It’s January 27th, and it’s 50 degrees in the CT/NY/Long Island world… this winter has been quite easy on the heating bills AND I wonder if there have been fewer trips booked to warm weather escapes…
I hate open questions like that. I should just get my brain off it’s lazy ganglia and call Jackie, my travel agent and find out the answer. I still have a travel agent. I haven’t gone anywhere lately, but I have a travel agent.
So, I just called Jackie. I told her I need to find out if bookings were down because of our freakishly warm winter. She was on another call, so I kept talking so she couldn’t put me on hold or hang up. I hate it when people keep talking so you can’t tell them to hold on, but I just did it to her. I wanted to know.
Jackie said just what I DIDN’T expect. Things at the travel agency ARE BUSIER. She is booking a lot of honeymoons, and a lot of trips to Europe.
Good for her, but dammit… I hate being wrong. So I kept asking questions even though her original caller was on hold. I always keep asking until I get some kind of an answer that agrees with my original hypothesis. What about trips to the warm weather climates? Yes, she said… she’s been booking a lot of trips to the Caribbean. I asked her if trips to Florida were down, and she said, yes, Florida trips were down. AH-HA… I was right! I said thanks and told her I had another call and had to run and hung up the phone.
So, there you have it… trips to Florida are down because of the warm weather. Or the economy. Or something. That’s why I like having a travel agent. You can’t just call up the internet and ask questions like that. If you call up Priceline from a parking lot in Orlando at 3:45 in the morning, you get robot voice mail, not a travel agent who will make arrangements to have a cab show up with some clothing and directions to your hotel and bail money if you need it.
Oh, and if you want to book a trip, even to Florida (maybe there are some bargains because trips are down), Jackie owns Travel Center in Milford… 203-877-3206.
THE VOICE will have his predictions here soon… apparently there was a problem this morning with his new automatic doors at the Prognosticator Grill and Cafe… I’m not sure what the problem was, but Carl the Bartender will now be called “Lefty” and not because he is a southpaw pitcher…
ONE MORE THING… I’ll be doing my first real shift as a news anchor tomorrow afternoon at FM News New York 101.9fm from 1 til 8pm… if you can’t get it on your radio, their website is www.FMNewsNewYork.com… and thanks for listening… -Brian
BRIAN SMITH is the same Brian Smith of SMITH AND BARBER, THE MORNING SHOW on WPLR… his solo afternoon talk show on WICC 600AM, and host announcer for the Bridgeport Bluefish baseball and the Fairfield University Stags basketball games at Harbor Yard… and now part of the team at FM NEWS NEW YORK 101.9FM… you can email him at:
