OK, from whence does this come? Coming home from Thunder 2008, I opened up the bag that had been checked on my return flight. Sure enough, by the disarray of the items inside I knew my bag had been 'tossed' by TSA. (Yes, I'm deliberately using the prison slang term. The laudable 'goal' of "We're doing this for your protection" espoused by TSA is just so much hovneau.) Maybe it was the handcuffs and the cylindrical-like violet wand that I bought at Thunder showing up on the X-ray that did it ...ya think? Daaaah! I already hate the folk at TSA with their wannabe rent-a-cop mentality, but now I can add another dislike reason to my hate list -- slobs. Well, I can't do much about it. At least they didn't steal any of it (which actually happened to a friend of mine) or 'chawk' an oyster into the bag ...though I wouldn't put it past them.
All of this lead me to thinking about how air travel has changed. My first airline trip on my own was to New York City in a "...straight to heaven in a..." 707, a jetliner that had a propensity for crashing. But at least back then, airlines were actually competing on the basis of cute sexy stewerdases, passenger comforts (with sexy stews?), and food service. Now days you get surley TSA rejects, torture racks, and the $5 small bag of stale peanuts. Add on top of that the 'bright' (gag, choke, pthooy) folk at TSA whoes taped announcements while waiting in their long lines is to "...in order to speed up the process, please remove your outer garments." Hey, I'm waiting for the day when some gal will get it in her head to actually do that.
Till we get more sense and actual airline service, I'll just continue to ship my play gear, take the train when I can, and otherwise limit my airline exposure.
All of this lead me to thinking about how air travel has changed. My first airline trip on my own was to New York City in a "...straight to heaven in a..." 707, a jetliner that had a propensity for crashing. But at least back then, airlines were actually competing on the basis of cute sexy stewerdases, passenger comforts (with sexy stews?), and food service. Now days you get surley TSA rejects, torture racks, and the $5 small bag of stale peanuts. Add on top of that the 'bright' (gag, choke, pthooy) folk at TSA whoes taped announcements while waiting in their long lines is to "...in order to speed up the process, please remove your outer garments." Hey, I'm waiting for the day when some gal will get it in her head to actually do that.
Till we get more sense and actual airline service, I'll just continue to ship my play gear, take the train when I can, and otherwise limit my airline exposure.
1 comment:
Even the trains are starting to get bad what with outsourcing. I took an Amtrak train from an Amtrak station to another Amtrak station where I was supposed to get on an Amtrak bus. It never came. Neither the lady that worked at the station nor the bus and driver were affiliated with Amtrak in any way. Outsourcing left me stuck in Stockton without a freaking clue as to what to do other than make that lady very, very uncomfortable until she finally told me to get on a CITY BUS to the main Amtrak Station where I was able to catch an Amtrak labeled but privately contracted bus driven by a typically surly and underqualified outside contractor.
Post a Comment