YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING

It's been talked about for some time. And now it appears the apocalypse is upon us.

Yep; Malaysian Airlines is beginning to allow people to use cell phones on some of their flights.

According to Associated Press, the airline has teamed up with a British mobile company to allow blackberries and other pda's and cell phones to be used. It's only on one plane right now (thank God), a single Boeing 777-200 that should carry a giant warning on its side so that unsuspecting folks looking for peace and quiet on a long ride can cancel their ticket before they get on board.

Nothing wrong with using your laptop or your crackberry on a flight. That's not intrusive. But can you imagine a bunch of yahoos, or even normal people like you and me, chattering with friends about their work and their grocery lists and, heaven forbid, their private lives during a long ride to Europe?

I can't imagine anything worse. But it appears I'm in the minority.

NO MORE FREEWAY BLUES?

Here's a good idea, and I'm not simply speaking as a guy who used to trudge regularly from college in Los Angeles to home in suburban San Francisco. At the same time they were approving a measure to ban same-sex marriage in the Golden State (why I don't know, except to say that there are tons of ordinary Republican-types in California), voters were approving a $10 billion bond to build bullet trains to link southern California with the north.

The first phase apparently calls for links between Anaheim-Los Angeles, Fresno and San Francisco. Later, they might add San Diego, Oakland and Sacramento (a town that doesn't get enough credit as a nice place to visit for a couple days).

High-speed rail lines are hugely popular in many parts of the world, of course, including Japan, China and Europe. The Boston-New York-Washington corridor has one but it's pretty pokey compared to the TGV in France or the Japanese trains. Still, at least they're trying.

And hasn't there been a lot of talk of similar lines in Canada? Where, exactly, has the Canadian government been on this issue?

BUMMER OF A SKI LIST

Spotted a list of top-ten North American ski resorts the other day. It was done up by the Houston Chronicle, so it's pretty heavy on Uh-muhr-uh-cun destinations. topping the list was Snowmass in Utah, followed by Breckenridge, Colorado, Beaver Creek, Colorado, Aspen, Colorado (sensing a pattern here?), Vail (yeah, Colorado; was this written by John Denver or something?), Park City, Utah, Steamboat Springs, Colorado (sigh), Deer Valley, Utah and Telluride (Colorado). Whistler-Blackcomb snuck in at the number ten spot, according to a web site called ski.com

On the other hand, Skiing magazine gave Whistler the nod for best apres-ski for 2008-2009.

Following are the rest of the top-ten apres-ski spots:

2. Telluride

3. Breckenridge

4. Vail

5. Park City (even with light beer)

6. Killington, Vermont (score one for eastern North America)

7. Heavenly, California

8. Aspen

9. Steamboat

10. Deer Valley, Utah.

Stunning that Tremblant wouldn't make it to the apres-ski list, isn't it? Then again, this appears to be an American-based list so let's not take it too hard, folks.