For travel between Manhattan and the DC suburbs: I endorse Tripper Bus. Having previously used Greyhound, all the Chinese companies operating from under the Manhattan Bridge, and Vamoose, as well as Amtrak and some of the airlines, without hesitation my one-way trip to Bethesda via Tripper was the most comfortable voyage I’ve taken from New York to the DC area via public transport. Tripper costs the normal amount (now about $25) and leaves from the normal place (Penn Station), but offers electrical outlets and wifi (like only some of the competition), stops one block fro the Bethesda Metro (unlike most other companies) and is new enough that almost all the seats were empty on the bus I took.
For travel between Israel and America: I endorse Continental airlines, specifically the CO84/CO85 flights. I traveled this time with Delta on a 767 via JFK because it was about $400 cheaper than the comparable Continental flights, and it wasn’t anywhere near as good as my experience with Continental in the past. This is mainly because Delta uses JFK, a crappy airport, and Continental uses Liberty, a wonderful and lovely airport that’s accessible by Amtrak and also makes me want to take out my pocket Constitution/Declaration and wave it around at people; also, Delta’s flights have no in flight entertainment, while Continental’s have the screens in front of every seat with about 1000 movies and television programs to watch, far more than I could ever hope to consume in 10 or 11 hours. Fortunately, because of the snow and skilled negotiating with Delta, I convinced them to book me on the Continental flight for my trip home!
For inexpensive eyewear: I endorse 39dollarglasses. I bought my last pair of glasses on Thanksgiving weekend in 2000, after Abbey Wilson picked out the frames for me at Lenscrafters of Lakeforest Mall. That they lasted this long is a testament to the quality frames that Lenscrafters offers, and that my eyes have stopped getting worse and worse, no longer requiring stronger and stronger prescriptions all the time. Abbey’s taste in frames was perfect and I wanted to get the exact same pair, but when I tried to find a replacement pair, I was completely and totally unable to find them anywhere. Then I read Farhad Manjoo’s article in Slate about buying glasses online and from it discovered the Glassy Eyes community. 39dollarglasses had frames for sale that were almost exactly like my eight year old designer frames. With an updated prescription from the optometrist in Lenscrafters of White Flint Mall, I got them, with the ultra-thin and super-coated lenses. The total cost, including expedited shipping, came to just over $100. Note: the glasses did arrive bent out of shape, requiring a trip to Lenscrafters of the Upper East Side for some adjustments.
For an American SIM card: I endorse T-Mobile. I first tried using an AT&T SIM, even though I didn’t think it would work, because my father has a relationship with AT&T and because AT&T has a relationship with the company that made my iPhone. The long and the short of it is that AT&T doesn’t want you to use any kind of temporary or prepaid plan with an iPhone because they negotiated with Apple to have all of the iPhone users in America locked into long contracts and paying them exclusively. Even though I did have a data plan, AT&T charged me some extreme amount for using the data, like a dollar per small unit of bandwidth. This necessitated an astonishing number of trips to the local AT&T and T-Mobile branches before switching to a one-month T-Mobile plan for calls, SMS and data. It wasn’t cheap, but it was reasonable, and it’s hard to ask for more.
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