This summer’s rowing regatta schedule for Ireland’s South West Coast Yawl Rowing Association in West Cork:

21 June
Kilmacsimon SRC

22 June
Rosscarbery RC

6 July
Myross RC, Union Hall, Co. Cork

13 July
Sherkin Island Regatta (or 3 Aug)

20 July
Castletownshend RC

27 July
Cork County Finals, Cuskinny, Cobh

3 August
Sherkin Island Regatta (or 13 July)

4 August
Baltimore Regatta

10 August
Schull RC

17 August
Glandore Regatta

30 August
Ring RC

As far as New Yorkers are concerned, Delta has all the bases covered, from 34th Street to Paris with Los Angeles and Madrid on the crosstown local, making all stops.

There’s a new Zagat survey out about airlines. The quotes, I think, are the best part: “First they make you need a drink, then charge you for it.”or “The legroom is great if you’re a yard gnome.”

The survey itself — initially only available to contributors, I think, is less interesting. Airplane food is bad. Midwest and Jet Blue did the best among domestic airlines and Continental among legacy carriers, while Singapore, Emirates, and Cathay Pacific were the best internationally. International travel is nicer than domestic US travel. And so forth; all obvious to the point of being barely worth stating. The centerpiece of the survey, really, was how terrible air travel is in the US.

I travel a lot; this week, for example, my wife pointed out to me that I was on an airplane every day of the week. She said this as we were standing in a jetway, waiting to board yet another flight. My lame response: “Not Tuesday!”

I don’t like to do this kind of travel, but I have to admit that the complaining about how bad air travel in the US is seems to me to be a bit off-base. There seems to be a collective memory of a glamorous era of air travel that the current reality cannot live up to, and so the latter is a failure in comparison to the former. The airline industry offers people cheap transport so that we can do things like go to weddings in San Francisco for the day or commute to projects on the east coast from southern California. So, yeah, air travel sucks, but I think it’s a bit naive to wish for some imaginary past when travelling great distances was rare and expensive.

I have a friend who commutes from LAX to Singapore on Singapore Airlines. He flies business class. He really likes it. They treat him well. They charge him $11,000. Eleven grand. I hope they treat him well.

Plus, I’m unconvinced that it’s really so terrible back here in the states. I get delayed a lot, like everyone else, but I usually make it to my destination and as long as I can remain calm, the overall impact is pretty minimal. Like Arthur Dent, the first rule is to not panic.

I fly out of a regional airport, Ontario (ONT) in southern California and even with traffic and parking and security lines I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll go from driveway to gate in under an hour. This weekend we did it in 35 minutes. What, exactly, would be an improvement on that? I can go anywhere in the world from one hop to a hub, in my case SLC or Atlanta.

I think a lot of the complaining about US airlines is from people who travel infrequently and are intimidated and grossed out by the system. Maybe I’m just inured to the horrors, but it really doesn’t seem so bad to me. I fly Delta, certainly not the cream of the crop, but they really take care of me and I feel like most of my encounters with Delta people are pleasant and professional. Sure, they have tough jobs, but they also have grace under that pressure and I’ve had more kindness and generosity than hostility and mean-spiritedness. Seriously.

Now I’m really looking forward to my next flight, a red-eye to Newark that is guaranteed to be oversold and delayed and for which I will be blessed with a middle seat.

Photo by Jane Herndon