Links: All-Star 2010 aka Snowpocolypse Now

by Lang Whitaker

Just when I thought I’d seen it all and done it all, All-Star lays a new one on me. Again.

Ben and I were supposed to fly out early this morning from New York to Dallas for All-Star 2010. Of course, a huge storm hit Dallas yesterday and apparently blew through last night. Ben and found out last night that American Airlines had canceled our flight pre-emptively, the better to inconvenience us.

I was booked to be on two different shows on NBA TV this afternoBad Weatheron live from Dallas. A secret agent man wrangled seats for me and Ben on a charter flight(!) with other stranded NBAers heading from New York to Dallas early Friday morning.

So Ben and I assembled at lovely Newark International Airport this morning at 8 AM. We met up with a bunch of our fellow All-Star travelers, and we all were checked in and ushered to a mostly empty gate in Terminal B. (I know understand why they call these things “terminals.”) Our flight was scheduled to leave New York at 11 AM. Only problem? The plane was still in Dallas, all froze up, apparently.

Right now its 1:30 PM, we’re still at the gate in Newark, and our plane is still in Dallas, for reasons I don’t fully understand. They say the earliest we could leave NYC now is close to 5 PM, which could put us in Dallas at 8 PM. Again, that’s best-case scenario, a scenario that I fear passed us by long ago.

I’ve found the only way to deal with travel disruptions is to stay zen. I typed this post on my Blackberry. At least I’m getting a lot of reading done.

Mark Cuban finally got an All-Star Game, and Dallas froze over.