Academic

Better safe than sorry? That's the way American Airlines is pitching the flight cancellations today, but the dramatic action of canceling over 1000 flights was the result of years of maintenance neglect. And American isn't the only culprit.

At this point, adding another complaint about the airline industry would be little more than piling on, so I am taking a different tack. What are my options?

I am told that the railroad industry is booming, at least for freight. How about train travel?

Being a Europhile, I enjoy train travel, though living in the West, I am not well situated to execute on this strategy. A round-trip ticket to Chicago costs only $230, but it's 34 hours each way.

When I told my wife the price, she suddenly got interested in visiting a friend in Nashville. Hmm. Nashville doesn't have a train station, but she could get to Memphis ... via Chicago! That means 34 hours to Chicago, then another 10.5 to Memphis.

We could drive, of course, but with the price of gasoline, that doesn't seem like a terribly attractive option.

Plan C: stay home.