by Paul Riegler

The New York Botanical Garden, located at Bronx Park, is dedicated to the collection, cultivation, and display of a wide range of plants along with their botanical names.  That’s just part of its mission since it first opened in 1891.  The other aspect of its mission is to support the arts and the Botanical Garden’s latest exhibition, “Cosmic Nature” by Yayoi Kusama, is masterfully integrated into the 250-acre (100-hectare) site.
Yayoi …

New York City’s Hotel Pennsylvania to be Demolished, Fate of Famous Phone Number Remains Unknown

by Jesse Sokolow

Glenn Miller fans take heed! The Hotel Pennsylvania, the fourth largest hotel in New York City that closed temporarily amidst the coronavirus-pandemic induced decline in visitors to the Big Apple, is slated to be demolished. Its owner, Vornado Realty Trust, in its annual letter to shareholders, revealed the news.
Over the course of decades, many big band names, including the Glenn Miller Orchestra, performed in the Hotel Pennsylvania’s massive Café Rouge.  …

The Case of the Low Hanging Fruit: Why Achieving Herd Immunity Will Take Time, If It Happens at All

by Jonathan Spira

The good news is that 50% of Americans are vaccinated, the bad news is that getting the rest to roll up their sleeves may be impossible.
An astounding figure, almost 50% of Americans – over 114 million – have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine since inoculations began in December of last year, a figure bested only by a few countries, including Israel and the United Kingdom.
The vaccination …

Air Travel is Roaring Back, But Many Doors Remain Closed to Visitors

by Anna Breuer

The year 2021 is not only the first year of the decade some choose to refer to as the Roaring Twenties but it also marks the year when travel began to recover with significant force.
Data from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration from this weekend shows that travel continues the high level it reached during the Passover/Easter holiday break.
The number of travelers who traversed the nation’s airport security checkpoints on Sunday …

April News Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of the Past Month’s Headlines

by Paul Riegler

Find out how up-to-date you are with travel and aviation news from the past month. Take our travel news quiz and you could win a piece of airline and travel history including items from Pan Am, TWA, Holiday Inn, and other travel companies.
In last month’s quiz, the question about the name of the CEO of Marriot who recently and sadly died of pancreatic cancer (the answer was Arne Sorensen) had …

One Quarter of All Adults in the U.S. Now Fully Vaccinated Against Covid

by Anna Breuer

Just four months after the start of coronavirus vaccine inoculations in December of last year, the United States reached an important milestone on Thursday: Over 25% – 25.6% to be exact – of adults 18 years of age or older have been fully vaccinated.
The news represents an increase of four percentage points in one week, representing 11.65 million people.
Of equal import, over 112 million Americans – or one third of …

Review and Test Drive: The 2021 Volvo 90 Series – Volvo S90 and XC90 Recharge T8 eAWD Inscription

by Jonathan Spira

We were as excited as a group of auto writer can be when we welcomed the first of the Volvo 90 Series vehicles – a 2016 Volvo XC90 T6 AWD R-Design – into our short-term press fleet in the spring of 2016.  That was followed – in the winter of 2017 – with the arrival of a 2017 model year Volvo S90 T6 sedan and a trip to drive the …

With $80 Billion, Amtrak Wants to Be a Better Alternative to Flying and Driving

by Kurt Stolz

 
Amtrak, which is receiving $80 billion as part of President Joseph Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package, released a 14-year plan detailing how it plans to modernize rail service in the United States, and it’s clear that the railroad wants travelers to consider it when planning short flights as well as long drives.
The plan calls for dozens of new routes as well as for the modernization of existing routes, many of …