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Time.com上讲到越来越多破产的航空公司绞尽脑汁想办法赚钱, 主意渐渐打到一些乘客预料不到的地方, 比如Northwest Airlines开始对Aisle Seat(过道旁的座位)多收$15了, AA开始对它的象猫食一样的花生米收钱了, Air Canada 每个枕头和毛毯要付$2啦, 哎, 真的节省这些能给它们带来巨大的收益吗? 还是更进一步让乘客没了好印象? 航空公司还是多花点时间看看自身企业内部如何开源节流吧.

如果老美的航空公司真的想欧洲一些廉价航空公司一样运营, 降低票价, 飞机的主要目的就是按时安全地将乘客运到目的地, 我是没意见的, 我一向不愿意把”奢侈”花在飞机上, 车上什么的, 不过你要是一面涨机票钱, 一面砍这些微不足道的方便, 难道真的有一天会象这个读者提出的建议那样吗?

Here are some more ideas that would help airlines cut costs:

1. Charge for armrest usage. When you get to your seat, the armrests are locked in the upright position. Want to use them? That’ll be $5 a pop.

2. Charge for the oxygen. Remove all the air from the cabin, and give everyone a mask, which gets an independent oxygen feed. Want to keep breathing? Gotta swipe your credit card every five minutes.

3. Make everyone stand. Put posts in the cabin that people can strap themselves to during takeoff and landing. This way you could increase cabin capacity by at least 50 percent.

4. Better yet, sedate everyone. Then you can stack ‘em like sardines.

偶然读到一篇blog, Argentina On Two Steaks A Day, 怎么翻译? 一天两顿牛排的阿根廷? 总之是介绍阿根廷的吃的, 看的我这个搀啊. 去年冬天网上也好, 身边的朋友也好, 不少人去了阿根廷, 阿根廷印象统一的结论就是阿根廷的牛排加红酒, 真是又便宜有好吃 (可怜的阿根廷经过金融风暴之后货币贬值得和美元只有3:1了), 这篇Blog写得也很逗:

The classic beginner’s mistake in Argentina is to neglect the first steak of the day. You will be tempted to just peck at it or even skip it altogether, rationalizing that you need to save yourself for the much larger steak later that night. But this is a false economy, like refusing to drink water in the early parts of a marathon.

And the cows spend their lives out grazing in the field, not locked into some small pen. You can taste the joy.

文章的最后介绍如果你想去阿根廷而对它的饮食有兴趣的话, 值得看看这本书.
Food And Drink in Argentina