The Errant Æsthete

Americans packed up and headed to airports and train stations hours ahead of time Wednesday to get a jump on what was predicted to be the largest Thanksgiving pilgrimage ever—despite rising gas prices and fears of air delays. A record 38.7 million U.S. residents were expected to travel 50 miles or more for the holiday.

And just got in on this interesting development: Planes crisscrossing the East Coast will have access to military airspace Wednesday afternoon, a handy accommodation as fog and winter weather threaten to make one of the year’s busiest travel days even more tedious. Thousands of square miles of airspace usually reserved for the military will become available to commercial airliners at 4 p.m. ET, but it will be up to the Federal Aviation Administration to decide whether to use it.