Travel writing curmudgeon Arthur Frommer is celebrating his 1,000 blog update today by announcing that he's paring back on posting. Given his description of what it does to him, we can't blame the guy:
Back in May of 2007, I began this daily blog about travel and soon turned into a creature of bloodshot eyes and an exhausted, shuffling walk. Gone were the days when I could turn in around 11 pm and put myself out with a relaxing mystery novel.
Our two "favorite" things about his blog are the epically long titles on posts and the lack of linkage Frommer hands out. But you gotta admire a titan in the industry who cranks out his own stuff. (You are writing these yourself, aren't you, Arthur?)
In honor of his accomplishment, we took a look back at some of his more memorable posts.
There's an old saying in newsrooms that three is a trend. And if that's the case, user-generated travel content has officially arrived. What started with Budget Travel's reader-written issue then turned into planning the Frugal Traveler's itinerary. Now Janelle Nanos from National Geographic Traveler wants your travel tips.
The editor of the magazine's Intellegent Travel blog is headed to Seattle and San Francisco and is asking readers for tips:
You guys get to decide where I'll go and here's the deal: I want you to show me. I'm going to be in Seattle the weekend of July 18th, and in San Francisco the weekend of the 25th, and I'll be blogging while I'm gone. I'll have my video camera too, and I'd love not only meet our readers, but introduce them to the rest of you.
Here's your chance at travel blog stardom, you budding fameballs!
We're now declaring it officially dead, after two full months of dormancy. (Save one minor update to fix a typo.) Not exactly what we'd call an impressive move into web-centric public relations.
The real question now is why the blog is still online. Does American want to remind people how it canceled more than 1,000 flights in one week this April? Does the airline aspire to look like a bumbling relic from the 20th century? Our free advice to AA: Delete this Blogger account immediately!
Blogger Erin of brieflynoted took a photo of what she believed was an old woman sitting naked in Brooklyn's Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park. No one could have been more surprised when the individual in the picture, a man who claimed to be wearing a yellow thong, found her photo on Flickr and left her a comment.
The subject didn't seem that embarrassed, but we hope our blurry outlines never turn up on the photo sharing site. Makes us long for a nice, prudish beach.
The new Gridskipper launched yesterday, after a few weeks of tinkering, a change of ownership and a change of spring into summer. The verdict? Not too many fans out there.
We actually just got done Windexing our glass house--long weekend coming up, you know--so we don't plan to throw any stones just yet. But, damn, just about everybody else has.
Maybe the updates have stopped because the airline is at work on something a little more substantive? Let's hope so--for AA's sake. There's some serious airline blog competition out there.
After a particular post on Monday, some people accused us of being heartless. As evidence to the contrary, allow us to present Davy and Daryl Vogel, two youngsters planning to bike from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. These kids are cute!
OK, yes, they'll also be biking with their parents, two schoolteachers who will help Davy and Daryl make it to Argentina. Along the way, the twin brothers hope to educate other, less fortunate kids about geography and set a world record as the youngest duo to bike the Pan-American Highway.
Obviously, there's a blog involved. We'll be watching for updates from the road, boys.
After taking a resounding thumping from justabouteveryone, the American Airlines blog is back with its fourth post ever. While it'd be hard to do worse than the corporate doublespeak of post three, the most recent update is, if not inspiring, mildly useful in communicating information.
If you're gonna do the social media-as-PR thing, it's apparently blog first, Facebook application second:
We have recently added a Facebook feature and wanted to hear what you thought about the "American Airlines Travel Bag" application. Our goal is to generate tool that would help customers share their favorite hangouts, restaurants and spots when they travel.
There's a link to the AA website with more info on the application, which proves the airline is starting to get this whole "series of tubes" thing. Maybe soon they'll even dress up the new blog with, you know, something other than the boilerplate Blogger template!
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