Reminiscences – Page 5 – GEORGE ROTHERT

What Pan Am Did for/to Us

Wonder why Spirit Airlines charged you $26 for your carry-on bag one time but $45 on another flight? It’s called dynamic pricing, constant adjustment of prices based on demand, in general and, more specifically, what their algorithms determine is how badly you want to buy it.

It’s also why if you check flight prices for a particular itinerary and come back a couple days later to discover the fare has gone up. The airline remembers you — think “cookies” — and it will likely cost more the next time you check. They want you to decide you’d better buy now, before the price goes up more.

But what does all this have to do with Pan Am?

Eat Like a Gangster

Las Vegas is ever mindful of its history. In the works right now is a ten-million-dollar renovation of the the storied Flamingo Hotel’s recently-closed steakhouse. Set to open in the spring of 2020, the swanky new eatery will be named “Bugsy & Meyer’s Steakhouse,” an homage to the Flamingo’s developers and founding fathers of modern-day Las Vegas, Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky.

Promoters say Bugsy & Meyer’s will be an ode to old-school Vegas, serving dry-aged prime beef and classic cocktails. “We want our guests to feel like they’ve traveled back in time,” a spokesperson says. (In a nod to the twenty-first century, there will also be a vegan menu.) Inside the establishment will be a super-exclusive “Count Room,” door accessible to the privileged few through an unmarked. It will feature its own secret menu. (Hey, “secret menu” works for In-N-Out Burger.)

[Personal favorite: check out the Downtown Cocktail Room on the edge of the original Las Vegas Strip.]

Christmas Football – 1914

Five months – a million deaths – into the Great War, the warring armies had settled into the deadly stalemate of trench combat. Bodies littered the No Man’s Land between the opposing trenches; any attempt to retrieve a fallen comrade was likely to be fatal. Modern weaponry, machine guns, artillery, chlorine and mustard gas all made for carnage as never before. The troops hunkered down in the muck and filth; even raising a head above the trough would present an inviting target for a sniper’s bullet from the facing trench.

On the cold and dank Christmas Eve, 1914, Allied troops heard Christmas carols wafting over from the German trenches. The British soldiers answered with songs of their own. In some areas, the trenches were as close as a hundred feet to one another. In places, German soldiers put up decorated trees on their parapets.

Christmas with Colonel Sanders

Eating fried chicken every year “is what makes Christmas, Christmas.”

Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity — all are active in Japan. But something less than one percent — that’s < 1% — of the Japanese population profess to be Christian. That doesn’t prevent them from celebrating Christmas, and gathering around the table for the traditional holiday repast.

For many in Japan, Christmas dinner is cole slaw, shrimp gratin, triple-berry tiramisu cake and chicken. Not just any chicken, though, but Kentucky Fried Chicken. People line up at their closest KFC on Christmas Eve at for their “Party Barrel,” ordered in advance. KFC Japan does a third of its business at Christmas time.

Something New to Worry About

I lived twenty-plus years in Sonoma County California, Santa Rosa, to be exact. As an emigrant from Oregon, I eventually realized that a crack in the wall or a sticking — and later unsticking — door was the normal. Earthquakes occur literally every day; most are felt only by scientific seismic equipment. In my two decades I felt only several. The most severe woke me early one morning in 2014. That one did most of its damage to the town of Napa, about thirty-five miles away.

Santa Rosa lies just east of the San Andreas Fault line (magnitude 7.6 in 1906 and) and right on top of the Hayward/Rodgers Creek Fault system (magnitude 5.6 and 5.7 in 1969). San Andreas follows the west — SanFrancisco — side of San Francisco Bay; Hayward/Rodgers Creek the east — Oakland — side of the Bay.

Greatest Christmas Album Ever

What is the best Christmas music ever recorded?
(Bonus points for finding the misspelled word.)