In-flight catalogue SkyMall may soon close shop

New York

FOR years, it was something of a ritual. You had made it through airport security, survived the lengthy delays and even crammed your carry-on into an overhead bin. Then you could settle in, buckle up and reach into the seat-back pocket in front of you. There, pressed up against the motion-sickness bag or the laminated emergency instruction card, you would find the latest edition of SkyMall.

It was the National Enquirer of shopping catalogues. Thumbing through its pages - on the tarmac before takeoff or at 35,000 feet - you would find products that seemed too weird to be true: an indoor pet-relief system called "Piddle Place", a helmet that promised to regrow your hair using lasers, a glass Christmas tree ornament designed to look like a pierogi, a solar-powered cooling hat.