If you travel by air frequently, and your busy schedule has so far this season prevented you from getting a flu shot, check out your next airport stop. Many major ones now offer in-station medical facilities, including quick flu shots.

As of this writing, they include Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Chicago O’Hare and Nashville. In the New York City area, clinics are available at JFK and Newark. Other airports may also have or plan to offer the service in the future.

To protect yourself, especially during the heavy air traffic holiday season and winter, allow the extra time for the service. When you arrive at the airport, ask security where you can get your flu shot. Costs per shot can be as much as $50, or free for those with in-effect proof of insurance coverage.

A recent Yahoo article showed a prize-winning design that may make it possible for economy airline seats to be quickly flipped up into flat beds and back again. That’s the good news. The bad news is that airlines will probably flip the ticket charges up to premium economy and/or business prices.

Called The Butterfly Seats, they were created by Hong Kong’s James Lee of Paperclip Design. Do they bring back memories? Grizzled WW2 and Korean War vets today may recall being squeezed into tight seat-flip-to-bunk cocoons in cross-country troop trains and cross-ocean Navy transports. www.yahoo.com/travel/the-new-airline-seat-that-turns-economy-into-business-101370413642

If you’re a fan of famed 20th Century abstract artists, on your next trip to Paris, put this on your cultural visit schedule. You’ll want to spend a day at the newly-restored Picasso Museum.

The museum, located in a former mansion, has more than 5,000 examples of the prolific artist’s work and life. They include, paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, photographs and documents.
For fees, visitor hours and other info, go to  www.museepicassoparis.fr/en

Most of we seasoned roadies are still trying to figure out how to use cell phones, online banking and GPS. In another innovation we can hardly understand, the venerable automaker plans an on-the-road driver’s heart monitor with quick-stop safety features .

Ford will have a medical device that records the seated driver’s cardiovascular system for possible irregularities. It includes a camera that measures driver head movement, as well as sensors on the steering-wheel. If the contraption detects symptoms of a heart attack, it will take over steering and brakes. According to news reports, Ford may have the product on the market within five years.