[lit-ideas] Airship of Fools
- From: Eric <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 17:36:44 -0500
Recently I had a series of national flights that
involved connections. In the process I got to see
the odd mixture of local marketing ("North
Carolina, the nation's leading sponsor of the
arts!" "Malibu Foods") and New York exports
("Nathan's Hot Dogs," "Hudson News") competing in
the airport terminals.
The mixed flights--varied groups traveling to
disparate destinations--were usually the same: an
orderly procession of calm and considerate people
settling in, calmly listening to instructions,
smiling at each other in silence. They were
peaceful. Accommodating people calmly fulfilling
the passenger role.
But I knew when I was in a jet full of New Yorkers.
Flights of New Yorkers heading back to La Guardia
are always part circus. Noisy people, all of them
kvetching about minor discomforts, noncompliant,
ignoring flight attendants, aggressive,
disregarding instructions. Boarding one NY-bound
flight took at least half an hour. Everybody
preening themselves as they sat. A woman with a
tennis racket running from the rear of the plane
to the front trying to find just the right
overhead storage bin for her gear. One man
deciding in a huff that he was not going, pushing
against crowd traffic to get to the front; another
disregarding the flight attendant, insisting on
stuffing his bag in the overhead by playing
Rubric's Cube with the other luggage there, and
succeeding after ten minutes. Nobody listening to
the broadcast routine about how seat belts work or
how to respond in an emergency. People asking for
esoteric concoctions when the drinks were brought
round.
Forget US exceptionalism. New Yorker
exceptionalism is the most profound. You even
notice this when biking. People standing in the
street as cabs whiz toward them, and you can
almost hear them thinking, "He won't hit me. It's
me-eeeee."
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] Airship of Fools
