Today’s Torah portion was Parashat Vayera (Genesis 18:1-22:24). It’s filled with action, including the Binding of Isaac and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but that wasn’t what caught the eye of the person giving the drash today. Instead, she talked about the meaning of hospitality, pointing out that the sin which really sealed the doom of Sodom was the lack of hospitality, and talking about how Abram’s hospitality to the three strangers led to the birth of Isaac. And the Haftorah follows through on the same theme.

After my unfortunate experience Thursday at the Iron Cactus (followed, fortunately, by the great treatment I received at Taco Cabana), I wish that people in the hospitality industry would read the Torah!

United Airlines keeps trying to make good for their summer problems; today’s mail said that I could have my choice of 15,000 miles or two confirmable domestic upgrades as yet another apology for any inconvenience I might have suffered during the summer (this is on top of double mileage for my travel since May and a reduced mileage level to requalify for Premier). I’d really prefer it if they spread out the seats throughout the cabin, not just in the first few rows of Coach, and if they’d serve food on any flight over two hours, not just those which fit their definition of “mealtime”. But since they’re not likely to take those measures, which actually cost money, I guess I should be happy that they want my business enough to try to bribe me for it.

I’m sitting in the Austin Admiral’s Club waiting for my flight home. American has cut a deal with MobileStar to offer wireless LAN access, and the price seemed reasonable, so I thought I’d give it a shot. One hour later, I was still unconnected, though I’d had a very pleasant conversation with MobileStar’s tech support, and I was about to give up, when another weary traveller (all travellers are weary — it’s part of the job description) came in and connected wirelessly with no problem.

I asked him what he’d done, and he said he connected through Wayport. So I tried to do that, and hey, presto — I connected up on the first try. Even better, Wayport is offering free access until the end of the year, a price even better than reasonable.

And here I thought I wouldn’t be able to flip my page today, at least not without using a phone line.

MobileStar just told me that they do, indeed, have a down access point here at the airport. So maybe they’ll work better next try.

Home again

I hadn’t come back to San Jose on a Friday night in a long time, so I was surprised to see a very long line of passengers waiting for taxis. Fortunately, the taxi starter was helpful and tried to double-up passengers heading in the same direction, and I got lucky and got paired and out of the airport quite a bit sooner than I would have if I’d had to wait in the entire line. And the driver was happy, collecting almost two fares (and, I’m sure, reporting only one fare to the company). Now I get to stay home for a few days — I’m looking forward to a quiet weekend and a quieter week at work next week, before things heat up again after Thanksgiving.

Shabbat Shalom!