He hurries to hush Hopkins hubbub ... Hah!

It's been almost two weeks since the Airline That Shall Not Be Named (hint: it rhymes with "short-sighted") emptied its septic tanks over Cleveland, but we're still smarting.

That's in spite of the vice chairman and chief of revenue who tried to explain why his company was closing its hub at Hopkins. He began with one of those PR cliches I just love:

"The point I really want to stress is how difficult this decision is. We take it very seriously." After moaning about how the company had been losing money for 10 years, he added, "You don't create demand. You have to react to demand."

This would be news to his marketing people who budgeted $15 million last year hoping to increase sales by 10 percent. We don't know how much was allotted to the Cleveland market, but the company's plans called for cutting back the number of newspaper ads in the Plain Dealer.

Meanwhile a ranking of airlines receiving the fewest complaints last year listed this company 15th among 16. Hmmm, is there some connection here?

Twelve months of Christmas

The Cleveland Foundation (CF) is celebrating its centennial year with 12 gifts to Clevelanders, beginning with free RTA rides in January and a North Coast Harbor weekend in February (tickets to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum and the Great Lakes Science Center.)

So, as our song goes:

In the second month of Christmas

my CF gave to me

two North Coast tickets

and a ride on the RTA for free