Up, Up and Away (in my beautiful naturist airliner)

More news on the recent cancellation of the nude airline flight. 

The Financial Post of Canada reports:

German travel agency nixes nudists' plans

Posted: May 27, 2008, 4:01 PM by Jamie Sturgeon

German nudists seeking to take the experience to the skies had some cold water thrown on their vacation plans last week after their chartered flight to the Baltic Sea island of Usedom was cancelled.

Citing "moral objections" from the media and some negative comments from customers on the company's Web site, online travel agency OssiUrlaub.de terminated what was to be the first of many nudist packages to the island retreat despite being fully booked for the inaugural disrobing. 

The agency aimed the packages at Germans "nostalgic for the naturism that was authorized and extremely popular under communist rule," according to the news Web site, Deutsche Welle.

"In the former East Germany, naturist holidays were a much-loved way of spending the best weeks of the year," the founder of OssiUrlaub.de told dw-world.de. "We want to make that freedom possible above the clouds, too."

The agency has offered a full refund to the 50 customers.

# # #

Wow. Who knew about those crazy East Germans? Perhaps they should consider Jekyll Island. It's not 'above the clouds,' but there are plenty of isolated spots along the beach where they could probably enjoy nature as God intended, and few people would notice. 

Did I say that?

Cheers!

Dude, Where Are My Pants?

This has not one single thing to do with the Georgia Coast, but I found it intriguing anyway. And it's my blog. So there.

This just in via Google NewsAlerts:

Nudist German flights scrapped

BERLIN (AFP) — Despite being fully booked by naturists wanting to take off and strip off, a German travel company said Thursday it has decided to scrap a special nude flight that had been scheduled for this summer.

The July 5 flight was due to be the first of many and was aimed at east Germans nostalgic for the naturism that was authorised and extremely popular under communist rule.

But OssiUrlaub.de, the firm organising the service to a picturesque Baltic Sea island, said it has had second thoughts after "moral objections" in the media and from visitors to its Internet portal, a spokesman said.

The 50 people with tickets would have boarded the flight in the eastern city of Erfurt fully clothed, but once on the plane would have been free to undress and enjoy the rest of the journey as nature intended.

They will now receive a full refund as well as a voucher for other products offered by the company, whose core business caters to holidaymakers who keep their clothes on, it stressed.

# # #

There's a lot that intrigues me about this story. First, that "naturism (nudism to us non-Europeans) ... was authorised and extremely popular under communist rule." Really? Wonder why? Perhaps the powers that were figured out that if they let their citizens run around in the nude, they would forget how truly bad life was under an authoritarian regime. 

Then there are the "moral objections." Please. It's not my thing personally (and won't be until I develop a bod like Charles Atlas), but I have a hard time seeing what is immoral about being unclothed. What you choose to do while you're larking about in all your glory may be immoral, but that requires a bit of imagination now, doesn't it?

Perhaps some people need to get their minds out of the gutter.

Finally -- and this is truly a niggling point -- the writer notes that after the plane is airborne, the passengers would have been "free to undress and enjoy the rest of the journey as nature intended." 'Zat so? Being enclosed several miles in the air inside a large metal cylinder with wings seems to go against nature.

Then again, what do I know?

There once was a handsome young dude

who liked to fly in the nude ...

Oh never mind.

We're not in Kansas ...

... but you might have thought so Mother's Day afternoon.

A "small" tornado (relatively speaking, they think it was an F1) crossed the marsh from Brunswick and came onto St. Simons Island up around Sea Palms. There was a lot of damage, though most of it seemed to be tree-related. From what I read in the paper, no buildings were destroyed on the island.

Not the case in Darien, about 20 miles north of us. There, several large buildings were destroyed including a shelter for women and  children. Thankfully, there were no deaths or serious injuries.

Tornadoes are nothing new to me, having grown up in the midwest. My hometown, in fact, was struck by seven tornadoes in one evening back in 1980. People were killed and many, many homes and businesses were destroyed. It made a huge impact on the town and the people who lived there -- whether they suffered directly or not.

There is a big difference, however, between life on St. Simons Island and on the prairie. 

Except for the marshes, much of the island is covered by trees. If a tornado is heading your way, you might not know it until it is practically on top of you. 

Not so in central Nebraska, where you can see storms coming from miles away. There, you can watch them from a safe distance (my wife would say the safest distance in that situation would be in another galaxy.)

Another difference -- and this is a HUGE one -- is that there is no reliable early warning system in place here in Glynn County. Many cities and towns in the midwest -- and here in Georgia -- have sirens to warn of approaching storms and other dangerous conditions.

According to the Brunswick News, Glynn County has a system -- an emergency "phone tree" of sorts that can dial 60,000 calls in an hour. It was essentially useless, however, on Sunday because the EMA staff "didn't have time to activate the system," according to the EMA director. 

That's not a surprise, but when you think about it that points to a MAJOR WEAKNESS of the program (dubbed the CodeRED System).  Actually, two come to mind:

- People may not be near a phone when "the call" comes in to advise of danger.

- Fast-moving storms (such as tornadoes) can render the system useless. A funnel could be here and gone by the time the first number is dialed.

This doesn't strike me as the best situation, and frankly I wouldn't want to rely on EMA or the local media (radio, in particular) to be of much help. Sunday, our information came from the police scanner which provided a real-time report on things as they happened.

Sirens might not be a bad idea. I hope our intrepid County Commission and staff will give this the attention it deserves. Next time we might not be so lucky.

Gone With the Wind, indeed.

(Thanks to Wayne Rentz for allowing me to post this photo. Had I seen something like this approaching me, I would have been cowering in the closet.)