The man who helped biztraveler make its mark was Joe Brancatelli. This is what Joe had to say some 3 years later...

The Brancatelli File

FOLLIES

BY JOE BRANCATELLI
April 5, 2001 -- Today not only marks the beginning of the fourth year this column has appeared at biztravel.com, it is also the day that a major revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies premieres on Broadway.

There are two reasons why this confluence is worth noting.

First, I have always wanted to be mentioned in the same sentence with Sondheim. But you've been reading this column for all or part of the last three years and you know that my only shot at ever being mentioned in the same sentence with Sondheim is to write the damned sentence myself. So I just did.

Second, the central theme of Follies--Can you live with the choices you've made in your life?--is also apropos for this column. As we have gone side by side by side into the woods of business travel during the last three years, we have made a choice.

We have chosen, you and I, every week for three years, to talk about life on the road as it really is. We have discussed the fact that not everything is coming up roses. We have gone to Barcelona. And Madrid. We have preached what we believe to be the truth about each other and about the airlines. We have done it with passion. We're always sorry for what we find out there. We're always grateful for having had the opportunity to be on the road in the first place.

And, most importantly, we're still here. That, as Sondheim so wittily and disturbingly notes in Follies, is no small victory.

Finally today, on the beginning of the fourth year when we first began meeting in this particular shard of Cyberspace, I need to disabuse you of two other follies.

There is a bizarre notion out there that this column belongs to me. There is also a weird suspicion that I create this column alone. Neither supposition could be further from the truth.

This column, in every sense, belongs to business travelers. This column wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Ronnie Smith, our editor, who accepts with faultless good humor my exasperating habit of filing The Brancatelli File and The Tactical Traveler just moments before she has to post them.

There are countless others--most whose names are unknown even to me--who have kept this site up and running. But one other name will never be forgotten: Ted Carter, the bon vivant who brought me here three years ago and championed biztravel.com's unswerving commitment to producing the truth according to business travelers.
This column originally appeared at biztravel.com.

Copyright ฉ 1993-2004 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.

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