Ask a travel nerd: 3 steps to booking holiday travel

• October 13, 2023

By Sam Kemmis | NerdWallet

With holiday travel, I’ve always been a Grinch. Paying too much for airfare rubs every cell in my body the wrong way. Shelling out $1,000 for a domestic round-trip ticket for a route that usually costs half that just feels wrong, you know? So, while I’m happy to travel the world the other 49 weeks of the year, I typically try to stay home at the end of November and December.

For years I’ve waged a campaign within my family to observe Thanksgiving a week or two early. Shifting our calendar slightly would mean we could all feast together without all the headaches of holiday travel. So far my campaign has, well, failed.

I’m slowly coming around to the idea that holiday travel is important for a reason. Yes, it’s inconvenient. Yes, airports are clogged with screaming kids (including, now, mine). And yes, it’s just plain expensive. But it’s about something bigger than budgets — it’s about family.

OK, my small Grinchy heart hasn’t grown big enough to ignore price tags altogether. I still try to spend as little as possible when traveling for the holidays, even if it’s more expensive than a regular trip. Here’s how I think about it.

Step 1: Book right about … now

Recently, it’s been hard to know when is the right time to book holiday travel. The pandemic messed with how and when people traveled, leading experts to disagree about when airfare prices would be lowest.

Those data wrinkles have been ironed out, and now the picture is coming into focus. The best time to book mid-to-late December travel is right now — about 10 weeks before departure, according to a recent report from Google Flights. That’s true for domestic flights as well as those to Europe.

That’s right, despite what your high-strung parents might have told you, booking months in advance doesn’t actually save money. According to data from Hopper, a travel booking platform, prices for December trips have dropped about $40 since this summer. But they won’t drop much longer: After bottoming in October, Hopper expects fares to rise rapidly through November and by as much as $40 per day in the week leading up to the holidays.

Another factor that could affect airfare prices moving forward: Fuel costs. After bottoming early this summer, oil prices have been on the rise. This could put even more pressure than usual on prices for holiday travel.

All the more reason to book soon.

Step 2: Travel when others won’t

Everyone wants to know the secret to scoring cheap airfare during the holidays. The secret is that there is no secret: Prices are high throughout Thanksgiving week and the last two weeks of December, period.

Even using points and miles doesn’t always help. In fact, based on a NerdWallet analysis of hundreds of airline routes, booking award travel during the holidays usually yields a lower cent-per-mile value than booking award travel at other times.

Put simply: Using miles during the holidays is not a good way to avoid high prices. You’ll just spend a ton of miles rather than a ton of cash.

There’s really just one option: Do something inconvenient that other travelers are unwilling to do. Options include:

Booking on the holidays themselves. Hopper estimates that flying on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day can save about $114 per ticket on domestic routes, for example.
Taking a long trip. Flying the Monday of Thanksgiving week and returning any weekday of the following week can save you over $100 on flight costs, according to Hopper data.
Pitching a new holiday for your family in early December, when airfares are low. This has a roughly 0% success rate, according to my own data.

Step 3: Consider total costs

It’s easy to get hyper-focused on airfare costs around the holidays and do everything possible to avoid high fares, even if it means an overnight layover at LAX or extending your trip to three weeks.

But airfare is only one of many travel expenses during the holidays. It might sound great to save $100 per ticket by leaving a few days early, but what about the additional costs of the trip?

For example, if you’re not staying with family, two days of lodging costs will easily eliminate (and potentially exceed) those airfare savings. And then there’s the pet sitter, the restaurant dinners you might buy to avoid another awkward meal with your family, etc.

The point is, the sticker shock of $1,000 fares in December can cause some people (OK, me) to find elaborate workarounds, but the workarounds can end up costing more in real dollar terms, or mental health expenditures. Do you really want to stay on a futon for three weeks?

Grinching pennies

You could be a Grinch like me and avoid holiday travel altogether. Or you could book travel willy-nilly and accept whatever ludicrous fares are available.

Better to take a middle road: Being cost-aware without getting lost in the weeds. Book travel in October if you can, avoid the absolute peak dates and consider traveling when others won’t, like Christmas Eve. Keep total travel costs, including accommodations and pet sitter in mind and remember that airfare isn’t everything.

Most of all, focus on what matters: Connecting with family.

But not, you know, too much.

The article Ask a Travel Nerd: 3 Steps to Booking Holiday Travel originally appeared on NerdWallet.

​ Orange County Register 

3 teens arrested in attack on Fullerton College guard, with 1 accused of swinging ax

• October 13, 2023

Police arrested three people for what they said was an unprovoked attack on a Fullerton College security guard early on Friday, Oct. 13, with one of the teens pulling out an ax and swinging it at several guards who arrived to help.

The 53-year-old guard was patrolling the campus early Friday morning when he found the trio — two 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old — on a bench in the college’s central quad.

The guard believed one of them was suffering a medical emergency, said Kai Stearns, a spokeswoman for the North Orange County Community College District.

But when he approached to help, Fullerton police said in a statement, they “immediately began to attack him.”

The group punched and kicked the guard, stomped on his head, and attempted to gouge his eye, police said. During the attack, the guard was able to radio for help.

When more security guards arrived, one of the teenagers pulled the ax from his backpack, swinging it at the guards but not hitting them, police said.

The guards subdued one of the teens, but two others fled, running north across campus. When Fullerton police officers arrived, they tracked down the remaining two on foot.

All three were arrested, with the 17-year-old taken to Orange County Juvenile Hall. The two 18-year-olds were booked in Fullerton City Jail.

The guard who was attacked was taken to a local hospital to treat injuries to his face. None of his injuries were life- threatening, Fullerton police said.

Stearns said he was released and was recovering at home with family later Friday.

The campus remained open Friday for regular classes. The main Fullerton College campus is open to the public.

Stearns said there was no ongoing threat to students or staff at the college.

“We take our students, staff and community very seriously,” she said. “We commend the officers for what they did today.”

​ Orange County Register 

5 storylines to watch this weekend in Orange County football

• October 13, 2023

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Five storylines outside the Mater Dei-St. John Bosco game to watch this weekend in Orange County high school football:

1. Who emerges as the South Coast League favorite: Mission Viejo or San Clemente?

It’s a massive league opener Friday at Mission Viejo High as the winner becomes the clear favorite to claim the South Coast title.

The game also could hold playoff significance. The winner could emerge as a big-time contender for the CIF-SS Division 2 crown — if they don’t get pull up into Division 1.

2. Does Orange Lutheran or Servite collect victory No. 5, and guarantee at least a .500 record?

It’s a big one for playoff scenarios when Orange Lutheran (4-3, 1-1) meets Servite (4-3, 0-2) on Friday at Cerritos College. The winner will finish at least .500 overall, which is a key factor for potentially earning an at-large playoff berth.

The Lancers are coming off their first league win while Servite played better in the second half last week in a lopsided loss at St. John Bosco.

Pay special attention to Servite’s start. The Friars trailed Mater Dei 28-0 at half and St. John Bosco 42-8 at intermission.

3. Will Santa Margarita notch its first Trinity League win?

The Eagles (4-3, 0-2) will be seeking their first Trinity League victory when they play at JSerra (4-3, 1-1) on Friday. Both teams need this one to guarantee at least a .500 record, so expect a hard-fought game between the South County rivals.

4. Can Troy and Sonora stay hot in the Freeway League to set up a Week 9 showdown?

Troy (4-3, 2-0) and Sonora (6-1, 2-0) are in the spotlight Friday with a chance to set up a surprising showdown next week for potentially the league title.

The Warriors, coming off an upset of La Habra last week, play Buena Park (4-3, 0-2) at Fullerton High for a chance to move to 3-0 in league. The Raiders play host to Fullerton (2-5, 0-2) at La Habra High do the same.

If Troy and Sonora both win, they will collide next Friday at La Habra High for first place in league. Who saw that coming?

5. Will La Quinta and Bolsa Grande remain on a collision course?

Yes, these revived programs sit atop the Garden Grove League standings entering Week 8. They both need wins Friday to stay on track for a Week 10 clash for the league crown, which would be an amazing sight for Orange County football.

La Quinta (5-2, 2-0) takes on Santiago (3-4, 0-2) at Garden Grove High while Bolsa Grande (5-2, 2-0) plays host to Rancho Alamitos (4-3, 1-1).

The Garden Grove League is known to be unpredictable at times, so these scores could be interesting.

La Quinta hasn’t defeated Santiago since 2017, and Bolsa Grande last beat the Vaqueros in 2008.

Please send football news to Dan Albano at [email protected] or @ocvarsityguy on X and Instagram

RELATED: Trinity League Football Podcast

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​ Orange County Register 

Gov. Newsom signs bill to help sustain outdoor dining

• October 13, 2023

In an effort to keep the al fresco momentum going, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law this week that will allow much of the outdoor and patio dining launched during the pandemic to continue across the state.

Assembly Bill 1217, which was authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and is a predecessor of Gabriel’s AB 61, supersedes city and county ordinances that might restrict outdoor dining or impose additional fees. It will also allow for continued flexibility when it comes to outdoor dining approvals, including streamlining application processes and waiving some fees.

In 2020, programs like LA Al Fresco and San Francisco’s Shared Spaces allowed restaurants to serve diners without having to wade through the typical byzantine processes required. Most notably, Laguna Beach’s pedestrian-only promenade on Forest Avenue, which was created in June 2020 to help local businesses affected by COVID-19 restrictions, has since turned into a nearly-permanent fixture.

As life returned to a semblance of normalcy, some of the state’s cities and counties moved to return to their past expectations of complicated permitting processes and numerous fees. AB 1217 would change that, while helping allow for the continued conversion of parklets, alleys and sidewalks to new dining spaces.

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“Outdoor dining has become an important lifeline for restaurants,” said Madelyn Alfano, former chair of the California Restaurant Association Board of Directors, in a written statement. “It’s something that we have all come to love and enjoy.”

“Many restaurant owners have invested lots of money to build beautiful outdoor dining spaces to increase their capacity for private events and recoup some of their losses from these difficult past few years, said Alfano, who also owns San Fernando Valley restaurant Maria’s Italian Kitchen.

Assembly Bill 1217 will remain in effect until July 1, 2026.

​ Orange County Register 

Friday the 13th: Here’s a look at the superstition

• October 13, 2023

For now, consider yourself lucky. This is the last Friday the 13th you’ll have this year. The number 13 and Friday have been intertwined in irrational fear for centuries. Today seems a good day to look at bad luck.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Say what? Someone with Paraskevidekatriaphobia has an irrational fear of Friday the 13th. A Gallup poll in 1990 showed that only 9% of Americans believed that Friday the 13th was unlucky. The irrational fear of things associated with the number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia.

“Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Out of your Frigga mind

The origins of negativity associated with Friday and number 13 are not certain, but Friday has had a bad reputation in several ancient religions and cultures. The Norse goddess Frigga was a goddess of love, beauty, magic and death and Friday was named for her. Many Christians vilified the day named for a figure associated with witchcraft.

“I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. “

–Thomas Jefferson

Mark your calendar

In Italy, Friday the 17th is related to bad luck and 13 is often considered a lucky number.

Tuesday the 13th is considered to be a day of bad luck in Spanish speaking countries.

“Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work – and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”

–Lucille Ball

Traffic superstition

The British Medical Journal did a study in 1993 to examine if Friday the 13th was bad for your health. They studied traffic accidents on Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th over years and found that accidents increased as much as 52% on the 13th.

Maybe the Dutch are luckier than the British, because a Dutch study in 2008 found that Friday the 13th had a slight decrease in traffic accidents than the average totals on a Friday.

Here are 13 superstitious ways to bring good luck on Friday the 13th.

Picking a penny up that’s heads up
Looking at the moon over your right shoulder
A ladybug landing on you
A picture or statue of an elephant facing the door
A bird flying into your house
Hang garlic
Wear your birthstone
Listen to crickets
Find a four-leaf clover
Cross your fingers
Put sugar before liquid in the cup
If you see three butterflies
Wear clothes inside out

Friday follies

Friday has a negative connotation in many ways.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday. In British tradition most public hangings were carried out on a Friday. Sailors before the 18th century often refused to set sail on a Friday.

What’s in a number?

The number 13 has long been vilified, and some believe because it comes after a number that is very popular, 12: 12 months, 12 noon, 12 midnight, 12 signs of the zodiac, there were 12 gods of Olympus and the same number of apostles of Jesus.

In Norse folklore, number 13 got a bad name after their 12 gods had an uninvited guest that instigated a blind god of darkness to shoot an arrow and kill the god of joy.

Judas the apostle was the 13th guest to the Last Supper.

Also, 13 is considered Pagan because there are 13 months in the pagan lunar calendar.

Thirteen is avoided on hotel floors, room numbers, and office buildings. Many cities avoid the use of 13th street.

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Good luck at the box office

There have been 12 Friday the 13th films. The last version was in 2009. The 12 films had a total budget estimated around $81 million and have made over $374 million in the U.S.

Sources: History Channel, The Ohio State University, Live Science, Imdb

​ Orange County Register 

Boos!Letter: Pomona Fairplex transforms into the Fearplex for Halloween

• October 13, 2023

​ Orange County Register 

Teacher dead, 2 people wounded in France knife attack

• October 13, 2023

By John Leicester, Samuel Petrequin and Jeffrey Schaeffer | Associated Press

ARRAS, France — A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by French security services over suspected Islamic radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and critically wounded two other people Friday in northern France, authorities said.

The attack was being investigated by anti-terror prosecutors amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas. It also happened almost three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen near a Paris area school.

President Emmanuel Macron said France had been “hit once again by the barbarity of Islamist terrorism.”

“Nearly three years to the day after the assassination of Samuel Paty, terrorism has hit a school again and in a context that we’re all aware of,” Macron said at the site of the attack in Arras, a city 115 miles (185 kilometers) north of Paris.

A colleague and a fellow teacher identified the dead educator as Dominique Bernard, a French language teacher at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrolls students ages 11-18. The victim “stepped in and probably saved many lives” but the two wounded people — another teacher and a security guard — were fighting for theirs, according to Macron.

The French leader said police thwarted an “attempted attack” in another region of the country after the teacher’s fatal stabbing. He did not provide details, but police said a man armed with a knife was arrested coming out of a prayer hall in the Yvelines region west of Paris. The man’s motives weren’t immediately clear, police said.

The suspected assailant in Arras was arrested. The National Police force identified him as a Russian national of Chechen origin who was born in 2003. The French intelligence services told The Associated Press the man had been closely watched since the summer with tails and telephone surveillance and was stopped as recently as Thursday for a police check that found no wrongdoing.

Sliman Hamzi, a police officer who was one of the first on the scene, said the suspected attacker, a former student at the school, shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic.

Hamzi said he was alerted by another officer, rushed to the school and saw a male victim lying on the ground outside the school and the attacker being taken away. He said the victim had his throat slit.

“I’m extremely shocked by what I saw,” the officer said. “It was a horrible thing to see this poor man who was killed on the job by a lunatic.”

Macron traveled to Arras along with the interior and education ministers. Macron stopped for a moment before the blanket-covered body of the teacher, which was in the parking lot in front of the school. A puddle of blood was visible as forensic experts worked around the body.

Macron then went to see students from the school in an adjacent building.

School attacks are rare in France, and the government asked authorities to heighten vigilance at all schools across the country.

Julie Duhamel, an official with the the Unsa teachers’ union in the Pas-de-Calais region that includes Arras, told Franceinfo that teachers had flagged the suspect’s radicalization “a few years ago.”

The suspected assailant’s telephone conversations in recent days gave no indication of an impending attack, leading intelligence officers to conclude that the assailant decided suddenly on Friday to act, intelligence services told the AP.

Police said the suspect’s younger brother was taken into custody for questioning on Friday.

An older brother was arrested in the summer of 2019 by the DGSI — France’s counter-terrorism intelligence service — on suspicion of being involved in the planning of an attack that was thwarted, and is in jail, French intelligence said.

The older brother also was a former pupil at the high school targeted Friday, according to legal records from his trial earlier this year on terror-related charges. Investigation records show that during a school class in 2016 about freedom of expression, the older brother defended a terror attack in 2015 that killed 12 cartoonists at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

The older brother is serving a 5-year prison term for terror offences. He was convicted this year of involvement in a plot for an armed attack around the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris that was thwarted by the intelligence services. Other members of the radical Islamist group were also jailed for up to 15 years. He was the group’s only Chechen.

Friday’s attack had echoes of Paty’s slaying on Oct 16, 2020 — also a Friday — by an 18-year-old who had become radicalized. Like the suspect in Friday’s stabbings, the earlier attacker had a Chechen background; police shot and killed him.

Martin Doussau, a philosophy teacher at Gambetta-Carnot, said the assailant was armed with two knives and appeared to be hunting specifically for a history teacher. Paty taught history and geography.

“I was chased by the attacker, who … asked me if I teach history. (He said), ‘Are you a history teacher, are you a history teacher?’” said Doussau, who recounted how he barricaded himself behind a door until police used a stun gun to subdue the attacker.

“When he turned around and asked me if I am a history teacher, I immediately thought of Samuel Paty,” Doussau told reporters.

Prosecutors said they were considering charges of terror-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect.

The attack came amid heightened tensions around the world over Hamas’ attack on southern Israel and Israel’s blistering military response, which have killed hundreds of civilians on both sides.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Thursday ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts.

France is estimated to have the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the U.S., as well as the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

France’s National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, held a minute of silence for the victims at the opening of its Friday session.

Macron said the school in Arras would reopen as soon as Saturday morning, and he urged the people of France to “stay united.”

“The choice has been made not to give in to terror,” he said. “We must not let anything divide us, and we must remember that schools and the transmission of knowledge are at the heart of this fight against ignorance.”

Leicester reported from Paris and Petrequin from Brussels. Angela Charlton in Paris, Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Lyon and Michel Spingler in Arras, France, contributed.

​ Orange County Register 

No. 10 USC at No. 21 Notre Dame: Who has the edge?

• October 13, 2023

No. 10 USC (6-0) at No. 21 Notre Dame (5-2)

When: 4:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana

TV/Radio: NBC/790 AM

Line: Notre Dame by 2½

Notable injuries: NOTRE DAME: PROBABLE: S Thomas Harper (concussion protocol), WR Jaden Greathouse (hamstring), RT Blake Fisher (hand), USC: QUESTIONABLE: WR Zachariah Branch (undisclosed), LB Mason Cobb (undisclosed, possibly rib)

What’s at stake: Bowl-game – and potentially College Football Playoff – implications. Not quite as dramatic, and certainly plenty more fluid, than when Notre Dame came to the Coliseum at the end of USC’s 2022 season in the Heisman capper for Trojans QB Caleb Williams, but facts are facts: The Trojans and Fighting Irish drag heavy chips on padded shoulders to a rainy Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday. USC is 6-0, in a record that’s impressed few amid tight games against Colorado and Arizona and never-ending chatter over the defense; Notre Dame is 5-2 and reeling after a disheartening loss to Louisville. Each program can make a national statement Saturday.

Who’s better? Hey, here’s the first time this question in this space has a sort-of unclear answer! Notre Dame’s offense was rolling behind running back Audric Estime and Wake Forest transfer quarterback Sam Hartman – and then hasn’t scored more than 21 points in three consecutive games. USC has more depth at skill positions, but that’s offset by a drastic gap in defensive results, particularly as Notre Dame wields a strong cornerback duo in Benjamin Morrison and Cam Hart. The edge here – just as in last year’s battle for the Shillelagh – may come down to Williams and uncorked bursts of on-the-fly glorious spontaneity.

Matchup to watch: Ah. So many. Let’s get specific: Estime vs. USC’s linebacker group. The Trojans have had zero cohesion at the ILB spot, and may have even less Saturday as captain Mason Cobb was absent from media viewing periods at practice Tuesday and Wednesday. Freshman Tackett Curtis got literally bowled over on one play last week by Arizona’s Jonah Coleman, who ran for 143 yards, and Estime is an explosive 227-pound back who’s run for 692 yards in seven games. Perhaps we’ll see more of Eric Gentry, who’s been highly productive in limited snaps over the past few weeks.

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USC wins if: Caleb Williams continues to show why NFL teams should tank for him (hi, Sean Payton), the Trojans hold Estime to sub-100 yards on the ground (a mark he hasn’t hit in his last three games), and Hartman doesn’t spawn any more TikTok fancams.

Prediction: USC 31, Notre Dame 28. If Lincoln Riley’s Tuesday speech backing his defense held any weight, Saturday could make him look genius. The world shall see Saturday.

​ Orange County Register