Category: default || By jt3y

The bastard agglomeration of Allegheny, Mohawk, Piedmont, PSA and Lord-knows-how-many-others-I've-forgotten that now calls itself US Airways is coming apart at the seams, reports Dan Fitzpatrick in the Post-Gazette:

If US Airways files for bankruptcy in less than a month, airline chairman David Bronner predicts that no one, including himself, will be willing to rescue the nation's seventh-largest carrier from oblivion.

In the last 30 days, Bronner said only one investor has contacted him about a bankrupt US Airways -- and that was a foreign player interested only in the leftover piece of an airline that employs 28,000 people, including about 8,000 in the Pittsburgh area. "They don't want the whole thing," he said.

And what would save US Airways? More concessions, according to Bronner: About $800 million this time.

We've heard this song before. So have the employees, who have been granting concessions for years. The airline is leaking great, big gobs of red ink all over tarmacs from here to Orlando, and the employees have to keep giving up salaries, benefits and pensions, the management insists.

But that hasn't stopped several generations of US Airways executives from mucking around, screwing things up, and then leaving with generous, multi-million dollar golden parachutes after a year or two --- most recently, David Siegel and Neal Cohen.

I hate to see anyone lose a job --- particularly a good job, like the jobs that airlines can provide. It's easy to conclude, however, that US Airways is hopelessly screwed up, and that it's time to take it out behind the hangar and do the merciful thing, to save everyone --- creditors, passengers and employees --- any more suffering. The sooner that happens, the sooner we all can get on with our lives.

The Post-Gazette has come to the same conclusion: "US Airways is a loser. We aren't. Let's stop wasting our time pretending we need them."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

...

I didn't make it to the Village last night, because I was otherwise engaged until after 8 p.m. My mouth is watering for bacon bread and baklava, however, and I haven't heard a good csardas since this time last year.

Alert Reader John met WDUQ's Len Hendry at the Village last night (not surprising, because Hendry lives in White Oak):

I spied him in the crowd after he was introduced on stage, and after I had some sweet potato pie, my wife and I walked to where he and his wife were sitting. I introduced us, and he was honestly shocked to see "such young fans." He's really a likeable guy. ...

"Let's Dance" is quite possibly the best radio show EVER, certainly a local treasure that doesn't get nearly enough attention. If he ever mentions the encounter on his next show, I'd be thrilled.

"Let's Dance," a program of big-band and light jazz music that Hendry conducts on Saturday evenings, is wonderful. Musically, I prefer Mike Plaskett and Ken Crawford's "Rhythm, Sweet and Hot," which follows Hendry's show, but I like "Let's Dance," too. It's happy music that never fails to put me in a good mood.

Also, I agree with John's assessment of Hendry. I've met him once and talked to him on the phone, and I found him to be friendly and charming.

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To find the anti-thesis of Len Hendry, we need look no further than Craig Kilborn.

Kilborn has walked off of CBS' "Late, Late Show" in an apparent salary dispute, reports Long Island Newsday, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, among other outlets.

Oh, no! Whatever shall I do? Where will I get my daily supply of crappy self-indulgent preening and unfunny hipster in-jokes?

Feh. Good riddance. Don't let the door hit you in the butt.

Phil Rosenthal's take in the Sun-Times is truly a hoot:

Even by the standards of TV vanity, Kilborn was considered a standout in his five-plus years at CBS. Besides mirrors on the wall, there were hand mirrors always at the ready, and a swivel mirror on Kilborn's office desk he was said to have tilted -- not subtly enough -- to catch his own reflection whenever bored with whatever blah, blah, blah he was being told.

Alert Reader Dan attended a Kilborn taping in L.A. last year (mainly because tickets to the better shows were all snapped up). He says the studio audience sat in stony silence for much of the show, except when they were told to respond.

I know I've sat in stony silence while watching Kilborn, right up until the point I've changed the channel (my record at watching Kilborn is about three minutes) or fallen asleep.

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Anarchists and self-centered leftist misanthropes make my rear-end tired. Salon reports on worries by Democrats that far-left groups who want to disrupt the Republican National Convention this month will play into the hands of the Republican Party:

Such thinking makes sense only to those who are worried about alienating American voters. Liberals are, but many anti-RNC activists defiantly are not. Ironically, despite being motivated by a ferocious hatred of George Bush, some of those planning direct-action protests against the convention have grown so disillusioned with electoral politics that they barely seem to care whether he's defeated in November.

Getting Bush out of the White House "is an aesthetic thing -- I won't have to look at him anymore," says the A31 Coalition's David Graeber, explaining his mild preference for Kerry. A 43-year-old anthropology instructor at Yale, Graeber, who lives in Chelsea, says, "Maybe I'll vote for Kerry, maybe I won't."

Maybe I'm glad I didn't go to Yale. Not that there was a lot of chance of that, admittedly, but if that's what passes for logical thought up in New Haven, then it was no big loss.

Meanwhile, Alert Reader Jonathan pointed out this story from the New York Times about discounts being offered to "peaceful protesters" who agree not to riot. As if $2 off of an ice cream cone is going to keep some self-styled nihilist from tossing a brick through the windows of a Starbucks.

Didn't anyone in New York's tourism office think this through? They're offering consumer discounts to people whose major pet peeve is the influence of "big corporations" and "consumerism" on society.

On the other hand, it's oddly appropriate; for the past 20 years, pop culture has taught us that the only thing important is our own personal gratification. When terrorists launch a brutal attack on our country, the President of the United States doesn't call on us to sacrifice; he urges us to go shopping. We want what we want, now, and to hell with anyone else.

Why should we be surprised when some nitwit professor from Yale doesn't care who gets elected, as long as he has a right to act like a brain-dead yobbo?

Gee, I turned into Mike Royko there for a minute. Sorry about that.