For immediate release

MILTON,VT - September 25, 2007 - Adirondack Towels and Scrubs, a national supplier to the hospitality industry, announces their selection of the most outrageous travel stories of summer 2007.

Adirondack Towels and Scrubs keeps their customers up to date on important industry developments with daily news links posted on their web site's home page as well as weekly newsletters sent via email. Every 3 months the company issues their most outrageous travel stories for the previous quarter.

This quarter's most outrageous travels stories are:

Air Traffic Controllers “Dress Up” to Protest FAA
Some air traffic controllers this summer found an unusual way to protest a new FAA dress code – they wore dresses to work. Controllers say the new rules don’t make sense. One controller in Oakland was sent home to change because his pants were too wrinkled. A Maryland supervisor said one controller couldn't wear a certain pair of pants because they had "jean-like seams." Another controller was disciplined because he wore an orange shirt that a supervisor said "looked like a highway traffic cone." In response, some controllers at one facility protested the crackdown by coming to work in dresses. Another wore an all-purple outfit, save for white pants, with purple snakeskin shoes. Union spokesman Doug Church said the controllers are showing how ridiculous the new regulations are because they don't bar men from wearing dresses.
 
Stressed Out People Trash Madrid Hotel
Armed with heavy duty mallets, a group of 40 carefully selected, highly stressed folks in Spain got an opportunity to blow off some steam on July 3. They were given the chance to help demolish the 146 room luxury Alcala hotel. The team was granted free reign to let out their aggression and pent up stress any way they liked. Jorge Costa, an unemployed nurse, went on the rampage in room 205, driving his sledge hammer into the bathroom mirror. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he shattered the wall tiles, smashed the bathtub and pulverized the toilet. He battered the room’s door off its hinges. Then slumping on the bed amid clouds of dust and heaps of destruction, he shook his head saying, “I never dreamt anything could be this much fun.” As well as releasing some pent up aggression, the destruction also paved the way for the planned renovation of the 11 year old property. Once the hotel’s renovation is complete, the stress team members will be invited back to spend a night – without their sledgehammers.
 
Chatty Toddler Booted From Plane
Kate Penland claims she and her son were kicked off a Continental Express plane in June after she refused a flight attendant's request to medicate her young son to keep him from talking. The woman from suburban Atlanta said she and her 19 month old son, Garren, boarded the Continental Express plane after an 11 hour delay in Houston on a flight from Atlanta to Oklahoma. According to Penland, her toddler kept saying, “Bye bye, plane." The flight attendant objected and told Penland, “It's not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up.'" When Penland asked the woman if she was kidding, the flight attendant reportedly replied, "You know, it's called baby Benadryl." Penland told the attendant, “Well, I'm not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight.'” Penland says other passengers began speaking up on her behalf, but the flight attendant announced they were turning around and that Penland and Garren were going to be taken off the plane. Another passenger on the flight says none of the other passengers had problems with Garren and that Penland never threatened the flight attendant.
 
Guest Shows Up a Year Early for Wedding
Dave Barclay flew 3,500 miles from Toronto to Wales to attend his friend’s wedding. Unfortunately he was a year early. The error came after his friend, Dave Best, sent him an email at the beginning of 2007 mentioning he was getting married on July 6. Despite getting no further confirmation or even receiving a wedding invitation, Barclay made plans to attend. He says, “So I booked my ticket, paid £500 to fly into Cardiff, got the old suit cleaned, the goatee trimmed, the head shaved - I was going to be the belle of the ball. I called his mum to find his number and then I called him up and I said, 'When and where is this wedding? It's in a couple of days and I'd just like to know where I'm going.’ He said to me, 'Mate it's not this year, it's next year - 2008 not 2007.’”  Now Barclay is the butt of jokes from his friends. “They keep asking me the time, showing me today's newspaper, calling me the time traveler." Barclay plans to make the same trip again next year.
 
Fly Larvae Found in Traveler’s Head
Aaron Dallas brought back an unusual souvenir from Belize in July – fly larvae buried in his skull. Dallas had bleeding bumps on his head that were moving and making noises. After initially being told he was suffering from shingles, Dr Kimball Spence eventually found five active bot fly larvae living near the top of Dallas's skull. The larvae, each about one-third the size of a penny and living in an open pit on his head, were thought to have been placed there by a mosquito. “I'd put my hand back there and feel them moving. I thought it was blood coursing through my head," said Dallas. "I could hear them. I actually thought I was going crazy."  Before receiving the correct diagnosis, Dallas tried different creams and salves, but the pain only got worse. "It was weird and traumatic. I would get this pain that would drop me to my knees."  Dr. Spence says, “It was pretty obvious that something was going on. There was an open pit. You could see a little activity, not necessarily the larvae, but a fluctuation of the fluid in the pit." Dr. Spence was able to remove the parasites. Dallas’ wife teases him about the ordeal, telling him, “I will love you through your maggots.”’ "It's much funnier to everyone else," says Dallas.
 
Panda Poop Souvenirs
The world's largest giant panda research center in southwest China's Sichuan Province has come up with a novel way to profit from panda dung - they make souvenirs out of it. Researchers at the Chengdu center have sculpted photo frames, bookmarks, fans and panda statues out of the 300 tons of droppings produced by 60 giant pandas each year. An official at the center, Jing Shimin, said the souvenirs are relatively odor free. "They don't smell too bad because 70 per cent of the dung is just remains of the bamboo that the pandas are unable to digest.” According to Jing, the panda dung is carefully selected and then smashed, dried and sterilized at a temperature of 300 degrees Celsius to provide clean raw material for the manufacturers. Craftsmen then draw or sculpt figures by hand for tourists to take home. “We used to spend at least 6,000 yuan (US $770) every month to get rid of the droppings but now they can prove lucrative as half of them will be sold as souvenirs." Jing says the center is working with a local handicraft company to produce the souvenirs.
 
Drunken Flight Attendant Arrested
A flight attendant for regional carrier Atlantic Southwest Airlines (ASA) was removed from a flight on August 4 and arrested for allegedly being drunk and threatening the pilot. Sarah Mills, 26, was taken from the ASA plane at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky. She was arraigned in court on August 6 and pleaded not guilty to the charges. The FAA charged Mills with making terrorist threats, intoxication and violating a law against being a crew member of an airplane while drunk. According to court records, a breath test found her blood alcohol level was .032. Mills refused to take blood and urine tests. Court records also said Mills admitted drinking whiskey on the plane. Officials at the Lexington airport said Mills threatened the plane's captain, telling him "You're dead" as she was being removed from the plane. Kate Modolo, a spokeswoman for the carrier, said, “ASA does not tolerate the alleged behavior. We are conducting an internal investigation and will take appropriate action." 
 
Air Passenger Smuggles Monkey Under His Hat
Passengers aboard Spirit Airlines Flight 180 from Fort Lauderdale to New York's La Guardia Airport on August 7 had an unexpected travel companion: a fist-sized marmoset monkey. The animal’s owner originally departed from Lima, Peru, and connected in Fort Lauderdale - apparently hiding the small monkey in his ponytail, under his hat. Incredibly, he managed to get through security with the animal undetected at two different airports. During the flight to New York, however, the monkey crawled out of its hiding spot, forcing the owner to hold it in his hands where fellow passengers and crew members spotted him. The New York Port Authority Police Department was contacted by Spirit Airlines, and officials met the owner and the monkey at the gate.

250 Reptiles Found in Luggage
In August, security officials in Cairo Airport found hundreds of live reptiles in carry-on luggage belonging to a Saudi man. The 22 year old passenger was attempting to smuggle live cobras, chameleons and baby crocodiles to Riyadh. Police become suspicious when X-ray machines at the departure gate gave odd readings. An airport vet said the haul included 250 baby crocodiles in addition to the cobra and chameleons. The animals were confiscated and turned over to the Cairo Zoo. The Saudi passenger, identified only as Anas, said he needed the reptiles for scientific research at his university in Saudi Arabia. Anas claimed he did not know transporting live animals out of Egypt is illegal. Authorities later allowed the man to board the flight. This was the second major smuggling attempt at Cairo airport this summer. Another Saudi man was stop in May for having 700 live snakes in his luggage.
 
Only Good News at UK Theme Park
A theme park in England has stopped selling newspapers because the general manager says he doesn’t want bad news to interfere with his guests having fun. “Alton Towers is all about fantastical escapism, a place where people can temporarily forget about the world outside, let their hair down and escape with their families," says GM Russell Barnes. “Exposure to bad news, politics and serious subjects like global warming have no place in the park, hence this decision." The theme park previously sold 7 newspapers. One visitor, Janice Broadhurst, 54, said the move punishes older people. "It's nice to sit in the grounds of Alton Towers and read the paper. This could mean that fewer people will go, if all the park has to offer is the rides." But Amy Smith, 21, says, "I wouldn't sit and read a newspaper at Alton Towers, but if people do want to read one, there's nothing to stop them from taking their own."
 
Fake Bills Don’t Fool Nashville Strippers
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but don’t try passing phony money to strippers in Nashville. Damon Armagost pleaded guilty in August to printing counterfeit $100 bills to pay for lap dances at the Deja Vu strip club. In total, Armagost passed $600 in fake currency at the club on April 16. He pleaded guilty to printing a total of $1,400 in counterfeit bills from an image of a $100 bill he downloaded on his computer. The crime came to light after the strippers got suspicious of the fake money and called Metro Nashville police. Armagost initially told the cops he got the money when he sold some gold coins to an unidentified person. Upon investigating, the U.S. Secret Service agents determined that counterfeit bills with the same serial number had been passed in other parts of the country. When they went to Armagost's home to interview him, a family member informed the agents they had recently observed the image of a $100 bill on their computer. Armagost is scheduled to be sentenced on November 5 in U.S. District Court.
 
Airline Offers Sacrifice to Appease Hindu God
Officials at Nepal's state-run airline sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft. Royal Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing jets, had to suspend some services due the problem. An airline spokesperson says the goats were sacrificed on September 2 in front of the troublesome aircraft at Nepal's only international airport in Katmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions. The goats were beheaded with a khukuri, a traditional curved knife. “The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official. He did not explain what the problem was. Local media blamed the problems on an electrical fault. The carrier runs international flights to five cities in Asia. Nepal Airlines has been dogged by corruption scandals and ineffective management causing tourism officials to demand a major shake-up of the airline, long criticized for its dismal service. It’s common in Nepal to sacrifice animals like goats and buffalos to appease different Hindu deities.