I spent the weekend having a horrible time with AirTran. Now they are in this bid to take over Midwest Airlines… well, Midwest decided to take what I think is a good step… try to find someone else to buy them.

The news went over a few speculated parties… The two that jumped out at me are Southwest and Jetblue. Now Southwest is a great airline… for a budget carrier they have some of the best prices and they get high marks for a “budget”/”economy” provider. Midway isn’t the world’s biggest airport and they seem to have pretty much maxed it out…

But… Jetblue. Oh. My. God. PLEASE

JetBlue has seatback DirecTV, the seats are comfy, the service is great, and they are almost ALWAYS listed right next to Midwest Airlines when it comes to customer satisfaction (source). It makes sense for JetBlue to go into Milwaukee… they don’t have any presence in the midwest.

I guarantee you, Jetblue, that I will fly you every time I can (just keep the prices competitive to what you charge on the east coast)

Unless Virgin America comes in town… then screw you all

I am currently in Atlanta, Georgia waiting for a flight to Milwaukee. It isn’t the flight I was suppose to be on… nope… my previous flight from Charlotte was delayed 45 minutes.

Lets go back to this past Thursday. The flight I took FROM Milwaukee was late too because the Pilot decided it was easier to just sit back than take off his 717 in the rain. Fedex’s 747 didn’t have much of an issue. Neither did an American Airlines plane. Or a Delta plane… So instead of having the front place in line, we went to the back of the line… and waited.

So our plane came in late, and came up to the terminal a few minutes after my connecting flight to Charlotte was to leave. Thank GOD that, get this, The Plane I was Transferring To Was Delayed so they managed to put me on that flight.

Oh, and the seats…. The seats on Airtran are the most uncomfortable things I have ever been in my life. I’m fine with coach seats, but these things feel like cardboard, there is no legroom, and I swear even a skinny person would feel scrunched.

Oh, and their “great” feature is that they have XM radio in every seat. When it works….

So OK, I’m never flying Airtran again. Well, I hope I won’t be. See, Airtran is trying to take over Midwest Airlines in Milwaukee. Hostile-takeover style. Milwaukee people don’t like this very much…

Here is something that you need to know about Midwest Airlines, it KICKS ASS. Comfortable seats (even their “budget” runs are great,) Milwaukee’s very own Altera coffee (yum,) and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies made on all afternoon-evening flights. The cookie thing sounds like a gimmick (and it is) but the cookies are great when you are exhausted from traveling. After packing, finding a ride to the airport, check baggage, security, expensive water/drinks, waiting for plane, in line to get on the plane it is amazing.

All of this is gone (well, they said they may keep the cookies just to prevent pissed-off Milwaukee people from attacking the plane crew) if that takeover happens.

If Milwaukee needs “budget” airlines we need Jet Blue, Southwest and maybe even Virgin America (pipe dream.) Those are companies that KNOW how to run a budget airline! Southwest is profitable (unlike Airtran,) the seats are way more comfortable, and the entire experience is so much better. Jet Blue’s president pulls out ads in big papers apologizing to customers when his company royally fucks up. Oh, and Jet Blue has XM too, because it has DirecTV IN EVERY SEAT (Virgin America is going to kick its ass though.)

And leave Midwest alone for christ’s sake…

I am going to be changing the URL of my blog to blog.nickcatalano.com and soon changing the main page of NickCatalano.com to something a bit more, professional…

OK, a *LOT* more professional.

But time will tell how it turns out. Until then….

I have come to one conclusion about Iraq.

We need to send in the entire US military. Every single soldier. At once. Throw em in there for every square mile of the damn country. Lock that entire fucking country down. Take all of the guns of any Iraqi citizen, and if you have a bomb or a gun, shoot on sight.

No, not just shoot on site… pull in the bazookas and bomb the fuck out of them.

If you don’t want to play by our rules, fuck you.

None of this “pull out tomorrow” or “surge troops”

I’m talking police state

And if they still want to fuck with each other in Iraq, hell… we’ve got enough guns and ammo. I’m sure we still have some World War 2 Sherman Tanks sitting around somewhere… put them in the middle of Baghdad and give both sides the keys and let them fight over them…

And lets buy everyone copies of Counter-Strike and make maps called “Take Over Baghdad” and the only weapon you have is the AK47.

Let them figure it out in themselves… Iran is going to love having a shitload of people with grade-A American-made bazookas sitting a thousand miles away…

I’m so tired of this shit… bring these troops out from Iraq NOW!

I went last night with a friend to see ‘Hairspray’ at the local theater. I figured, well, why not… It was getting great reviews and the buzz around it was huge

Wow. For a ‘PG’ movie it is REALLY funny.

Well, if you really think about it for a second. John Travolta, in a fat-suit, in drag, dancing in high heels, as a woman… with Christopher Walken……..

Worth the price of admission right there…

There are other good points, the lead, Nikki Blonsky, is just great. Turns out that the producers were looking for somebody completely new and they found her. And told her why she was at work at a Cold Stone Cremery with cameras on her.

The one thing that my friend and I said on the way out of the movie is that there really are no ‘plus-sized’ actresses in Hollywood, especially ones that can sing. Sure, you could say that Travolta in a fat suit is something of a cop-out… but the idea of having that character in drag is a throwback to John Waters‘ original movie… I mean, there is really just Queen Latifah (who is in this movie, and is black, so that really doesn’t work out)

So go see Hairspray.

Next week I will probably go see The Simpsons Movie. Sounds like a great time and I have spent $8.50 on a lot worse endeavors…