I Hate Flying!

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Cosima___J
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I Hate Flying!

Post by Cosima___J » Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:40 pm

Yes, it's a lot faster than driving long distances (which I also hate), but what a hassle!!!

You get to the airport way early. Stand in a line to access the kiosk, that even airport employees seem to have trouble operating, in order to check in and get your boarding pass.

Then you go to the departure gate printed on the ticket (or if it's not printed on the ticket, you check a monitor somewhere). At the gate, the signage lists your flight. OK, great. Now I've got 45 minutes to kill. I wander around gazing at the shops with souvenirs and newspapers and magazines. Buy something for lack of anything to do.

Go back to the departure gate about 10 minutes ahead of time only to discover that the gate for my flight has been changed to one which is about a 15 minute walk away.

Run like crazy, dodging people right and left. Arrive panting. Get on the plane and end up sitting next to a big fat guy who is usurping part of your seat!

Makes you want to just stay at home.

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Chalkperson » Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:53 pm

At least your flight left on time...
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jbuck919
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by jbuck919 » Mon Oct 25, 2010 4:55 pm

Chalkperson wrote:At least your flight left on time...
I was going to ask her at what point in all that there was a problem. :?

There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
-- Johann Sebastian Bach

Agnes Selby
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Agnes Selby » Mon Oct 25, 2010 5:36 pm

Cosi, I have flown a lot in my life particularly when we lived in Philadelphia.
I visited my mother in Sydney, sometimes twice a year and as it is a long
trip, I always avoided speaking to the people who sat next to me.

However, on one flight, just as we were approaching San Francisco on our way
back to the US, the man sitting next to me who had also guarded his privacy
and listened to music all the way from Sydney, suddenly exclaimed. "There
is no one like Mozart!". I couldn't help smiling, whereupon he told me the following
story.

When he was in the army, they had a particularly unpleasant sergeant whose
specialty of torture on k.p. duty was to play classical music.

The man sitting next to me told me he enlisted when he was just
19 years old and had never ever heard any classical music as he came from a part
of New York where such music was not listened to. However, he found the
music very agreeable and often caused trouble just so that he could be
put on k.p. duty. After the war, he was given the opportunity to go to college
and he chose music as his major.

It so happened that as Professor of Music at a US University, he had been
at a music education conference held in Sydney. He was planning to stay in San
Francisco for a few days in order to visit his old sergeant in a retirement home.

I have never forgotten this incident.

Regards,
Agnes.

Cosima___J
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Cosima___J » Mon Oct 25, 2010 6:06 pm

Agnes my friend, I'd get on an airplane in order to visit you, dear lady.

Recently flew to South Bend, Indiana to visit my brother and it was so darn agravating --- especially the layover in Atlanta. Ugh! I used to enjoy flying, but not any more.

I was wondering if anybody out there in CMG land would say that they enjoy it.

Agnes Selby
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Agnes Selby » Mon Oct 25, 2010 7:55 pm

Cosima___J wrote:Agnes my friend, I'd get on an airplane in order to visit you, dear lady.

Recently flew to South Bend, Indiana to visit my brother and it was so darn agravating --- especially the layover in Atlanta. Ugh! I used to enjoy flying, but not any more.

I was wondering if anybody out there in CMG land would say that they enjoy it.
I know of one person who thoroughly enjoys it.
He is a pilot.

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by keaggy220 » Mon Oct 25, 2010 8:03 pm

I hate it too - even short flights. When I retire one day my goal will be to never fly again.
"I guess we're all, or most of us, the wards of the nineteenth-century sciences which denied existence of anything it could not reason or explain. The things we couldn't explain went right on but not with our blessing... So many old and lovely things are stored in the world's attic, because we don't want them around us and we don't dare throw them out."
— John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent


"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
- Micah 6:8

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by jbuck919 » Mon Oct 25, 2010 8:27 pm

Agnes Selby wrote:
Cosima___J wrote:Agnes my friend, I'd get on an airplane in order to visit you, dear lady.

Recently flew to South Bend, Indiana to visit my brother and it was so darn agravating --- especially the layover in Atlanta. Ugh! I used to enjoy flying, but not any more.

I was wondering if anybody out there in CMG land would say that they enjoy it.
I know of one person who thoroughly enjoys it.
He is a pilot.
Perhaps we'll hear from Teresa B on this topic (her husband, as you know but others may not, is a flight captain).

There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
-- Johann Sebastian Bach

NancyElla
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by NancyElla » Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:10 pm

I used to love flying, and I still like it--after the plane is in the air. But the hyper-security procedures, lines, waiting, shoes off, shoes on, etc. have really taken the fun out of the airport visit.
"This is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great." --Willa Cather

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by living_stradivarius » Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:23 am

Flying is great because you meet new people and learn their stories every time. Be sociable
Image

Ricordanza
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Ricordanza » Sun Nov 07, 2010 8:01 am

This calls for a pun:

A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The flight attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

jbuck919
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by jbuck919 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:29 pm

Ricordanza wrote:This calls for a pun:

A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The flight attendant looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
He should have traveled on Condor.

There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
-- Johann Sebastian Bach

Cosima___J
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Cosima___J » Sun Nov 14, 2010 3:39 pm

This article gives yet another reason why I've come to hate flying:

When it comes to protecting against terrorism, this is how things usually go: A danger presents itself. The federal government responds with new rules that erode privacy, treat innocent people as suspicious and blur the distinction between life in a free society and life in a correctional facility. And we all tamely accept the new intrusions, like sheep being shorn.

Maybe not this time.

The war on terrorism is going to get personal. Very personal. Americans have long resented the hassles that go with air travel ever since 9/11 -- long security lines, limits on liquids, forced removal of footwear and so on. But if the Transportation Security Administration has its way, we will look back to 2009 as the good old days.

The agency is rolling out new full-body scanners, which eventually will replace metal detectors at all checkpoints. These machines replicate the experience of taking off your clothes, but without the fun. They enable agents to get a view of your body that leaves nothing to the imagination.

A lot of people, of course, couldn't care less if a stranger wants to gaze upon everything God gave them. But some retain a modesty that makes them reluctant to parade naked in front of people they don't know, even virtually. Henceforth, Jennifer Aniston is going to think twice before flying commercial.

Besides the indignity of having one's body exposed to an airport screener, there is a danger the images will find a wider audience. The U.S. Marshals Service recently admitted saving some 35,000 images from a machine at a federal courthouse in Florida. TSA says that will never happen. Human experience says, oh, yes, it will.

For the camera-shy, TSA will offer an alternative: "enhanced" pat-downs. And you'll get a chance to have an interesting conversation with your children about being touched by strangers. This is not the gentle frisking you may have experienced at the airport in the past. It requires agents to probe aggressively in intimate zones -- breasts, buttocks, crotches. If you enjoyed your last mammography or prostate exam, you'll love the enhanced pat-down.

Reviews of the procedure are coming in, and they are not raves. The Allied Pilots Association calls it a "demeaning experience," and one pilot complained it amounted to "sexual molestation." The head of a flight attendants' union local said that for anyone who has been sexually assaulted, it will "drudge up some bad memories."

But the option of the full-body scanner is not so appealing, either, even leaving out privacy concerns. Two pilots' unions have advised members not to go through the scanners because of the possible risks of being bombarded with low doses of radiation.

"There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations," a group of scientists from the University of California at San Francisco informed the White House.

Aviation trade groups fear the public has finally been pushed over the edge. "We have received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from travelers vowing to stop flying," Geoff Freeman, executive vice president of the U.S. Travel Association, told Reuters.

The new policy is being challenged in court by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which says it violates the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches. But don't expect judges to save us.

Says Stanford University law professor Robert Weisberg, with resignation in his voice, "Airports are pretty much a Fourth Amendment-free zone."

Though the harm to privacy is certain, the benefit to public safety is not. The federal Government Accountability Office has said it "remains unclear" if the scanners would have detected the explosives carried by the would-be Christmas Day bomber.

They would also be useless against a terrorist who inserts a bomb in his rectum -- like the al-Qaida operative who blew himself up last year in an attempt to kill a Saudi prince. Full-body scanning will sorely chafe many innocent travelers, while creating only a minor inconvenience to bloodthirsty fanatics.

_The good news is that last year, the House of Representatives voted to bar the use of whole-body scanners for routine screening. But only a sustained public outcry will force a change.

We will soon find out if there is a limit to the sacrifices of personal freedom that Americans will endure in the name of fighting terrorism. If we don't say no when they want to inspect and handle our private parts, when will we?

Steve Chapman
Steve Chapman is a columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune.

RebLem
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by RebLem » Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:35 pm

Cosima___J wrote:Now I've got 45 minutes to kill. I wander around gazing at the shops with souvenirs and newspapers and magazines. Buy something for lack of anything to do.
Ever think of bringing a book to read, or the current isue of Fanfare Magazine?
Don't drink and drive. You might spill it.--J. Eugene Baker, aka my late father
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"Racism is America's Original Sin."--Francis Cardinal George, former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago.

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Chalkperson » Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:36 pm

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Chalkperson » Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:38 pm

RebLem wrote:
Cosima___J wrote:Now I've got 45 minutes to kill. I wander around gazing at the shops with souvenirs and newspapers and magazines. Buy something for lack of anything to do.
Ever think of bringing a book to read, or the current isue of Fanfare Magazine?
Better still, bring a Kindle... :wink:
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by slofstra » Mon Nov 15, 2010 11:31 am

Chalkperson wrote:
RebLem wrote:
Cosima___J wrote:Now I've got 45 minutes to kill. I wander around gazing at the shops with souvenirs and newspapers and magazines. Buy something for lack of anything to do.
Ever think of bringing a book to read, or the current isue of Fanfare Magazine?
Better still, bring a Kindle... :wink:
Just got one finally. It's great. I may do a thread soon even though we've already done one.

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Chalkperson » Mon Nov 15, 2010 3:49 pm

Interesting story about a man who refused the New Screening Procedures...

http://johnnyedge.blogspot.com/2010/11/ ... tween.html

Whilst I object in principle to the new measures, I would not object in person, there is no point, I need to see my wife and she is more important than the screening process (assuming i'm selected for he scatter machines), I have great respect for those who do object and worry that they will be put on No Fly lists because of their act of Civil Disobedience...

PS, did he break the law by filming and recording in the Screening Area, I suspect that may be a more serious crime, especially as he put it online...if only Ralph were here, I would be interested in his opinion...
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by piston » Tue Nov 16, 2010 6:48 am

In the matter of "Don't Touch my Junk" vs. "The People of the United States," the defense could plead that its client was the victim of sexual discrimination. If we are to be touched with an open hand everywhere then we should have the right to expect it to be done on the basis of our own sexual orientation. "Not by him.! By her!!" :mrgreen:
In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished—a word that for them has no sense—but abandoned....(Paul Valéry)

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Chalkperson » Tue Nov 16, 2010 12:02 pm

This may take a few minutes to load, but, it shows how out of control the new screenings are...

Video of TSA Screener Accosting 3 Year Old Child at Security Checkpoint

http://www.myvidster.com/video/600891/V ... Checkpoint

Rules are Rules, no exceptions, is the real message of this story...
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Cosima___J
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Cosima___J » Tue Nov 16, 2010 1:20 pm

In the car this morning, the local talk show host said (about the full body scan) "Pretty soon they'll be able to tell you whether you have colon cancer." Yikes!

A question came up at the hospital this morning among us ladies. WARNING: IT'S SOMEWHAT INDELICATE

Can this new full body scanner tell whether I am having my period by seeing the "stuff" used during that time of the month?

It makes you want to take the train instead of flying.

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Chalkperson » Tue Nov 16, 2010 1:45 pm

Cosima___J wrote:It makes you want to take the train instead of flying.
The Homeland Security Secretary says the same thing..
Janet Napolitano—US Secretary of Homeland Security—has a word of advice for all of you who want to take an airplane but who don't want to have your genitals groped by a TSA agent: It's my way or the highway.

Talking at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Napolitano said that TSA's body scanners don't violate passengers' privacy rights. She also said that "if people want to travel by some other means," they have that right.

And she's completely correct. You have that right, people. Do you want to travel from New York to Los Angeles? Take the car. Or the train. Or run, Forrest, run. Do you want to travel to Paris this summer? Easy. Get in your bloody car and drive all the way to Alaska, then cross the Bering Strait in a ferry, and drive all through Asia down to Europe.

But if you want to take the airplane, you will have to be the object of the stupid, incoherent and ineffective TSA rules, which include naked pictures at the body scanner or a touchy-touchy session. Just deal with it, ok?

Dammit, Janet. Thank you for reminding us of our rights. [USA Today]
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Chalkperson » Tue Nov 16, 2010 4:23 pm

TSA Opens Investigation on John Tyner...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... -resistor/

This guy could be in real trouble...see my earlier post on this story...
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Werner » Tue Nov 16, 2010 4:42 pm

A comment I heard on TV from one guy: ""If anybody gets turned on by THIS body, good luck to them!"
Werner Isler

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Chalkperson » Tue Nov 16, 2010 6:06 pm

Interesting fact, Airports don't have to use the TSA, they can hire private contractors, just like they did before 9/11...

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/polit ... 59869.html
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piston
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by piston » Tue Nov 16, 2010 6:16 pm

Any chance they might hire people from the National Association of American masseuses?
In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished—a word that for them has no sense—but abandoned....(Paul Valéry)

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Daisy » Tue Nov 16, 2010 6:49 pm

I haven't been in a plane since 1991, and that's fine with me! Every time I've ever gone Up something unpleasant happened - everything from simple airsickness to such violent turbulation that felt as if I was going to end up in the Bermuda Triangle. Going from Amsterdam to Munich, the passengers all applauded when we touched ground because the plane shook, rattled and rolled during the3 whole last half of the flight. Crossing the Pond, I was crammed into steer... - er, coach seats, a dozen or so abreast where I couldn't move my legs for 10 hours or so, and was "treated" to a handful of snacks, a toilet that didn't work, and the most incredibly dull, boring, and wholly forgettable movie. And apparently things have gotten a lot worse since then! If I have to go anywhere, I'll drive. I'll be more comfortable, I can get regular meals, and get to look at all the nice scenery as it goes by.

Daisy
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piston
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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by piston » Wed Dec 01, 2010 7:27 am

From 22 Minutes' variation on "Don't Touch my Junk!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA7Jtu0P ... r_embedded
In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished—a word that for them has no sense—but abandoned....(Paul Valéry)

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Re: I Hate Flying!

Post by Auntie Lynn » Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:20 am

On a recent trip to Paris from SF to Dulles, we had not one, not two, not three, but - yep, four screaming babies. The minute one let up, another would start - and yes, I know all about entitlements... Two days ago, my daughter and I walked through the scanner at Heathrow and nobody even looked...

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