ALASKA CRUISING HITS A 7-YEAR HIGH (Associated Press)
Alaska is hot!
CARNEGIE DELI, A NEW YORK CITY DINING LANDMARK, TO CLOSE (Eater New York)
New York City's world-famous Carnegie Deli survived nearly eight decades. But it won't survive its current owner.
Alaska is hot!
Increased demand has put cruises to America's northernmost state on the boil again. This summer, reports the Associated Press, the millionth passenger cruised to Alaska, the first time the industry has hit that milestone since 2009.
As the recession becomes a memory, as tourists grow wary of the Mediterranean, and as Zika grows as a concern, Alaska is well-positioned to grow even more.
According to the Cruise Lines International Association Alaska, the 2017 season is expected to yield 45,000 additional passengers than even this season as the number of available sailings increases from 477 to 481 and the ships scheduled to ply Alaska itineraries will be larger than the ones that sailed this year.
Overall, the state received more than 2 million visitors in 2015, meaning cruise passengers now account for about half of all its guests.
Holland America alone operates seven ships in Alaska, and two of them will be replaced by larger vessels to accommodate demand.
CARNEGIE DELI, A NEW YORK CITY DINING LANDMARK, TO CLOSE (Eater New York)
New York City's world-famous Carnegie Deli survived nearly eight decades. But it won't survive its current owner.
The deli, which opened its doors in 1937, had been having a rough go of things lately. It closed for a year in 2015 following the discovery of an illegal gas hookup. Staffers filed a lawsuit over wages. And a backroom soap opera unfolded in the gossip pages when it was alleged the owner cheated on his wife with a waitress, whom he allegedly helped open a fake Carnegie Deli in Thailand.
In the end, the owner blamed the grind of running a restaurant. Now, tourists will no longer be able to pay $20 for a pastrami sandwich or $3 to share it as one more great Jewish institution in New York kicks the knish. It's closing at the end of December.
It may be just as well. The Carnegie, conveniently located near Times Square, may have been an icon of the tourist circuit, but not all New Yorkers thought it deserved to be. Some people even called it a tourist trap. Our own Frommer's review recommends it somewhat grudgingly, acknowledging you'd have to overlook "surly service, tourist-targeted overpricing, and elbow-to-elbow seating" if you want to try its home-smoked meats. Its main rival in the district, which also opened in 1937, blintzed out in 2012.
The Carnegie also featured prominently in Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose, misleading a fair number of out-of-towners to mistakenly think it was also the setting of the "I'll have what she's having" scene in When Harry Met Sally. That historic deli, though, is still with us: It's Katz's Delicatessen downtown on Houston Street, where a pastrami sandwich will also set you back $20, but which has been in business since 1888.
Still, the loss of heritage is hardly chopped liver. It's hard to say goodbye to any irreplaceable institution—to say nothing of that iconic plastic sign.
Credit: ScenePast
TERRIBLE PERSON VANDALIZES DEATH VALLEY (SFGate.com)
Some awful human being has defaced a precious and panoramic dry lake bed in Californian’s Death Valley National Park by taking a swerving, 10-mile joyride across the thin crust of the delicate formation.
TERRIBLE PERSON VANDALIZES DEATH VALLEY (SFGate.com)
Some awful human being has defaced a precious and panoramic dry lake bed in Californian’s Death Valley National Park by taking a swerving, 10-mile joyride across the thin crust of the delicate formation.
The thoughtless vandal took the name of the feature, the Racetrack, seriously and used it as their personal off-road playground. A witness reported it while it was happening, and federal investigators say they have a suspect in mind and expect to press criminal charges.
A park spokesman said the damage was the worst that’s ever been seen in this location. Tire track scars remain for years and can only be diminished somewhat by rain—in an area that is one of the driest on the planet, which typically means two inches or less in an entire year.
The Racetrack is home to the mysterious and world-famous “moving rocks,” which are large stones that slowly drag their way across the plain because of the effects of the elements. Tire tracks create indentations that obstruct the paths of the rocks.
It’s been a tough year for horrible tourists and the U.S.’s nature reserves. Last spring, actress Vanessa Hudgens agreed to pay a $1,000 fine after scratching a valentine into a rock at Sedona National Forest. Last month, a video appeared to show a few anti-social showboaters knocking over a landmark stone formation in Oregon for their own amusement. In May, a braggart social media outfit called High on Life fled the country after it trespassed on the edge of Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Spring for a potentially fatal YouTube stunt.
Members of High on Life, which was accused of a federal offense for the Yellowstone stunt (a hearing is reportedly scheduled in November), have also been cited for a flurry of other forbidden and selfish activities in U.S. national parks, including flying a drone in Mesa Verde, water-skiing in Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats, and riding bicycles in unauthorized areas of Death Valley.
The group made it easy for federal investigators to make their case: It had posted images and videos of their exploits on social media.