Beware travelers with bratty kids

"The next time you find yourself on a plane, sitting next to someone who
cannot resist chattering to you endlessly,I have a very effective way of getting rid off people like that; they
inevitably ask me about my disability, none of their business but in
these occasions I am only too glad to oblige: oh that? airplane
crash, no, no other survivor (entirely true, I was the only
one on board, but I skip that part for the occasion); if I do it
right, I can elaborate a little bit further, it shuts them up for the
rest of the flight (except for some mumbling to themselves)

That is EVIL.

I love it!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

601XL Builder writes:

I have a friend from school that was a South African national and has
become a US Citizen since. He answers African-American when ever
possible. He is VERY Caucasian, blond hair, blue eyes.

The problem with political correctness is that it is deliberately
designed to confuse and mislead. In PC-land, African-American doesn't
actually mean African or American, it means dark-skinned; and anyone
who has light skin and uses it to describe himself is automatically a
racist in PC eyes, even if he was born and raised in Africa and has
immigrated to the U.S. (thus making himself an African-American).

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Dylan Smith wrote:
I always thought "flight attendant" sounded slightly demeaning compared
to "steward" or "cabin crew".


Don't attendants pass out hand towels in classy bathrooms? The only thing I
can think of with "stewardess" is that it's a slightly archaic term. But it's
not demeaning to my way of thinking.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

G. Sylvester writes:

please, do not discriminate. We're all Americans...you know, one nation
under gawd, all that grin

What is gawd?

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B A R R Y writes:

There's even an airline named after the Orient as a place.

Which one?

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B A R R Y wrote:
If I were Japanese, Thai, Tibetan, Korean, or Chinese, I think I'd
want to be called Japanese, Thai, Tibetan, Korean, or Chinese. "Asian"
is really no different than "Oriental" as it lumps them all together
based on similar geographic origin. How does "Oriental" offend, but
not "Asian"? It seems to me that if one offends, so should the other,
or neither. I've never referred to the folks I know locally as
Oriental or Asian, because I happen to know they are Thai, Tibetan,
Korean, and Chinese.


What will offend a Japanese is to be referred to as Chinese, Korean or Thai.
You can call them Japanese. You can call them Asian. You can call them
Oriental. Nobody gets upset. Call them by the wrong country and trust me,
everybody's nose get out of joint.

Getting back to the European example I listed before, Germans, Swiss,
Norwegians, Danes, etc. don't mind being called Europeans. They do object to
being called French.

If you're going to be specific as to country of origin you damn well better get
it right.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

Sylvain wrote:
I have a very effective way of getting rid off people like that; they
inevitably ask me about my disability, none of their business but in
these occasions I am only too glad to oblige: oh that? airplane
crash, no, no other survivor (entirely true, I was the only
one on board, but I skip that part for the occasion); if I do it
right, I can elaborate a little bit further, it shuts them up for the
rest of the flight (except for some mumbling to themselves)


Well, what do you know? I've been in two... one of which left me embarassed and
the other one left me with some significant changes.... I know you know what I
mean. But I digress....

I was sitting in the back of a Jetstream once with an overly chatty passenger
once. We hit some turbulence and I declared loudly: "SURE HOPE WE DON'T
CRASH!" The rest of the ride was in blessed silence.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

I'd have given the parents a few minutes to calm the kid down. It makes
for better press...

They had already given them 15 minutes. That is far more than I'd
give.

Here's what the AP Travel Editor thinks of the situation:

http://tinyurl.com/28zuf7
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Occasionally, you guys sound like media reporters talking about
"stalls."

"Orient" came into disrepute when Edward Said published _Orientalism_
in 1978. Read the book, or at least some reviews, and make up your
own minds about Said said, but recognize that historically, "the
Orient" was mostly used by pre-war Europeans to refer to the Ottoman
empire. The terminus, for the "Orient Express," ferex, was Istanbul.

An "Asian" restaurant FWIW, typically offers a range of dishes from
east-Asian countries. (No Bulgarian kapama)

Don (northern-European mongrel-American)

On 2007-01-27, Mxsmanic wrote:
Dylan Smith writes:

I'm curious - what makes the term 'steward' or 'stewardess' offensive or
wrong?

Wrong is a strong word.

The most rational objection I've heard is that it's inaccurate because
flight attendants are not actually steward(esse)s. A steward is a
kind of personal assistant, or household domestic, or valet, or
waiter, and so on. Flight attendants, however, are safety
technicians; the usual tasks for which they are best known are in fact
just busy work, because the only reason they are really there is to
help in emergencies. Thus, "flight attendant" is more accurate.

Hrm. I always thought about it the other way - "flight attendant", to me
at least, always sounded to me more to describe a "waiter in the sky",
whereas steward or stewardess seemed to suggest a lot more.

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