In addition to a bundle of Christmas cards, yesterday's mail brought a large envelope with this message on the front:

«You've been chosen to receive a free 1-year subscription, compliments of American Airlines. However, if would like to cancel these free copies, Just call . . . «

As I cradled the phone betwixt shoulder and ear, waiting for a robotic operator and thinking I could do without a self-serving travel magazine, I opened the plain-white wrapper and out flopped . . .

The Advocate.

American Airlines had given me a year's subscription to what is probably the nation's oldest gay news magazine.

How thoughtful. But how did they know my mailbox was gay? Oh, right. Cookies. Those Hansel & Gretel cyber crumbs left behind when one surfs the internet for cheap flights.

Surfing the internet later, I spotted a rainbow logo in an ad on the home page of the Dallas Voice. «American Airlines,» it read, «First airline to extend Domestic Partnership Benefits.»

So, I click on the ad and up pops American Airlines website introducing me to:

«. . . George and Betty from American Airlines Rainbow TeAAm - The only LGBT Dedicated Sales Team in the industry. We want to be your airline for life so we've created a one-stop shop to fulfill all of your travel needs. Come back often for news and updates!»

The site has links to LGBT events (though not, unfortunately, those in Eureka Springs--yet), LGBT news and «Rainbow Exclusives.»

So, let's think about this. Here you have a major airline that:

• Is trolling for gay travelers and some of the $55 to $65 million travel dollars they spend annually.
• Has a marketing division «dedicated» to gay travelers.
• Provides service FROM most of the nation's large cities TO Eureka Springs, via the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
• Clearly wants very much to bring gay tourists--and their straight friends and families--to a destination that has four Diversity Weekends a year and, like the airline itself, a Domestic Partnership Registry (which, BTW, has already drawn attracted couples from 11 different states).

In effect, American Airlines is practically begging to be a Eureka Springs travel promotions partner at no cost to the eclectic mecca itself.

So, will the Greater Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce, the City Advertising & Promotion Commission or the Eureka Springs Tourism Co-op take a free ride by boarding the plane to prosperity? Will they put out the welcome mat for travelers that American Airlines is trying to bring to the door?

Not a chance.

For the reins of tourism in Eureka Springs are tightly held in the hands of those who still live in the horse-and-buggy era, the days of tent revivals, hoe downs and $2 all-you-can-eats. Relentlessly blaming the town's gay friendliness for the decline in weddings and dwindling attendance at the Great Passion Play and hillbilly shows (plunges which pre-date the Domestic Partnership Registry by years), they're running the buggy clear off the cliff.

Worse, they're escorted by the Rev. Phil Wilson of the First Christian Church of Eureka Springs and Al Pryor and their posse of Jericho Riders and hombres from the American Family Association. All of whom will gladly trample tourism in the name of «family values.»

What they're missing in the meantime are the many forks in the roads with signs that point to such things as American Airlines (which has its own DPR, remember), 21st Century cross-promotion marketing techniques, free PR and tourist diversification, which is what keeps all thriving tourist destinations alive.

What they're also failing to notice is the sign with the flashing red lights reading «Drop-off Dead Ahead.»

So be it.

While the good ol' boys plummet toward the canyon floor, the rest of us can organize car pools to pick up new arrivals at the airport.

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