Virgin America -- Now Flying from DFW

I heard a radio interview of Sir Richard Branson today.*

He's the British guy that owns everything that Mark Cuban and Bill Gates don't own. He's also the guy who's financing and developing space travel for anybody who has the $200,000 for a ticket. Peanuts included in price.

Branson's in town promoting the launch of Virgin America Airlines, which, as of today, is flying out of DFW to San Francisco and Los Angeles. His vision for flying is simple: "make flying good again."

All I can say is good luck. Air travel is cheap, but it's more about endurance than enjoyment these days.

American Airlines controls more than 85% of flights out of DFW, and as much as I appreciate what they do for the area, I believe we need the kind of competition that Virgin America will bring. DFW airport must agree, they offered Virgin America $2 million in incentives to enter this market.

The options are limited for now. Virgin will have two flights daily to San Francisco and two flights to Los Angeles.

Read more about Virgin America in the Star Telegram: http://www.star-telegram.com 

Virgin America website

* yes, on the Ticket's  Hardline.

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Fireside Pies. Well . . .

This is a tough one.

We got off to a bad start. Our seating was a booth placed too close to a table of eight. My instinct was to ask for a different table but I didn't. My instinct was right because our server forgot to put in our pizza order. Our pizzas arrived twenty minutes after we had eaten our salads and appetizers. Too long.

But people make mistakes and I can deal with a lot when the food is good. So, let's talk about the food:

We ordered an appetizer: meatballs with marinara sauce. Five very small meatballs with a steamy, just-right tomato gravy (that's Philadelphia for spaghetti sauce). Really delicious, but they could be called meat-dots.

Salads: good, cold, fresh lettuce and other leafy vegetables.

Pizza: The pizza is Italy-style, not New York style. The crust is like Il Cane Rasso or Cavalli's. I liked it. Crispy crust, tasty, nice sauce and cheese. Baked in big 550 degree ovens.

Now the tricky part because I want to be fair to Fireside Pies.

Fireside Pies is a very good looking restaurant and bar. Beautiful woods, nicely finished, comfortable seating, Big cylinder-shaped pizza stoves. It's an attractive place to eat and the vibe is upscale pizza. It's a place for the younger business crowd to drink, talk, and enjoy good pizza. If that's what you are looking for I can understand going to Fireside Pies. But for me it's an expensive pizza restaurant.

The pizzas are in the $13 - $14 range, the salads in the $12 - $13 range, and the appetizers, $8 - $15. There were four of us in our party. We ordered one appetizer, two pizzas and two salads -- our server suggested that the salads and pizzas could be shared. But, we discovered, the pizzas are small for two people, especially at $14 a pie. Our bill was $64, without tip and without beer or wine. That's not bad for four people, but considering two of the party left hungry, I think it's expensive.

Put it this way, take off the appetizer, add a 20% tip and you're at $17.00 a person for a smallish portion of pizza and salad, and an iced tea.

Fortunately, any evening Marian and I have with our son, his wife, and their daughter is a good night for me. Maybe I'm just a cheapskate. If you have been to Fireside Pies, please comment.

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I rank the quality of the pizza in the  restaurants that serve this style of pizza, thusly: Cavalli's in Irving, Il Cane Rosso at Times Ten Cellars, Fireside Pies, and finally, Patizio's at 7th across from Fireside Pies.

There are five Fireside Pies in the DFW area, including one in Fort Worth, and one in Grapevine.

Fireside Pies website
Fireside Pies - Fort Worth
2949 Crockett
Fort Worth, TX  76107

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1st Sunday of Advent.

Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Caravaggio / 1595
Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome

Advent is the beginning of the Christian calendar for the Western Church. It starts four Sundays before Christmas Day, so the first Sunday of Advent is not a fixed date. The word Advent is from the Latin adventus and means coming and commemorates the coming of the Messiah and the parousia or the Second Coming of the Messiah.

In the United States it is common to refer to the "Christmas season" as the time between Thanksgiving and the New Year, but the Advent season and the Christmas season are distinct in the Church and have distinct liturgies, hymns, and rubrics. The traditional hymns of the Advent season testify to the expected coming of the Christ child, and the Christmas season, of his joyful arrival.

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"The scene, in the early Caravaggio painting, is based not on any incident in the Bible itself, but on a body of tales or legends that had grown up in the early Middle Ages around the Bible story of the Holy Family fleeing into Egypt for refuge on being warned that Herod the Great was seeking to kill the Christ Child. According to the legend, Joseph and Mary stopped on the flight in a grove of trees." Wikipedia.

Fort Worth Parade of Lights. 2010.

Don't forget the annual Parade of Lights downtown. Friday night, November 26, 2010. And the lighting of the Christmas tree at 3rd Street.

For parade details, including the schedule of afternoon activities: Fortworthparadeoflights.org

From the Parade website:

The Sundance Square Christmas Tree will be illuminated following the Chesapeake Energy Parade of Lights presented by CHASE, at approximately 7:38 PM on November 26, 2010.  

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Happy Thanksgiving, 2010. And thank you for stopping by and contributing your thoughts to these pages.

Every Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving Day, for over 40 years, the Wall Street Journal has reprinted two essays on its editorial page. The first essay, "The Desolate Wilderness," is a brief chronicle based on William Bradford's account of the Pilgrim settlement.

The second essay, "And the Fair Land," reminds us to remember our good fortune in a world not often so blessed.

I'm not sure that we can exorcise the cynicism that is a part of the age in which we live, at least I can't seem to, but I do think, especially on Thanksgiving Day, we can remember that we have much for which to be thankful. Like the Pilgrim standing on the Plymouth Rock, Americans still look hopefully towards the wilderness. That's just the way we are.

The following are excerpts from the Wall Street Journal essays. Links are provided if you desire to read the entire essay (both are short):

--------------The Desolate Wilderness -------------

Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof: So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leyden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.

To read the balance of the editorial: http://online.wsj.com/article
  

 ------------ And the Fair Land -----------

Any one whose labors take him into the far reaches of the country, as ours lately have done, is bound to mark how the years have made the land grow fruitful. This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America.

And a traveler cannot but be struck on his journey by the thought that this country, one day, can be even greater. America, though many know it not, is one of the great underdeveloped countries of the world; what it reaches for exceeds by far what it has grasped. So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere.

To read the balance of the editorial: ttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB119

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