Those We Meet Along the Way

September 7, 2010

Although the earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand over the weekend was as intense as the Haiti quake earlier this year, it’s not going to headline newscasts every day as did the Haitian tragedy because there was no loss of life and few injuries. The saving grace was New Zealand’s stringent building codes, something Haiti lacks.

But the news got me thinking of the time I spent in New Zealand many years ago as a magazine photographer and writer.

Wandering around Christchurch I came across a group of boys in a schoolyard. I grabbed a quick shot and months later the photo appeared on the cover of the now defunct Pan AM Clipper inflight magazine and in other publications.

Yesterday I started thinking about those boys. They’d all be grown now, probably with families of their own. I wonder if any of them still live in Christchurch, and if any of them or their children were affected by the quake.

We all travel and bring home memories of the places and people we see along the way. But what about the other side of the equation? Do those we see along the way — the schoolboys, waiters, shopkeepers and people on the street — do they remember us?

I would imagine that many of the thousands of people I’ve spoken with all over the world remember me in some way. After all, that’s only human nature. But I couldn’t help wonder if I ever had an impact on anyone’s life.

But then I remembered one person whose life I may have impacted. I can’t remember his name now, but he sold tin whistles along the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

I had photographed him one time and then, several years later, came across him in the exact same spot still tooting his tin whistle there above the Irish Sea. We stood and spoke for a while and he excitedly told me that his daughter in Chicago had sent some pages from a Sears catalogue that showed him playing and plying his little creations.

I then told him a bit about American law. Since he had never given his permission to have his photos used in advertising, I told him, he should write Sears that he wanted to be paid for the use of his image or he’d be contacting his solicitor.

Remembering the smile that quickly came to those Irish eyes, I think I may have had impact on at least one person’s life.

Jim Ferri

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Are the Brits Going Bonkers?

September 2, 2010

Has someone put something into the beer in Britain?

I’m beginning to wonder because of two news articles I read recently.

The first, in the UK newspaper the Telegraph, revealed that the staff of the British hotel chain Travelodge had reunited more than 75,000 teddy bears with their owners over the past year.
75,000? It seemed odd that so many kids would lose their teddies when on holiday with Mum and Dad.

But guess what — the chain found it wasn’t kids who were losing their teddies, it was adults.

After taking calls from a large number of “frantic businessmen and women” phoning about forgotten teddies, the chain surveyed 6,000 Britons about the matter and found that more than half of Brits still have their teddy bear from childhood. It seems that British adults feel sleeping with a teddy is a “comforting and calming” way to end the day.

But what really caught my eye was that 25% of British businessmen said they took their teddy away with them on business trips because it reminded them of home. If that ever catches on in the USA it could put the blow-up doll people out of business.

Next I saw the newscasts and read the reports about British Airways apologizing to 275 exceptionally terrified passengers on a London to Hong Kong flight after an automated emergency warning mistakenly told them they were about to crash into the sea.

An automated warning? You’re going to die and they can’t even tell you in person? Oh, maybe it’s an added fee for that service.

A spokesman for British Airways said an investigation was under way to discover whether it was human error or a computer glitch, adding “our cabin crew immediately made an announcement following the message advising customers that it was an error and that the flight would continue as normal.”

But not before 63 businessmen had dived into their carry-ons looking for teddy.

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What Wine, Condoms and Gold Have in Common

August 18, 2010

Remember when vending machines only dispersed candy, cigarettes, newspapers and soda? I know, that sounds so-o-o-o 20th Century.

But today’s traveler knows he/she can get all sorts of things from vending machines. Just look at how companies like Best Buy and Sony have begun transforming purchasing habits at many airports.

This all came to mind the other day after I read an article about wine vending machines being tested in two stores in Pennsylvania.

To buy a bottle you insert your driver’s license into a kiosk. It then reads your age from the license bar code on the license and matches your photo to a video it takes of you. Apparently your screen test is viewed remotely by some magic corkscrew over at the Liquor Control Board who also ensures you use the built-in Breathalyzer to detect whether you already have half a load on.

Despite PA winos now being given a step-up, those who travel a lot know that other countries are far ahead of us in the vending business.

In Europe, for example, public toilets have long displayed condom and personal-hygiene product dispensers on their walls, all certainly placed there decades ago by sex-crazed Frenchmen.

Not wanting to be outdone, however, the Japanese started vending designer condoms. One of these vending machines dispenses a product called “United Colors of Benetton,” which is marketed to the Japanese as an effort to comfort lonely Italian businessmen.

With an estimated one vending machine for every 20 people in the country, the Japanese vend just about everything you can think of — eggs, umbrellas, porn, fishing bait, toilet paper, you name it.

Despite Japanese entrepreneurs forging the mother lode of vending machines, it’s a German businessman named Thomas Geissler who produced the mother of all machines — one that dispenses gold.

Geissler started test-marketing his gold-dispensing kiosks in Germany last year but they only became well known when he installed one in the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi a few months ago.

There an upscale hotelier — looking for a bit more Gulf glitz, of course — was able to rise above his competitors with the cash-for-gold attraction in the lobby.

Jim Ferri

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