Am I alone in finding it a vaguely nauseating prospect to be trapped in a flying tube for hours surrounded by people telling their friends "I'm on a plane. Yeah ... I'm on a plane"?
No.
Could anyone recommend a good set of hard-core noise-blocking headphones/ear protectors that can be comfortably worn about in public? ("Comfortably" as in my comfort. I don't really care if I look like a dork.) Because I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to need them to get through my allotted time in this vale of tears.
Several years ago, Dave Barry wrote about being trapped on a plane next to two women who had what he called "Blitherers' Disease" -- there was no filter attached to the brain, so that any random thought they had came right on out. If cell phones are allowed on planes, all the blitherers are going to be blithering to distant blitherers, sharing their blitheration with the rest of the cabin at high volume. Then we'll see some air rage.
Posted by: Angie Schultz on April 21, 2007 01:44 PM
Think I found it. Prescient, and yet even now so few seem to recognize the grave danger. On the ground, there is always some hope of escaping the blitherer. In the air...
Posted by: Moira on April 21, 2007 07:00 PM
That's it. You should've seen the accompanying MacNelly cartoon: it was an airliner, with prominent cartoon engines, sitting on the runway. The caption read, "Just listen to those big babies whine." And from inside the plane came a dozen word balloons. "Miss???"
Although nowadays one sympathizes with passengers, even blitherers, trapped for hours on the runway without food or water, breathing dry air redolent with the scent of clogged toilet and listening to the screams of children. It wouldn't be too long before I'd start screaming too.
Posted by: Angie Schultz on April 21, 2007 09:43 PM