The jolly old soul of Pomeroy

POMEROY, Iowa — As Leonard Olson turned a piece of exotic wood on his lathe, he easily could have been mistaken for Santa Claus, what with that bushy white beard and hair.

Except he was dressed in navy overalls — not a red suit. And, unless all the elves have the flu, Santa doesn't do the manual labor himself, does he?

Even so, at this time of year Olson calls his Kaleidoscope Factory — in tiny Pomeroy, Iowa — Santa's Workshop. In the weeks leading up to the holidays, he has been snowed under with orders for a variety of handmade wooden crafts — such as toy trains, puzzles and his trademark kaleidoscopes — all lovingly produced in the shop and classroom to which he welcomes visitors.

"This all was an offshoot of the hobby of woodworking," Olson explained as flurries dusted Pomeroy's Main Street on a recent Sunday afternoon.

As a kid growing up on an Iowa farm during the 1950s and '60s, he played with one of the cardboard kaleidoscopes that were mass-produced in St. Louis. But as an adult, Olson never gave them a thought until he got one as a gift. He received it while lying in a hospital bed recuperating from quintuple-bypass surgery.

"I paid attention to their reactions," he said of the medical staff who eagerly took turns peering through the eyepiece of Olson's present.

Those reactions to the ever-changing images and colors were so intriguing that Olson decided to make a major life change. He swapped his career as a computer software writer for the equally creative — but far less stressful — job of kaleidoscope creator.

"The basic thing is, it's got to have mirrors in it," he said of his prized product. "A lot of people think it's a prism, but it's not. It's mirrors. All the kaleidoscopes I make have three mirrors."

Those pieces of glass, which he tapes together, are then inserted in a hand-turned wooden tube. Olson works with exotic woods that have enchanting names such as African padauk, cocobolo and zebrawood.

"They're front-surface mirrors," he added. "The mirror you look at on the wall every morning is a second-surface mirror. The silvering's on the back.

"Front-surface mirrors are used in good kaleidoscopes, single lens reflex cameras, good telescopes. It's expensive but it's well worth it, because it gives a bright, sharp image because there's no refraction of the light."

The remaining components are a clear glass marble, which acts as a fisheye lens, and, in some scopes, a clear-glass wand filled with colorful objects that float in front of the marble, evoking wonderment from the beholder.

Olson loves to share his skills with visitors to his shop. They come from all over the world, as evidenced by the scads of pushpins placed on a large map on one wall. This year he has had visitors from 26 states and six foreign countries.

A trip to Pomeroy, about 30 miles northwest of Fort Dodge, is worth it as much for a chat with the philosophical Olson as it is to see him craft his one-of-a-kind kaleidoscopes.

Olson is happy to share his craft-making skills, in everything from fused-glass jewelry to marbled silk scarves, in his back room. This is the living classroom for what he calls the College of Leonard. Its motto, as noted on the "college" crest, is "carpe diem," or "seize the day."

Seizing the day is something in which the always-optimistic Olson is well-versed. It's all about perception.

"I don't have bad days. I just have some days that are a lot better than others," he said.

"You look in a kaleidoscope, and you see a beautiful image. You pass it to your neighbor to look at it, and something's going to shift," he added. "Things are always changing. But the key point is that the next image is still pretty nice, too.

"So don't get too hooked on what you're doing now, because something good's still coming down the road. That's the metaphor on life that a kaleidoscope has."

What a wonderful gift from Santa.

If you go

The Kaleidoscope Factory (kaleidoscopefactory.com) is at 106 S. Main St. in Pomeroy, Iowa, a few miles north of U.S. Highway 20.

Leonard Olson welcomes visitors year-round. He keeps the "tours" link on his website updated as to when he's available. He's also happy to answer emails.

Olson invites folks to simply drop in for an "ad hoc" crafts class at the College of Leonard (collegeofleonard.com). However, he needs 10 days' notice for scarf-making classes. There are minimal charges for supplies.

Most of his kaleidoscopes are 91/2 inches long and sell for about $100, depending on the type of wood. They also can be ordered by mail.

ctc-travel@tribune.com

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Maybe I won't be home for Christmas

Q: We are supposed to fly to Australia for Christmas to be with my wife's parents, but we're not sure if we'll be able to make it. I hope you can help us.

Last summer, we booked our domestic flights from Melbourne to Cairns on Jetstar Airways through CheapOair.com. We received a confirmation from CheapOair and my wife even spent 40 minutes on the phone with their billing department, to make sure the transaction went through. She also phoned CheapOair two days later to verify the transaction and received assurances all was clear.

But when she called Jetstar a few days ago, they said we didn't have a flight. A representative told us our credit card had been declined.

CheapOair has offered to put us on another flight but at a higher cost and perhaps a different date. I just want them to honor the reservation we made several months ago. Can you help? -- Michael Burz, Bethesda, Md.

A: If CheapOair sent you a confirmation, then you should have had a ticket. It doesn't seem fair that you're being asked to buy a more expensive ticket only a few days before you're supposed to be home for Christmas.

Could this have been prevented? You might have called Jetstar after you made the reservation to make sure your credit card went through. But normally, a confirmation from your online travel agency means your flight is also confirmed with your airline.

You shouldn't have to call every airline, car rental company and hotel on your itinerary to separately confirm your itinerary -- after all, that's why you're dealing with an online travel agency.

I found it interesting that you phoned CheapOair twice to "make sure" the transaction went through. Your tickets cost $2,261, which is no small sum. If you had continued to monitor your credit card transactions, you would have probably noticed that the amount wasn't deducted from your account, and you might have been able to catch this error last summer.

I contacted CheapOair on your behalf, and here's what happened: There was a breakdown in communication between the reservation system used by your online agency and the airline's reservation system. That resulted in a confirmation being generated without a reservation.

CheapOair should have been able to catch the problem, particularly since your wife called the agency twice to inquire about the tickets. And Jetstar should have contacted CheapOair when your credit card was declined, letting it know that it canceled the reservation.

CheapOair should have offered you a better solution than buying a new, more expensive ticket. I contacted the company on your behalf, and it agreed to buy a new ticket, with Jetstar covering half the difference in airfare and CheapOair picking up the other half.

Enjoy your trip to Australia.

Christopher Elliott is the author of "Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals" (Wiley). He's also the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the co-founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for travelers. Read more tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at chris@elliott.org. Christopher Elliott receives a great deal of reader mail, and though he answers them as quickly as possible, your story may not be published for several months because of a backlog of cases.

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Field guide from Dugald Stermer: An indelible take on nature

A meticulous illustration of a spiny lobster by artist Dugald Stermer that appeared in the L.A. Times. (Dugald Stermer / For the L.A. Times)

By Mary Forgione Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal blogger

12:46 p.m. CST, December 24, 2011

Artist Dugald Stermer, who died Dec. 2 at age 74, was known for his work on Ramparts magazine and most famously for his update of the Olympic medals for the 1984 Games.

But as a onetime member of the Los Angeles Times' Outdoors section, I will always cherish the stunning and detailed color illustrations of animals and flowers that he created starting in 2003 for the section, a former part of the newspaper. Each illustration ran weekly and was accompanied by a field guide entry written by naturalist David Lukas.

Times staff writer Valerie J. Nelson explains his style of wildlife drawing in this obituary: "In the 1970s, he made his first wildlife drawings when he failed to find illustrations of seabirds to run in Oceans magazine. His illustrations were exactingly rendered in pencil with a watercolor wash."

The illustrator's daughter Megan Dugald said his "new style" had "kind of hit a chord." It was "classic wildlife painting," she said, but with a bit of a contemporary twist.

His books include "Vanishing Creatures" (1980) and "Vanishing Flora" (1995).

Here's a photo gallery of some of the creatures and flora that came to life under Stermer's careful hand -- and places to visit to see them in real life.

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"Theme Park 2.0" features pricey, high-tech attractions

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) - Investment in theme parks and cutting-edge attractions along the lines of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando surged during the recession, leading one developer to suggest the business is entering a new Golden Age.

"It's almost like a Theme Park 2.0, or a re-boot," said Brent Young, co-founder of the Super 78 production studio in Hollywood, California.

"We're really coming into a second Golden Age in theme park development," he said.

The first boom, which peaked in the 1970s, saw extensive construction of theme parks in the United States from the ground up. Development of Walt Disney World, Six Flags, Busch Gardens and numerous regional parks led to a saturation of the U.S. market by the 1980s, according to John Gerner, managing director of Leisure Business Advisors.

The new era is a global phenomenon propelled by technological advances and a growing middle class in Asia and third-world countries, Gerner and Young said.

"In the U.S., we think of a squeeze on the middle class. But in other parts of the world, they've got an expanding middle class," said Gerner, who has consulted on projects for leading attractions worldwide.

Gerner said China is experiencing a theme park construction boom comparable to what occurred in the United States in the 1970s. The coming of a Disney park in Shanghai triggered an expansion of the Chinese regional theme park company Happy Valley, he said. Disney broke ground in Shanghai this year and anticipates a 2015 open.

"In the past when Disney has opened in a region of the world, it has encouraged others to do so. With the Shanghai Disney park, we would expect a similar increase, its own boom," Gerner said.

Young, who specializes in the application of emerging technologies in themed attractions, said the new Golden Age is marked by the additions of highly themed and immersive experiences using state-of-the-art technology.

HELP FROM HARRY POTTER

The huge success of the Harry Potter ride at Universal Orlando, which executives say boosted attendance by 50 percent, has further ignited demand, Young said. Since that attraction opened in June 2010, Universal has been breaking its attendance records.

"Harry Potter was a disrupter and forced everybody to step up their game," Young said. "It became this arms race."

Young said his business took off in 2007, fueled by projects in China and Singapore even as the U.S. economy was hit by the burst of the housing bubble.

Among his entries opened over the past two years is Flight of the Dragon at the Happy Valley theme park in Shanghai. The ride is a 4-D simulated flying experience moving through a curved black box theater with water sprits, scents and wind creating realistic effects.

Spending on new attractions in the United States also is up. Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services, estimates spending rose 30-35 percent over the past two years, following four years of mostly stagnant attendance and deep discounting at parks.

Much of the spending is on redevelopment and additions to existing parks, he said.

He cited several examples of recent investment in the central Florida tourist hub alone, including SeaWorld Orlando's planned overhaul of its penguin exhibit to include state-of-the-art interactive ride technology, and the just-completed revamp of the historic Cypress Gardens ski-show park in Winter Haven into a Legoland.

"It's what the industry needs to do now to ratchet up," Speigel said.

Ride manufacturers who met in Orlando in November for the annual International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions convention have "never been busier," Speigel said.

"Literally, they're almost at capacity for the next couple of years," he said.

Experts said the end is nowhere in sight, thanks to technological advances that will continue to create demand.

Within the next decade, Young said he expects attractions will enable park guests to feel as if they are sharing space with fully rendered 3-D characters and other nearly unimaginable experiences.

"I'm not even sure what this means," Speigel said of expectations for coming attractions, "(but) it's going to be the 5th dimension."

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jerry Norton)

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A holiday surprise from the travel industry

Sometimes when you travel, it's the little gestures of compassion that make the biggest difference -- especially during the holidays.

For Becky Brand, it was the bus driver on Washington's L2 line who went out of his way to help her during Thanksgiving week. "While I was struggling with a heavy suitcase in the rain, he made my day by stopping to let me on instead of having me run to the bus stop a block away," says Brand, who works for a legal advocacy group in the capital. "Although a small and random act of kindness, it made my holiday week and definitely gave me something to be thankful for."

Jenny Block remembers the nameless American Airlines employee who answered her plea on Twitter. Her cousin had been left in a coma after a traffic accident, and she needed the airline to bend a flight-change rule. Block, a writer who lives in Dallas, received an immediate reply: Of course, the airline would help her.

"You won't believe this part," she told me. "It happened on Thanksgiving morning."

Oh no, that part I would believe.

See, that's the funny thing about the travel industry. For a business that, with a few notable exceptions, thinks nothing of offending its customers most of the year, the short-lived transformation during the holidays is incredible. It's as if someone turned back the clock and made common courtesy and customer service important again.

And it cuts both ways. This is the time of year when you hear about customers committing random acts of kindness, too.

When Natalie Caine, a counselor from Toluca Lake, Calif., saw the woman in front of her at the airport coffee shop come up a few dollars short as she tried to buy snacks for her children, Caine covered her tab. "I know the stress of parenting and travel," she says.

Joellen Freeman, an administrative assistant from Lexington, S.C., was flying from Cleveland to Atlanta when she witnessed a remarkable seat switch. "A gentleman came up to a soldier," she remembers. "He introduced himself and then asked the soldier about his seat assignment. He then traded seats with the soldier -- giving up his first-class seat for one in coach as an expression of his gratitude for the service of the young man. It was very touching."

Not all these gestures are spontaneous, but that doesn't make them any less remarkable.

Jessica Langley, a flight attendant based in Columbus, Ohio, spends the year collecting soaps and shampoos in hotels. She recently drove from her home in Palm Beach, Fla., to Orlando to deliver 55 pounds of toiletries to a charity called Clean the World, which is dedicated to helping stop the spread of fatal diseases worldwide. "To me, it's a no-brainer," she says. "A few extra ounces in my carry-on luggage can have a big impact."

At the Sheraton Kauai, employees donated 1,000 pounds of food to the Hawaii Food Bank for Thanksgiving. Then, for good measure, they threw in the keys to the van. "This effort has led to the resort designating a Food Bank Table in the hotel's restaurant each day where proceeds from that table will be donated to the Hawaii Food Bank," says Jonathan Pappas, a spokesman for the resort.

I don't know about you, but I love hearing about how the travel industry goes out of its way to be charitable year-round. As a consumer advocate who deals with complaints all the time, these stories give me hope. Because charitable giving and good customer service often go hand-in-hand, they make me believe that one day, this industry will again compete on customer service and not just price.

But the niceness can also make me feel a little awkward, particularly when it comes from a place where you'd least expect it. Hearing about an act of compassion from an employee of a discount airline or from an online agency that routes all customer complaints to an overseas call center can be downright jarring.

Or even, from the TSA.

But there I was, just a week after Thanksgiving, waiting curbside for my family to pick me up at the airport. When they arrived, I brought one bag over to the car, and when I turned around, I saw an off-duty Transportation Security Administration agent standing there with my second bag.

I don't think he knew that he'd just assisted one of the agency's most vocal critics with his luggage. It made the gesture all the more meaningful.

I was speechless. All I could manage was a timid, "Thank you."

The agent smiled and said, "Welcome home."

Christopher Elliott is the author of "Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals" (Wiley). He's also the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the co-founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for travelers. Read more tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at chris@elliott.org. Christopher Elliott receives a great deal of reader mail, and though he answers them as quickly as possible, your story may not be published for several months because of a backlog of cases.

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