Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink?

In parts of the southwest of the US, there are towns where running water can be expected for only three hours per day. This isn't because they are backward, but because there is a drought.

In other parts of the southwest of the US, and the rest of the world, thousands of gallons of water are put into landfills as a result of discarded liquids from airport security lines.

It has been many years since the "no liquids" rule, and little has been done to address the practicality of it. In principle it works, however, people bring huge amounts of liquids with them to the airport and then discard perfectly good, unused liquids in the trash in order to pass security.

Why can't those liquids be recovered and put to good use? Surely, those liquids can be used for irrigation, or perhaps it could be filtered and cleaned and then re bottled and sold. Dasani and Aquafina do this - and their product isn't stellar.

Any way you look at it, water is too precious a resource to waste for any reason and the longer it takes to realize this, the more abject the shortages will be.

The US is in trouble with their water resources. The water disposed off at airports in the form of mineral water, juices, sports drinks and other types of sodas won't be enough to reverse the drought. It would, however, be enough to help some poor families to have drinking water for one more day.

Boston Logan Airport (BOS)

"... And we have a 6 minute delay between each flight so we will be shutting down the engines as our take off window should be in about 58 minutes ... "

Who has heard that and not let out a sigh!? You're basically trapped in a metal cigar, not going any place, fast.

The US air traffic system is in trouble. Even when it does work, Logan airport is a mess on good days, and a disaster on bad.

This has a lot to do with the runway configuration. The main runway used can allow jets to take off and land either over the ocean, or over Boston. However, Boston has a law that bars the airport from operating city side except in emergencies. Therefore, when the wind changes and blows in from the city, an alternate, older, runway has to be used, which causes major delays.

Further, all flights, upon takeoff, have to turn left 140 degrees, so as to avoid the city. This means that each jet has to give the one in front of it 6 minutes to make the turn and get out of the way.

It looks like Logan's problem would only worsen over time.

Bottom line is if you have a flight out of Logan, expect delays and have a backup plan.

On another note ... Backup plans.

The Bombay Ticket Counters

Bombay airport is called the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, formerly known simply as Sahar International Airport. Leave it to the Indians to keep things simple.

Fortunately, besides the long name, the airport has improved dramatically from the hollow shell that it once used to be. An ongoing development is recreating the interior to make it a world class airport.

The sister airport, also known by the exceedingly long name, formerly known simply as the Santa Cruz Domestic Airport, has transformed from an ugly stepchild to a wonderfully spacious and first class airport facility.

Most of this redevelopment has occured after the semi-privatization of the airports by the Government Of India. About time, considering the presence of India on the world stage.

However, the development is far from complete and this is obvious at the checkin counters. For starters, the construction is obvious, not so much by the fashionably colorful floor to cieling wooden boards all over, but by pails of concrete, ladders and dust near by.

In India, prior to checking in your bags, you have to get them sealed with a plastic strip. A rather large machine operated by a crew of a half dozen men screens and then places a strip around the bag. While it appears to be a security measure, in reality, it's probably a mechanism to keep those men employed. Most airports have three or four of these machines. That's 24 people with a job.

Typically, if you are unaware of this procedure, you will likely find out, much to your frustration, after having stood in line for some time and finally reached the counter, only to be sent to the back of the line.

The Continental Airlines counter is basically an Air India counter with Continental printed cards all over. On the day I traveled, service had only been a week old, and the staff were only just being trained.

There were several personnel from the US overseeing the Indian personnel. While they tried to be discreet, it was next to impossible as the average black or white male is quite a bit larger than the average Indian male, let alone an Indian female.

Security was tricky as I was part of the education program for the staff. The Indian guy asked me a battery of questions with an obvious lack of surety in his eyes, and then cross checked with someone who it turned out was the chief of security for the flight.

Since they haven't started advertising the flights in India, the flight was almost empty and checkin was smooth.

One note is that only one hand luggage is allowed, regardless of the airline's own policy. This is an Indian rule that's enforced in a very ad hoc fashion. It appears women can take up to three bags without being questioned whereas men can't. While being highly irregular, it's very annoying so be warned.