![\"holiday](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/holiday-car.jpg?w=300\")
<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, this isn\u2019t the counterpoint to my last post on all that is good about air travel.\u00a0 In fact one of the reasons I have such a positive attitude towards air travel is that I don\u2019t travel during the holidays.\u00a0 Whoever created the phrase, \u2018holiday travel\u2019 took the fun out of two of my favorite words.\u00a0 I love the holidays and I love to travel, but together you\u2019ve got the beginnings of \u2018the nightmare before Christmas\u2019.\u00a0 If you\u2019re trying to fly somewhere the nightmares feature things like delayed flight, missed connections, lost luggage, sitting on an airplane next to a guy with reindeer breath and practicing your \u2018Just what I wanted\u2019 expression when you get that battery operated recycled toilet paper dispenser.\u00a0 If you\u2019re driving, the nightmares are about jammed freeways, road rage, kids screaming \u201cAre-we-there-yet?\u201d and the practicing of, \u201cThey just fit\u201d when trying on those new glow-in-the-dark plastic socks.<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gone are the days when we could just go over the river and through the woods to \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Holiday travel, indeed.\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t there be a term for ruining two perfectly good words by juxtaposing them?\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there are lots of similar two-word combinations that shouldn\u2019t be joined.\u00a0 Here\u2019s one that immediately comes to mind; the word \u2018love\u2019 is one of the best words around and \u2018child\u2019 is also a great word, but put them together and you\u2019ve got . . . a bastard!\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t there be a name for these kinds of words, I mean paired words like \u2018Civil war\u2019 or \u2018jumbo shrimp\u2019 are oxymorons, so maybe we name words like \u2018love child\u2019 and \u2018holiday travel\u2019 oxybastards.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How could they do that to two such beautiful words?\u00a0 Etymologically speaking, the word holiday is derived from the words \u2018Holy Day\u2019, so the term originally had religious connotations, but today it seems that the closest any holiday comes to religion is when \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I rarely think of those two words, no matter what the order, and not think of Bob Hope traveling half way around the world every Christmas to entertain our troops.\u00a0 He started during World War II when he island-hopped throughout the south Pacific in 1944 to the tune of some 30,000 miles while performing over 150 USO shows.\u00a0 He travel to Korea \u00a0 by Bob\u00a0Sparrow \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, this isn\u2019t the counterpoint to my last post on all that is good about air travel.\u00a0 In fact one of the reasons I have such a positive attitude towards air travel is that I don\u2019t travel … read more![\"over](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/over-the-river.jpg?w=300\")
<\/a>\u00a0grandmother\u2019s house and enjoy some of her homemade Chocolate Chip cookies.\u00a0 Today grandma lives in a downtown, high-rise\u00a0condo, six hours away where parking is limited and expensive \u2013 and the cookies are gluten-free.<\/p>\n![\"Traveler\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/traveler.jpg\")
<\/a>someone says, \u2018Thank God I don\u2019t have to go to work today\u201d or \u201cCan you believe this god-awful traffic?.\u201d\u00a0 Holiday actually is a . . . never mind, what I really wanted to talk about was \u2018travel\u2019, because today in the mail I received the National Geographic Traveler<\/i> magazine featuring their 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0Annual Best of the World \u2013 20 Must-See Places for 2013 \u2013 great reading for a raining Sunday afternoon where I can reverse the aforementioned oxybastard\u00a0and dream about and plan a \u2018travel holiday\u2019.\u00a0 There now, doesn\u2019t that sound much better?<\/p>\n![\"Bob](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/bob-hope-troops.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0during that war (Sorry, conflict) and did shows in Viet Nam every Christmas from 1964 to 1972.\u00a0 He also did Christmas performances during Desert Storm (1990-91) for the troops in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.\u00a0 Bob Hope was a \u2018holiday traveler\u2019 for 50 years, going wherever our troops were stationed.\u00a0 Now it wasn\u2019t all toil and drudgery, he typically traveled in a troupe that included the likes of Ursula Andress, Anne Margaret, Carroll Baker and Raquel Welch, which for those too young to remember those beauties, today it would be like\u00a0 having to spend Christmas with Scarlett Johansson, Halle\u00a0Berry, Charlize\u00a0Theron and Salma\u00a0Hayek.\u00a0 Hope was known to crack, \u201cI bring them along to remind the boys what they\u2019re fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"christmas-afghanistan-2011\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/christmas-afghanistan-2011.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is no place like home for the holidays, but those who will travel and perhaps experience \u2018holiday travel\u2019 nightmares before Christmas, might be well-served to remember when you\u2019re flight is delayed\u00a0or the traffic is backed\u00a0up and even when you receive that re-gifted fruit cake, Bob Hope\u2019s amazing sacrifice during a time when he most wanted to be home and today’s\u00a0service men and women all over the world who will be home for the holiday only in their dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"