News of the World...

So is it just me or are people going crazy all of a sudden? First off, what's with Jet Blue? Personally, I'm not a fan of discount air carriers (not that I'm particularly a fan of any air carrier given my fear of flying) so I don't think there would ever come a time where I would be flying Jet Blue to any one of their fabulous destinations such as San Juan, Puerto Rico, Las Vegas or Orange County, but still they seem to be suffering from some sort of complete and total corporate breakdown. And, more importantly what is the deal with all of those passengers who were stranded in their planes (on the runway) at JFK during last week's ice storm?? I think this is indicitive of the latest problem in our country-- a lack of that pioneering American independent spirit.

Granted, to be fair, I wasn't on one of those planes so I have no real idea of what it was like, but I will tell you this, had I been on one of those planes I sure as hell wouldn't have been stranded on the runway for upwards of 8 plus hours. No, more likely I would have been escorted off of the plane in handcuffs well before then. Now maybe the allure of being told you may or may not still get to Cancun this century is enough to brainwash people into sitting in a cramped cabin awaiting word as to wheather the "weather is going to break" but not for me. Pull that sucker back up to the gate or inflate the damn inflatable ramps and get me off. Why didn't the passengers throw a collective fit and make the pilot, crew, etc. do something short of the 8 hour mark??? I recall a few years ago when I was stuck on an Amtrak train just outside of the station in Newark and while my calls to the local police and Amtrak police went unheeded, finally, when we were all suffering from undue heat I pulled the emergency exit lever and took out one of the windows. The conductor came over, fuming, saying "you can't do that, only in an emergency". Well, I'm sorry, last time I checked being stuck on a train for three hours with no ventilation seemed like an emergency to me. Exactly what is your definition of emergency if holding people captive on mass transit isn't it?

Given this history, had I been on one of those planes and in an exit row I so *totally* would have opened the door and pulled the lever on the inflatable ramp!

Next item: Ralph Fiennes bathroom encounter with a Quantas stewardess. I don't think I need to say much more than-- seemingly very uncharacteristic. Would that be indictive of very good service on Quantas' part or bad service? I'm not quite sure.

Next: Martha Stewart-- geesh that woman can be a real (well, fill in the blank here...) yesterday she had on as a guest a 10 year old boy who had climbed Mount Kilamanjaro. All Martha could do was talk about her own experience scaling the mountatin and how wonderful it was that it was snowing when she got to the top. She tells the boy-- "well, you're young, maybe you can go back..." When he starts to tell her about the climbs he has lined up for the rest of this year she actually says: "Well, I have it on good authority that that climb isn't very hard." Martha, he's 10. Why don't you give the kid a break, huh?

Finally: Britney Spears. All I can figure is that she is doing everything in her power to get the State of California to take those kids away from her. Either that or she's thinking about opening a Supercuts franchise.