“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” –opening monologue from Star Trek.
The Enterprise 4/27/2012 NYC Fly over
Coming of age in the 1960′s in Huntsville, Al home to the Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA was a big factor in our lives. While the rest of the state was embroiled in trying to save segregation, Huntsville was busy building rockets to send people to the moon and, at the time, beyond. After the Apollo missions, the next challenge was to find a vehicle that could be reusable. The Shuttle was born. Marshall Space Flight Center was once again buzzing with activity as they built the storage and delivery system for the liquid fuel.
The Enterprise was the 1st prototype and went into service in 1977 as a test model. While never actually used on a space mission, the Enterprise was from 1977-1983, was used for testing and flew frequent training missions over the Atlantic and Pacific.
Upon retirement in 1983, the Enterprise was taken to several locations before making its home at the Smithsonian’s Air Space Museum. One of those visits was a trip up the Hudson River in NYC. From our office in the 2WTC it was visible as it flew past the Statue of Liberty on the way to the Tappan Zee Bridge further up the river.
1983 USS Enterprise in NYC
In 2005, the decision was made to retire the Shuttle program and the last Shuttle mission was in 2011. It was decided that further funding of the Shuttle and NASA was not in the best interest of the United States even though some of our everyday essential item were first conceived at NASA. Did you ever think you’d be able to carry 5000 of your favorite songs around on an iPod? Thank NASA for radio miniaturization. Here is just a short list of 10. Neil DeGrasse-Tyson, head of the Hayden Planetarium, recently testified before Congress regarding the NASA budget, saying
“Right now, NASA’s annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow.”
Today the Space Shuttle Enterprise takes its last flight before becoming a permanent exhibit at the Intrepid Museum in NYC, we are reminded that we need to continue to dream and inspire our children to do the same.
4/27/2012 Flying over Statue of Liberty & Freedom Tower
4/27/2012: between Freedom Tower & the Geary Building
Any show that hands out bacon as a sample has at “Hello & Welcome to the NYC Restaurant Show”
New ways to advertise are coming your way on your local pizza delivery box. (more on pizza later in the outtakes) Celeb chef encounters, a Click & Cook feature, new products, tastings (incl Sake at the Japan pavilion! Domo arigato.), many culinary demonstrations, fun stuff like pizza-dough tossing contest and the Ultimate Barista challenge event. Gillian Dinnerstein (no, really!) accepted best in show award for Dine-A-Light. Social networking media was a major talking point, as a way of getting people into restaurants.
We did about 39 trade shows in February. I am very thankful for 
Trade only (c’mon, toys are a serious business, people!), claimed to be the “biggest toy show in the Western hemisphere”. Not just toys but electronic entertainment products. Distributors, import-export, sales agents as well as manufacturers, 15,000 in total. Buzz this year was “earth-friendly products” (presumably a response to the Chinese toxic paint disaster). Robots were a draw. Hasbro has re-imagined Mr. PotatoHead as Tony Starch in conjunction with the May release of Iron Man 2. But Plushies are still in (see the Hello Kitty couture, above) 
and let’s face it, Barbie still Rules the World of Toyland even at age 50. Will Wright of Sims fame was a keynote and gave pretty graphic descriptions of where he expected to take the Barbie Money Machine via Sims. 