Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

The TSA Does Not Like Your Luggage [BoingBoing]

When the Yellowstone Club filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, company execs were quick to reassure the clubs roster of billionaire moguls that the resort would remain open for the ski season. Now it looks like Bill Gates, Barry Sternlicht, Peter Chernin, Dan Quayle and the club's other members are going to need to find someplace else to spend Christmas vacation. Court filings indicate that the club doesn't have enough money to make monthly payroll, or even pay this month's food and electricity bills. What will happen? One suggestion: "Gates can just buy it and save the hassle of worrying about where to ski this winter." [WSJ]

Yellowstone Club Goes Under | It looks like hotel mogul Barry Sternlicht, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Hollywood boss Peter Chernin may need to make some adjustments to their 2009 vacation itineraries: The Yellowstone Club, the invitation-only private ski and golf resort in Montana for the exceedingly wealthy, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday. Club officials say the resort will remain open for the ski season, but its long-term prospects are unclear. The good news is that the club's 340 members will no longer have to fork over $16,000 a year in membership dues. The not-so-good news: Their $250,000 initiation fees just went down the drain. [AP]

Sarah Palin says she plans to return the six-figure wardrobe that got her into so much trouble in the run-up to the election. But she's already had to part ways with another campaign perk: the plane that jetted her around the country over the past couple of months. The Embraer E190 that the McCain campaign leased from JetBlue to fly the Wasilla hillbillies from place to place touched down in Anchorage yesterday to deposit the governor in her home state. It's now on its way back to New York where it will be stripped of its McCain/Palin logo and rejoin JetBlue's fleet of jets based at JFK. At least now there's a very good explanation if you happen to come across a Neiman Marcus shopping bag stuffed under your seat.

DayJet's Loss Is Your Gain | Too picky for commercial air travel and too poor these days to buy a jet of your own. Thanks to the downfall of DayJet, the air taxi service that suspended operations in September, the company is selling its fleet of 28 slightly-used Eclipse 500 jets for the "bargain price" of $1.5 million apiece. The only catch? The planes are being sold as-is, which means you'd better like DayJet's brightly-colored paint scheme and interiors, because that's what you're going to get. [Flying Magazine]

Free Trip to Paris (With a Few Strings Attached) | A research company is looking for volunteers willing to fly to Paris to evaluate the impact of jet lag on the human body. You'll get a free round-trip ticket and $2,500 in cash for your trouble. What could be the bad news? Did we mention you'll be confined to a research facility once you arrive, and you'll be pumped with a drug used to treat narcolepsy while you're there? [JetLagStudy.net, NYDN]

As you probably suspected, luxury hotels are feeling the pinch as the economy spirals downward. It's not just the fact that tourists are no longer interested in paying $1,750 a night for a room when their brokerage accounts are imploding at the same time. The corporate travel market is shifting, too, and some companies are shying away from sending employees to fancy hotels for fear that bad press will follow when people find out that these are the same companies laying people off right and left. Imagine that! More

If you're looking for a cheap but stylish place to put up your relatives this holiday season, you now have a new option to add to the list of possibilities: the Guggenheim. The "theanyspacewhatever" exhibit, which opens today, features a "Revolving Hotel Room," an art installation that doubles as an actual hotel room. The space sleeps two and rates for the room start at just $259 a night, making it as affordable as the Holiday Inn in Midtown. More

How to Sneak Your Liquor Past the TSA | If you've had your doubts about the security measures in place at the nation's airports, you may not be too happy to hear that it's actually much worse than you ever imagined. In the November issue of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg shows you how he managed to get by the TSA with fake boarding passes, terrorist manuals packed in his carry-on, and liquid strapped to his chest. [Atlantic] 

Coming Soon: Plane Bathroom Ads | They're already wrapping subway cars with ads and covering tray tables with marketing messages. Why not just cover every square inch of planes' interiors with pitches for Claritin and Tide detergent? Why not, indeed. A handful of US carriers are now planning to increase revenues by putting ads on bathroom doors and overhead bins. [AP]

America Is Staying Home | One more sign of the economic crisis upon us: many airports are now devoid of travelers. On the plus side, at least you won't have to wait in line to have your cuticle scissors confiscated. [Jaunted]

No In-Flight Porn For You | Unfortunate news for frequent flyers who also happen to be sexual compulsives: Both American Airlines and Delta now say they will block access to porn sites on their in-flight WiFi networks. [Mirror]

NYC to India: Please Come and Visit | New York City's tourism marketing agency, NYC & Company, announced today that it plans to open a tourism office in Mumbai. An ad campaign directed at Indian tourists will soon feature hotel developer Sant Singh Chatwal, director Mira Nair, and cookbook author/TV hostess Padma Lakshmi. Because clearly there's no better way to endear the city to a billion Indians than to feature a man accused in his native country of bank fraud and a woman who dumped her Indian husband for an elderly, white billionaire. [City Room] 

Looking to reserve a spot for your New Year's Eve party? The Renaissance Hotel in Times Square is planning to auction off its third-floor restaurant, which formerly housed the much-maligned Chop Suey, with the bidding starting at $150,000. Spending that kind of money on a lousy restaurant located within a lousy hotel might seem a little strange. (Hey, for the same amount, you could hold a party for five straight nights in the most expensive suite room in town.) But we're guessing the hotel's general manager realizes this, too, since he says he expects "someone from overseas"—someone who's never actually been to the hotel, we're presuming—to ring in with the highest bid.

New York to London for $17? | Here's some good news if you're worried about the economy: Ryanair, the discount European airline, is planning to introduce fares from the US to London for as little as £10. It isn't clear if that's for a one-way ticket or it's roundtrip, although at those prices we're not sure it matters. [Telegraph via PSFK]