There was a story on the radio this morning about holiday travel, and they read a statement from the Transportation Safety Administration that it was "safe to fly" and there were no terrorist threats to be afraid of at the moment. Well duh, of course it's safe to fly. Even if there were terrorist bombs going off on planes regularly, it would still be statistically safer to fly than to drive anywhere.

When I do fly, what I AM afraid of is not terrorism, it's missing my flight because the lines at security are so long. I'm afraid that my camera and electronics will be confiscated, broken or roughly handled by the TSA. I'm afraid that my wife will be pulled out of line and strip-searched by some TSA goons because the underwire in her bra set off the metal detector. I'm afraid of losing something important while juggling boarding pass, bags, ID, and coat during the demeaning shoe and belt removal routine at the X-ray machines. I'm afraid that my checked bag will be broken into and pilfered by airport employees, or lost altogether. I'm afraid that a false alarm will cause the entire terminal to be evacuated and re-screened in a typical case of over-reaction. I'm afraid that a name similar to mine will turn up on a "do not fly" list, and my life will become a Kafka-esque nightmare. In short, I'm more afraid of our own overzealous security precautions than I am of the big bad terrorists. 

Last night's dream was a good one! I remembered it because I woke up a half-hour early, so it was interrupted. The switch to Standard Time always takes a few days to get accustomed to, right?

I may be mistaken, but the dream seemed to be in black and white rather than in color. The time was the 1930s, and I was on the luxury liner Normandie, bound for Europe. Since it was a dream, I was taller/thinner/richer and better dressed than I am in reality, otherwise they wouldn't have let me on the Normandie. While at a formal dinner in the beautiful Art Deco main dining room, a steward ran up to me with an urgent telegram (or more accurately, a radio-telegram) - a friend of mine in France was severely injured in a plane crash!

The friend in the dream was a glamorous aviatrix, the French equivalent of Amelia Earhart. She was injured, but the prognosis was good. The rest of the Atlantic crossing was a blur, but when I arrived in France, I naturally paid her a visit. She was doing fine, and I was relieved. We were platonic friends at that point, but in the past it seemed we must have had a thing going on. She told me that despite the recent crash, she was scheduled to fly an experimental new helicopter in an upcoming air show.

When the time came, I went to the air show at a large stadium to watch my unnamed friend fly the helicopter, which was a brand-new technology at the time. I must have read about or seen photos of German test pilot Hanna Reitsch flying a helicopter in 1938 inside a stadium, because that's exactly what I pictured in my dream. Unlike the twin-rotor design in Hanna Reitsch's flight, this was a single-rotor helicopter, with a large glass bubble over the pilot.

The flight started off well; my friend the test pilot took off vertically, and ascended straight up to an altitude of about 500 feet. Something went wrong, unfortunately, and the helicopter started shaking, and smoke began to pour out of the engine compartment. Suddenly, it lost all power, and plunged straight down. On impact, the glass shattered and the entire aircraft, as well as my friend, was completely flattened. At least she died doing the thing she loved!

I woke up shortly thereafter, and told my wife about it in detail. Her response was "Your dreams are really, really strange." 

According to Aviation.com, Boston's Logan International Airport (BOS) ranks number one in the country for accessibility via ground transportation, with Washington's National Airport (DCA) coming in second. After thinking about it a bit, and reading the whole Top Ten list they released, I'd be inclined to disagree. National should be number one!

Having flown in and out of both airports many times, there is simply nothing easier than taking the Metro to National. The Metro platform is almost directly adjacent to the main terminal, with just a short walk required on a moving sidewalk. It's even closer than the parking garages, which are on the other side of the Metro station. At Logan, the T station is much farther from the airport terminals, and requires the annoying interim step of getting on a shuttle bus. It might be close enough to walk, but there's no direct path for pedestrians, just a tangle of highway ramps and airport facilities.

Another factor that wasn't taken into account is that only the Blue Line in Boston stops at the airport, so only a total of 12 stations are accessible without transferring to another line. At DCA, the Metro Station is serviced by the Blue and Yellow Lines, giving direct, transfer-free access to 33 stations in DC, MD and VA.

Both DCA and BOS have good bus service, and it's true that only Logan has ferry service at this time. However, there are plans to eventually begin water-taxi service from DCA to Georgetown, the new baseball stadium, Alexandria, and the National Harbor development. In either case, the total number of ferry/water-taxi customers has to be only a small fraction of the total number of travellers.

I'm not very well-versed in driving to either airport, but let's call the driving and parking concept a wash, being equally ill-advised and expensive. On the strength of the better rail access, I think National pulls slightly ahead.