What a marvelous, brief examination of history and its forces: Baseball Geography and Transportation. Effectively annotated with dated maps, in an almost schematic method, this article demonstrates the changes wrought on baseball by the move from trains to planes and automobiles. Both the distribution of teams and the shapes of stadiums were disrupted by travel methods. Obvious when you think about it…but I never have.

This is one article I would like to see expanded and fleshed out a bit more. Compare Reisner’s effort to this two-page spread in The Atlantic. Reisner did the hard work of making connections, and forcefully making his point with his illustrations. A touch more work and this goes from remarkable to simply outstanding.

First, the wait wasn’t terrible, even on a Saturday night at 6:30pm in a town filled with a few hundred extra folks looking for a pasta fuel-up. (ahem)

Second, I found street parking less than a block away, even though the restaurant is on the main drag downtown, at 1100 Pacific Avenue.

Third, the 7pm wacky celebration was a total surprise. All the employees start dancing to a very loud rendition of “Hot, Hot, Hot,” and then the two of the top three finalists in the acrobatic division of the World Pizza Games showed off some of their moves. Pretty snazzy.

Fourth, the food was good. Not inspiring, but good — and we were in a hurry, with two children under the age of six, so inspiring was not the goal.

Fifth, and most important, we got great service. The waiter followed our lead when we jumped right into ordering, offered useful advice about spiciness on a kids’ meal, suggested separate bowls for the children’s meals, and generally was a step ahead all the way through, with a smile. Remarkable service, and made the whole evening a lot more fun. I’ve eaten at much more expensive places with less rewarding interaction and service.

Maybe I should be careful what I wish for, but I’m ready to pursue the unknown over the known… and for a relatively cautious person like myself, that speaks volumes about how painful the United experience has become.

My family’s flight was cancelled last night because United couldn’t get pilots for the plane at SFO, a significant hub in their system.

(At least, that is what was announced. If it was something else, shame on them for lying to customers, too.)

For mileage reasons, I have two more round-trip flights on United in the next five weeks, but at that point, my mileage will be zeroed out, and my waning loyalty will have no further grounding.

Would more entrepreneurs please read James Fallows’ Free Flight and attack this ripe market segment? Please? Maybe some of the VC cash overhang could be redirected? If Vinod Khosla is taking on energy, then the daunting infrastructure and regulatory concerns which probably dampen investment in aviation can be overcome, too.

I’d like to see an “aviation bubble,” even, so competition really shakes things up. It’s less than two years since I read the book. I know Cirrus and Eclipse are out there… other options which will actually be flying in the next two years?

Between CNET Video (RSS feed) and CNET News.com Video (RSS feed) and all that’s going on with GameSpot Video and ZDNet Whiteboards, there’s a lot of possibilities. I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Most important reason to mention this? See who I might bump into in New York, despite the tight turnaround.