes running the length of the diner ceiling. The only thing he accomplished was making his diner feel even more depressing inside. Low rent.

I finally found Charlie’s Diner!

Well, one of them. And I didn’t really find it, someone found it for me. But let me bask in my success in any case, because discovery is one of the charms of the Mom ‘N Pop Culture.

There was no special magic, mind you, about Charlie’s Diner. My quest had more to do with my destination. At least a few times each year I’d find myself on the way up to the Eastern States Exhibition grounds in West Springfield, Mass., to participate in shows related to the racing-trade. I used to publish a small racing magazine that covered the sport here in New England, you see.

Once the shows started I was a slave to my booth, but after setting up the day before a show I’d have a little time to meander back to my Rhode Island home. What better way to spend a bit of it than by tucking in to lunch at a local diner. Yet I still was a babe in the woods of diner exploration. I’d google "diners" and "Springfield, Mass.," and get a couple of names. And the one that would catch my attention would be Charlie’s, right there in West Springfield.