“I’m heading to Tampa, which is such a glamorous, exciting place,” she joked. The fashion maven is scheduled to join Donna Karan for a taping for the Home Shopping Network. “Then I’m heading out during Easter to go to Beaver Creek to go skiing with my boyfriend and then out to L.A. to shoot something.”

Ms. Stephenson fancies a stay at the rustically opulent Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch (ritzcarlton.com). Guests this season should be aware, however, of the resort’s $15 million renovation, which will mean a few venue closings. We couldn’t get much more in before Lucy Sykes, fashion director at Rent the Runway, butted in.

“I’m going to Jaipur, India, and Dubai!” she announced.

“Where do you stay in Jaipur?” NYO asked her.

“At the Rambagh Palace whole thing,” she raved. “For some reason, my husband [Euan Rellie] was like, ‘We’re going to India and Dubai, and we’re taking the kids.’ So they’re starting their medications tonight and that’s that!”

We recommend she and her kin check into one of the Taj Hotels-owned property’s splendiferous suites with views of the Mughal Terrace and the Maharaja’s Garden. She better have already booked: a mid-March search showed blocks of the resort already sold out (tajhotels.com).

In fact, we too had been attempting a visit to India. Susan Shin had recently invited us to join His Highness Maharaja Gaj Singh II of Marwar-Jodhpur in the Blue City for his new philanthropic initiatives, the “One World Retreat” and the Indian Head Injury Foundation. We sadly couldn’t attend.

The Sykes/Rellie clan aren’t the only ones heading to the United Arab Emirates—designer Charlotte Ronson is planning a visit there as well.

“I’m thinking of possibly going to Dubai for fun,” she told us at the after-party for the premiere of Oz the Great and Powerful. She said she had traveled there once before, this past November. For spring travelers in search of the high life, why not enter the desert playground, albeit one perhaps devoid of funky character and open debauchery. NYO suggests flying Emirates. If you can swing it, why not cough up the $20,436.70 for a round-trip, first-class private suite, boasting amenities such as five-star dining, an in-cabin shower and a lounge (emirates.com). Then it’s straight to the tallest and most moderno accommodation, the Armani Hotel Dubai in the Burj Khalifa tower (dubai.armanihotels.com). Those looking for a better rate should seek out the racetrack-adjacent Meydan Hotel and its grand Shiba Bar (meydanhotels.com).

Ski-Bunny Hop

The tremendously chic financière Alexandra Lebenthal, who also attended the Love Heals Gala, explained that she had in fact settled on the fluffy slopes of Lake Tahoe for her vacation. “I’m going for four days to ski. I’m staying at a friend’s condo.”

Most Sierra Nevada skiers and mountaineers fly into San Francisco International Airport and drive, but another option is Reno-Tahoe Airport, which is served by Alaska, Delta, American, United and US Air, among others (renoairport.com).

At the ever-popular Heavenly Mountain Resort, you may find suitable accommodations at the Marriott Grand Residence Club, located in the prime Gondola Base Area, or if Squaw’s reported 25 feet of snow this season is a draw, check out the condo-style lodging at The Village (skilaketahoe.com).

“I’ve never been there,” Ms. Lebenthal continued. “I’m flying to San Francisco and driving from there and then going back to do some business.”

Mixing work with pleasure is simply the way to go in this chaotic and stressful day and age.

Saks Fifth Avenue contributor and “hungry editor” blogger Benjamin Setiawan rented a house with friends in Tahoe and flew United Airlines into San Francisco.

“We skied Squaw,” he told us. “The snow was good this year; there were definitely certain trails that were better than others.” As for his favorite culinary joint? Wildflour Baking Company. “Fresh cookies right out of the oven—so good!”
Jeff Goldstein, owner of the Blue & Cream boutiques, is also a skiing fan.

“We spend our whole summer in the paradise of the Hamptons, working. So in the ‘off-season,’ we need our holidays. We go skiing in Snowmass [aspensnowmass.com], Aspen’s snowboarding-friendly sister mountain.” Mr. Goldstein recommended a stay at the Viceroy [viceroyhotelsandresorts.com/snowmass], “Because the ski-in, ski-out experience cannot be beat.” When the man’s hungry, he heads to Paradise Bakery, where he gobbles up zucchini-nut muffins. “I think all year about [it],” he said. He also enjoys being greeted by Nobuko Kang for sushi dinners at Matsuhisa in Aspen [matsuhisaaspen.com].

“After sake bombs and way too much sushi, stumble over to Caribou Club [caribouclub.com] and fall into a couch. It’s like a place lost in time where you always see the same old friends,” he enthused.

Neighbors to the North

At Padma Lakshmi’s Blossom Ball to support The Endometriosis Foundation of America, Susan Sarandon, who spoke at the event, told us that she had just returned from Atlanta, where she was working on location. “Now I’m going to Toronto—I’m working,” she confessed. Her favorite place to unwind and have some fun? “I have a club! SPiN!” (toronto.spingalactic.com.)

That’s right, the Ping-Pong social club has expanded internationally, and the 12,000-square-foot space located at 461 King Street West in downtown Toronto is no laughing matter. There are enough booze and leisure games to entertain even the fussiest vacationer.

If you’re in town, go see Patti Smith’s not-to-be missed “Camera Solo” show at the Art Gallery of Ontario (ago.net), which will remain open until May 19. Our Toronto connoisseur recommended dinner and a bottle of Barolo at Mark McEwan’s Bymark (bymark.mcewangroup.ca) and a pampering stay at the ultra-hip Drake Hotel in West Queen West (thedrakehotel.ca).

All Work and a Lot of Play

Actor S. Epatha Merkerson, also at the Blossom Ball, divulged even bigger upcoming plans: “I’m going to Luxembourg, but I’m going to work. I’m gonna do a film. I’ve never been there,” she told NYO. “I’m looking forward to just getting out of the country and in a new environment.”

We should have given her a few pointers, aside from enjoying the beautiful abbeys and winding Greco-Roman streets. Par example: take a 1 p.m. lunch at Ristorante Roma (roma.lu)—be sure to make a reservation. And, if the film’s budget permits, Ms. Merkerson should rest her weary head at the wondrous contemporary temple, Albert Premier Hotel (hotelalbertpremier.lu). She might want to even venture to the Luxembourg City History Museum, which features 17th- to 19th-century restored residences on Rue du Saint-Esprit and explores the thousand-odd years of Le Grand Duchy de Luxembourg (mhvl.lu).

Restaurateur and nightlife stud Ronnie Madra doesn’t have much time for holidays. “I never have a break!” he told us at his hot spot The Darby, which co-hosted the after-party for the screening of Olympus Has Fallen with the Cinema Society.

“If I take time off, I do it in the spring. I go to Miami or upstate New York.”

“Where do you stay?” NYO asked.

“I have a friend with a house out there; I think the hotels are not so great in Miami.”

Well now Mr. Madra, let’s be fair! The Mondrian, The Raleigh, Soho House, the W South Beach, the SLS and the newfangled James Royal Palm aren’t exactly dumps.

Mr. Madra however, did admit that he loves to hit the nightlife.

“I have my own party at the house, and then I like to go to Story Night Club. It’s a big club [storymiami.com, 136 Collins Avenue]. If I want chill time, I go to Casa Tua [casatualifestyle.com/miami/]. It’s very sexy,” he said with a come-hither smile.

Huddling with a group of pals toward the entrance of the club was the star of the film, Gerard Butler. We asked him how he planned to relax.

“I’ve already been in a lot of countries promoting this film,” he said. “I’ve been in eight weeks in Italy, France, Switzerland, Thailand, Colombia, Panama, Mexico. Some to just get away.”

We could only wonder if he had stayed at the mystical Tcherassi Hotel + Spa (tcherassihotels.com) in Cartagena. It’s out-of-this-world design-porn.

“The best days I spent were skiing in Mont Blanc and on a motorbike going through the mountains of Thailand,” he said.
NYO knows that some of the world’s best skiing can be found at Chamonix (chamonix.com), but we’re a bit less informed about rural expeditions in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

Speaking of fun in the sun, we asked Josh Taekman, co-founder of Eboost, a health-energy drink: should we follow everyone’s lead and go to Tulum? Or is the roaring art scene in Mexico City where it’s at? “Cabo San Lucas,” was his answer. I suppose a stay at the clandestine Capella Pedregal does a body good (capellahotels.com). Then again, we’ll be sure to pack plenty of his Eboost to battle through our inevitable springtime vacation hangovers.

(Photo: Wikimedia)

When Hurricane Sandy overwhelmed New York City, the airport infrastructure naturally shut down along with everything else. As with the subway and bridge systems, however, it seems airplane travel is returning to normalcy.

Earlier today, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced the reopening of two airports in the metropolitan area, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty, to limited traffic, with the fate of LaGuardia Airport remaining uncertain as officials sought to repair and inspect the facility in the wake of flood damage. But that ambiguity did not last long; Governor Andrew Cuomo just declared LaGuardia will open too.

"Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced this afternoon the reopening of LaGuardia Airport tomorrow morning, November 1, at 7:00 AM," a press release proclaimed. "Both runways will be open."

Additionally, on the Port Authority's website, the agency said there will be "limited flight schedules" and advised, "Please contact your airline before traveling to the airport to determine the status of your flight."

The Jitney: White whine included (HamptonsJitney.com)

Spring skirt trends have given way at The New York Times to the more topical issues facing Manhattanites: like how to escape from New York City and get up to the Hamptons.

Three stories in two days debated the relative pros and cons of train, bus, and air travel upstate, but we're still left with a nagging question...do we have to go? (That's rhetorical, obviously, yes, you have to go to the Hamptons. Every weekend. All summer.) The only thing missing is an in-depth profile on seaplanes.

So for a quick refresher course--just in case you don't have time to read a 1,000 word piece on how much alcohol 21-year-olds consume on the LIRR, we've summed up The Grey Lady's stance on each method of getting your tuchus to Montauk.

 1. The Jitney

Dissected in: "To The Hamptons, and Step On It!" (July 13)

White Whine:

"They should hand out Xanax,” said Julia Kirchhausen, a communications consultant, after taking the Ambassador on a Friday afternoon....One woman asked for two snacks. The attendant said no. The woman asked for two newspapers: The New York Times and Dan’s Papers. The attendant said she could have one or the other, not both.

The Upshot: "Most of the time...the ride is almost library-quiet."

The Takeaway: If you can't bear the traffic, get drunk on The Ambassador, which serves...what else? White wine.

2. The Long Island Railroad

Dissected in: "The Hamptons Party Starts on the Train Tracks" (July 14th)

White Wine:

Some riders carve islands of civility amid the packs of partyers. On the Friday train that carried the Johnsons, Hunter Brooks and Nevin Shetty, both 28, sat with a wooden chessboard balanced between them on their knees. “Do you have to party on a train?” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s nice to have a conversation.”

The Upshot: "I don’t want to get out there completely sober and everybody is already crunked up at the pool."

The Takeaway: If you're looking to get wasted, definitely check out the 5:09 on Track 18. Just don't go after midnight, when it's illegal.

3. Helicopters

Dissected in: "Sparing No Expense for a Copter Ride to the Hamptons" (July 14th)

White Wine:

It is also expensive: the charter fee for this flight — there is no scheduled helicopter service to East Hampton — was $3,400. The Eurocopter seats six, so if full, it costs about $567 per person.

Upshot:

This was a moment for gloating: below, the cars on the Long Island Expressway were inching toward Exit 53, where Fire Island-bound crowds headed onto the Sagtikos State Parkway.

Takeaway: If you are a rich, deaf person (the noise is so bad that a new federal regulations will require copters to fly a mile off-shore) who is not afraid of heights, than pack your Dramamine and try not to fall out!

But do you get to have a "sure-to-be mini-bottle laden plane ride?" This is how MTV describes the voyage the cast of "Jersey Shore" will take to Italy, the chosen location for the show's fourth season. There, they will reconnect with their ethic identities, immerse themselves in a foreign culture, get blackout drunk, have sex with each other, flex, study the works of Dante, take in a day of art at the Uffizi gallery, tan until dark orange, and get blackout drunk again.

TMZ ran rumors of the new locale earlier today, and then MTV confirmed it. The release is written with a lot of voice.

While "Jersey Shore" is a popular program internationally, there are bound to be plenty of people oblivious to "The Situation" and his colorful cronies, as well as the circus of debauchery they bring with them to every locale. Who knows how the OGs of Italy will react to our self-proclaimed guidos and guidettes? Luckily, Vinny's got first generation family (wait, there's more of them?!) who'll be nearby to offer up heaps of comfort food and some guidance on the cultural ways of "the beautiful country."

There are obvious Godfather allusions to be made here -- "laying low in the old country," Apollonia, etc -- but this reminds us more of Everything is Illuminated. You think Snooki's read it?

Click for Scandal Report: Champagne Mania Makes for A Boozy Golden Globes

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

As if the ongoing foreclosure fiasco wasn't already scary enough, the top Wall Street Journal item right now is the news that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are reviewing the work of the enormous Florida law firm run by David J. Stern, which they both have sent work to for years. It's the first time the mortgage giants have been directly drawn into the ongoing crisis, because though they don't actually service loans, they do use the foreclosure mills that are turning out to be rife with fraud.

Mr. Stern, wealthy and secretive, is turning into one of the foreclosure tragedy's main characters, although not much about his life and work are known--and the only public photos of him are grainy. His firm was put in the spotlight with the recent release of a deposition by one of his former paralegals, who described a kind of Coen brothers-tier shadiness: When Fannie would came in to look at processing, for example, employees would dress up nicely and begin "typing in what they want to see."

But even before that deposition, Mother Jones did a piece about Mr. Stern that described sexual harassment charges, a class-action racketeering case, and his 16,000-square-foot mansion, plus a neighbor's place he bought last year for $8 million, for tennis court space. "When people say, 'Oh my God, the economy is bad,' I'm like, 'Oh my God, it's great,'" he is said to have told a crowd at a conference this year, where the band Social Distortion played a private show.

In August, The Observer profiled Kerry Propper, the New York investor who recently acquired Mr. Stern's foreclosure processing business. "I believe in efficient markets," Mr. Propper said when asked about foreclosures. "An efficient market needs certain things, and the main thing, I've learned, over many years, is a rule of law."

The Jones article also said that besides four Ferraris, four Porsches, two Mercedes-Benzes, and a Bugatti, Mr. Stern has a jet-propelled, 130-foot, $20 million-plus yacht called "Misunderstood," which replaced his 108-foot boat called "Lady J." And The Times once mentioned, wonderfully, that Mr. Stern considered naming his new one something else, "Su Casa Es Mi Casa." It would have been the boating version of Greg Lippmann's famed I'm Short Your House!!! shirt, but Mr. Stern's wife and others "cautioned against it."

A search of photos passing through Port Everglades, the Florida boating hub, shows one yacht called "Misunderstood." It is sleek, white, and a dead ringer for something a Bond baddie would drive.

The DOJ posted a statement regarding the merger on its website, explaining:

The proposed merger would combine the airlines' largely complementary networks, which would result in overlap on a limited number of routes where United and Continental offer competing nonstop service. The largest such routes are between United's hub airports and Continental's hub at Newark airport, where Continental has a high share of service and where there is limited availability of slots, making entry by other airlines particularly difficult. The transfer of slots and other assets at Newark to Southwest, a low cost carrier that currently has only limited service in the New York metropolitan area and no Newark service, resolves the department's principal competition concerns and will likely significantly benefit consumers on overlap routes as well as on many other routes. The slot transfer is through a lease that permanently conveys to Southwest all of Continental's rights in the assets, in compliance with FAA rules.

The airlines announced plans to merge last spring and will likely close the deal in the next two weeks, with shareholder votes scheduled for September 17. Hopefully everyone with frequently flyer miles won't rush to cash them in now. Not that we're suggesting that or anything.

[NYT]

USA Today reports that these ubiquitous, rechargeable and sometimes impossible to remove batteries are a fairly new and serious concern for airlines. A concern that has nothing to do with possibly causing navigational woes:

FAA data show that from March 20, 1991, through Aug. 3, 2010, batteries and battery-powered devices were involved in 113 incidents with "smoke, fire, extreme heat or explosion" on passenger and cargo planes. The data are for lithium and non-lithium batteries and are not a complete list of such incidents, the agency says.

In January, the Transportation Department proposed stricter rules for companies that ship lithium batteries in cargo holds. "The frequency of incidents, combined with the difficulty in extinguishing lithium-battery fires, warrants taking strong action," Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, said of the Transportation Department's proposal.

An overheated lithium battery can cause a small explosion and the fire may not always be all that easy to put out. There is, however, no limit on how many of these a single passenger can carry on a given flight. Last June an American Airlines flight crew took 58 devices using these batteries from one passenger on a flight from New York to Buenos Aires.

If restrictions are passed on electronic devices using these batteries requiring their removal before boarding a flight, users of Apple devices in particular are going to find themselves with a serious problem, as many of the smaller Apple products require the battery be removed at an Apple store.

An hour later, the shears would be used to cut a man-made "vine," composed from pieces of plants: anthurium, hosta, English ivy and umbrella fern. The vine, in place of a ribbon, was a nod to the "greenness" of the hotel, which will be the largest LEED-certified hotel in the city. The certification isn't yet official, but Dan Tishman, chairman of the National Resources Defense Council, said he expects the hotel will receive the Silver rating.

"Because the hotel is 'green' we wanted to use the whole idea of all 'green,'" said Ivan Hall, who works with Kuki Design, which built the vine. "All of this will be recycled afterward."

Drew Schlesinger, general manager of the hotel, ascended the stage just before 11, kicking off the festivities. "I'm here to celebrate the 'green' opening of this hotel," he said.

He introduced Jim Anhut, senior vice president of franchise development for InterContinental hotels, who talked about his own contributions to "greenness."

"This is my contribution to LEED certified: I recycled my boarding pass and wrote my speech on that," he said. "We'll compare that later to the mayor with his little iPad."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who also stood on stage, smiled. He had been reviewing notes on his trusty iPad.

"This is jobs—J-O-B-S for Jets fans—jobs for our city," Mr. Bloomberg said in his speech. He spoke optimistically about the hotel industry, saying that occupancy rates in May 2010 were the highest of any period since 2002. He called the new InterContinental "not only one of the greatest hotels in the world but also the 'greenest.'"

"This is a wonderful day for New York," he said. "I hope we have a lot more of them."

walden@observer.com

"As much as it seems contrary to the kind of private ownership society that we've built, sharing is an impulse that we all... share. It's something that's been a part of our behavior since we lived on the savanna."

Mr. Pasternack, 27, is part of a team that's developed a new application for the iPhone called Weeels, designed to facilitate cab-sharing. The process is simple: Give the app your location and destination, and it matches you with others hoping to travel in the same direction. It calls a livery cab for you, gives you an ETA (usually about ten minutes) and pre-negotiates a price.

But its implementation is more complicated. The team developing Weeels talks about it like some utopian solution to urban transit woes, and in some ways it might be. But there's one major hurdle, one that has haunted many a social media start-up: in order for the service to really work, enough people have to start using it all at once. The hard part is convincing people to try the app and stick with it before that critical mass of users is in place.

Weeels owes its existence to a trip its creator, David Mahfouda, took on the Trans-Siberian railroad. He said he was "taken by how a structure like an extensive rail could be incredibly healthy for any society." Inspired, Mr. Mahfouda, now 27, started thinking of ways to improve urban transportation back home. His friends soon jumped on board.

"In some ways Weeels is like the 2.0 of public transportation," Mr. Pasternack said.

The team, a group of friends who first met as undergraduates at Harvard, has based their operation in Brooklyn, where the subway system is not as extensive as in Manhattan. They've signed a contract with Eastern Car Service, a Park Slope livery cab company, and they're working on contracts with other livery services. Weeels' competitors include an app called Fare/Share, but according to Daniel Luxemburg, 25, who joined the Weeels team at the beginning of this year, Fare/Share isn't nearly as handy: It doesn't actually call a cab.

"Weeels is the only one where you download the app and you press the buttons and a cab comes to get you," he said.

In that regard, the app can be useful even before it becomes popular-especially if, for some reason, users have difficulty hailing a cab in the conventional way.

"What's nice about Weeels is that it's actually functional in advance of building up a critical mass," Mr. Mahfouda said. "You get a pre-arranged fare, it's a good fare, and you don't have to worry about how long it's going to take for your car to show up."

But for Weeels to achieve its full potential, he said, "it requires a very extensive usership."

The team has been handing out lots of flyers. They also have Twitter account, which, as of this writing, has 83 followers. Mr. Pasternack said the Weeels team has tried to model its publicity campaign after that of the social networking platform Foursquare, which advertised at 2009's South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. "It depends on a thing starting and emanating out of a certain community in a geographic area," Mr. Pasternack said.

They're hoping that area is Brooklyn. The Weeels team set up kiosks at the Celebrate Brooklyn and Siren music festivals. Mr. Mahfouda said they've focused on "places where there are already a high number of people that need to get somewhere all at once."

When those places don't exist, Mr. Mahfouda will create them. He said the Weeels team has made partnerships with "venues," most of which are bars: "places where people would normally want to go." The venues help subsidize the cab fare for Weeels users (offering discounts as high as 50 percent), to encourage people to go there. This creates, Mr. Mahfouda said, "artificial densities."

He also said he's working on an algorithm that would allow Weeels users to hop in a cab that's already carrying someone else. Such a feature would increase "the time window during which sharing is possible."

The city, too, is trying to make cab-sharing catch on. The Taxi and Limousine Commission launched a program in March in which taxis behave like buses, carrying passengers along a pre-determined route. Compared to Weeels, it's primitive.

"It's not super convenient," Mr. Pasternack said.

The team has met with representatives from the Taxi and Limousine Commission and the city's Department of Transportation. Mr. Mahfouda said he's "eager" to speak with the mayor, as well.

"Bloomberg is trying to turn the city into the next Silicon Valley," Mr. Pasternack said. "Obviously there's an interest in technologies that help the city, that aren't just games or larks."

Moreover, the Met pulled in people with shows that, for want of a tonier phrase, were from the basement.  Director Tom Campbell said that three of the four exhibitions which were among the most viewed in the fiscal year were assembled from the Met's existing holdings (in other words, not pricey imported loan shows). The trend "is especially heartening," said Mr. Campbell, in a statement. (No word on whether the traffic will help solve some of the museum's fiscal problems in recent years.)   But the total "sends a signal about the enduring importance of culture and cultural institutions to the public, especially during this period of recession," the director added.

The attendance breakdown, year-to-date, is Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with 380,574 visitors (it's open until August 15); Vermeer's Masterpiece The Milkmaid, with 329,446 visitors, and American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity (also open to August 15) with 175,033 visitors. Although it's never crystal-clear how such counts are put together - don't lots of people head for the mummies, the Monets, and the gift shop? - the Starn Brothers' current show on the roof was also a big draw, the Met reported.

The U.S. still has a ways to go in the museum Olympics, however. When it comes to worldwide rankings, exhibitions in Paris and Tokyo were the most packed in 2009, according to The Art Newspaper's stats for the calendar year.