by Kurt Stolz

A major difference between the Covid-19 outbreak and the Spanish Flu or Black Plague beyond the increase in the literacy rate is that, despite quarantines, lockdowns, and self-isolation, one does not have to sit home reading the Bible.
Today, thanks to the Internet, there are thousands of books readily available that open a whole new world to a reader’s eyes.
Indeed, today’s online world is resembling what was set forth in Neal …

Study Urges Large Companies to Tell Employees to Stay Home but Dress to the Nines for Online Meetings

by Paul Riegler

IN THE ETHER, April 1 — On the opening day of its annual meeting, this year held online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Service Society of Corporate Ambulatory Managers, or ASSCAM, announced findings of a research report that underscored similar research from three years earlier, namely that its members should encourage their employees to stay home and use videoconferencing.
The group officially returned to Hell, a village in the …

Great Moments in Travel History – April 2020

by Jesse Sokolow

A year from now, the “Great Moments” monthly feature will presumably include multiple mentions of the various shutdowns and, one can only hope, some of the restarts of the Coronavirus Age.
Still, the month of April is commonly associated with spring and rain, as in the saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” The month is also associated with two major religious holidays that result in one of the busiest travel seasons …

Theater Review: ‘Amadeus’ at Syracuse Stage via Webstream, A Study in Envy

by Jonathan Spira

When Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” came to the stage, first in 1979 at the National Theater in London and in 1980 at the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway with Ian McKellar, Tim Curry, and Jane Seymour, it took the world by storm. It was a play infused with and about music, yet it wasn’t a musical, a play with murder and intrigue, yet it wasn’t a whodunit.
Syracuse Stage’s brilliant production …

U.S. Airlines Prepare for a Turbulent Future

by Paul Riegler

At first glance, it sounds like good news. Congress passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill and promised the airline industry $50 billion in aid.
The $2 trillion economic stimulus act passed by Congress this week will unquestionably prevent a wave of layoffs but it won’t stave off permanent changes in how the industry will operate going forward. The aid will arrive in the form of up to $25 billion in payroll …

Summer Time for 2020 Begins Sunday in European Union: Will Anyone Notice?

by Kurt Stolz

For what may be one of the last times, clocks in the European Union will change on Sunday at 1 a.m. GMT. At that time, which is 2 a.m. in Central Europe, clocks should be set ahead by one hour.
But for Britain and the Continent, in the grip of severe coronavirus-induced lockdowns, a different question emerges: will anyone notice, and will anyone care?
A few might even ask, what is the point, …

Who Will Benefit from the $2 Trillion Coronavirus Economic Stimulus Bill?

by Anna Breuer

Although it awaits passage in the House of Representatives, the White House and Senate finally agreed on a $2 trillion economic stimulus and rescue act late Wednesday.
The bill represents the largest package of its kind in the country’s 244-year history and is a response to the novel coronavirus pandemic that has shut down much of the economy in the United States and crippled the world’s economy.
Here’s what the rescue package …

World’s Happiest Country is (Once Again) Finland – But What Does This Mean in an Age of Coronavirus

by Jonathan Spira

In the midst of a pandemic, the idea of the world’s happiest country takes on new meaning.
If anything, the criteria the creators of the rating system used in the World Happiness Report, prepared by the United Nations, are even more relevant in the age of the coronavirus, with considerations that include the social safety net and other support systems a country has in place before trouble strikes.
Perhaps not to anyone’s …