Flying anywhere this holiday weekend? I volunteered to serve as a courier and will be heading to the Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) to pick up Joplin, a retired service dog being adopted by a friend.

While I’m there, I may have just enough time on the ground to do a little shopping for maple products and local handicrafts in the airport shops.

In the meantime, I bet lots of folks will be spending this weekend complaining about the high price of gas. And I bet on Monday, like the people I talked to for this week’s Well Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com, some of them are going to do something about it.

Column illustration by MSNBC.com’s Duane Hoffman

I’ve got a long list of services and amenities I’d like to see offered at airports. Speed-dating and remedial classes in packing are on the list.

And so is tattooing.

Which is why I was tickled to see that, along with a jazz trio and an Uncle Sam on stilts, the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) hired an air brush artist to paint tattoos on some of the 1.1 million passengers expected to pass through the airport this holiday weekend.

Photo taken by Sarah McDaniel-Langhorst of DFW International Airport staff.

Marian Anderson, Mario Lanza, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie are just some of the 107 legendary musicians, singers, and entertainers from Philadelphia honored with bronze plaques downtown, on the city’s Avenue of the Arts, on Broad Street between Walnut and Pine.

But not everyone can make it downtown. So now, for folks who are stuck at the airport, there are portraits of 44 Philadelphia-rooted legends on display at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).

(From the Art & Exhibitions section of the PHL Web site)

For a few months now, Air France has been testing in-flight data and cell-phone service on one of its planes. (I flew on one of the cell-phones-allowed flights and wrote about it in my Well-Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com.)

Now comes word that passengers on at least one TAP Portugal plane can send and receive e-mail and make flying phone calls as well. The airline has equipped a single Airbus A319 aircraft with the Mobile OnAir service and will test that service for six months.

On the test plane – and perhaps eventually on all TAP Portugal flights across Europe – passengers can use BlackBerry-type devices and mobile phones to send and receive emails and text messages, and to make and receive voice calls.

If you have fond memories of hanging around Oakland International Airport (OAK) and are affiliated with a non-profit in the Bay Area that could use some “gently used” chairs from the 1980′s, get in touch with the folks at the Port of Oakland.

The airport recently completed a $300 million makeover that included the extension and renovation of Terminal 2 and the replacement of more than 6,000 chairs in Terminals 1 and 2.

Some of the old chairs are going to be showing up in the recreation rooms at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oakland – but the rest are up for grabs.

Photo courtesy Oakland International Airport

A few years back I wrote an article about animals helping airports keep wildlife off the airfields and out of airplane engines. That’s when I first learned about Radar, the official bird dog on duty at Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers.

Back in 1999, the airport was the first commercial airport in the US to use a dog as part of a Wildlife Management Program. (Other airports used everything from guns and firecrackers to hawks and people flapping their “wings.” Seriously.) Radar was the second dog “hired” at RSW for the job.

Now, after 7 years on the job, Radar is retiring. The nine-year old Border Collie first joined the airport’s security team in June 2001 and was trained to herd, not hurt, birds. Now she gets to hang out at home, on the five-acre ranch of her handler.

Airport officials say “Radar was napping and was thus not available for comment,” but they’re sure Radar is looking forward to enjoying her retirement.

Photo of Radar courtesy Southwest Florida International Airport

Last week yet another piece of legislation was introduced in an effort to improve airline service and insure relief for passengers left stranded at airports in the United States. HR 6355 – or the Air Service Improvement Act of 2008 – was introduced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Jim Oberstar and aviation subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello.

The bill would require airports and air carriers to create and file emergency contingency plans with the Secretary of Transportation.

Airport plans would need to include “a description of how the airport operator…will provide for the deplanement of passengers following excessive delays and will provide for the sharing of facilities and make gates available at the airport in an emergency.”

Airline plans would need to show how each carrier would allow passengers to deplane, share facilities in an emergency, and provide food, water, restroom facilities, cabin ventilation, and access to medical treatment for passengers on planes stuck on the ground for an extended period of time without access to the terminal.

You can read the full bill here.

Do higher fares, new baggage check fees, and the inevitable long lines at the security checkpoints have you dreading your next trip to the airport?

Maybe I can help: here’s a link to the Well-Mannered Traveler summer refresher course posted today on MSNBC.com. There’s even a chance to earn extra credit.

Column illustration by Duane Hoffman at MSNBC.com

The folks at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) have been busy beautifying their Web site with spiffy new tools for travelers.

Highly useful: The interactive maps (check out the panoramic tour of -an empty -Terminal D) and the updated at-a-glance list of services (note that there’s free power and free wired Internet at Gates A20 and B35).

Most enjoyable: The lovely close-ups views of the medallions and other artwork in the airport’s multi-million dollar public art program.

(Christopher Janney’s “Circling” courtesy DFW Airport)

Folks were intrigued to learn about Derrie-Air, a new “carbon-neutral luxury airline” that charges passengers by the pound. It turned out to be a publicity stunt, but it got folks talking about the concept of treating passengers more like freight.

The folks at NAAFA, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, found it “sort of funny,” but ultimately “preposterous.” But as you can read in my Well-Mannered Traveler column on MSNBC.com, others thought it was actually a great idea.