Musta Been The Right Time, But Musta Been The Wrong Plane (thank you Dr. John)

Not a good public relations morning for Continental Airlines today. You may have already heard they had an unaccompanied 8-year old child two days ago, who was supposed to fly from Dallas to Charlotte, but flight personnel put her on the wrong plane. She wound up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Easy to see that mistake, right? Both "Charlotte" and "Fayetteville" have the letters A, E, L and double TT in them. Of course I'm kidding, and that's what parents pay an extra $75 each direction on their ticket for, to avoid this kind of dangerous error. Then yesterday, just one day after the nationally-publicized incident, when you'd think flight crews would be at their most vigilant, it happened again. Another young girl, this time a 10-year old from Boston, was placed on a plane by her father, bound for Cleveland. Next stop, Newark! Another huge blunder by check-in personnel and flight crews, who failed to cross-check something as major as a MINOR! I'm sure they cross-checked seat belts, exit doors, overhead bins, and to make sure they had a full beverage cart, but forgot to verify their precious human cargo. In a word, inexcusable. Not that it happened twice, that it happened at all. There are supposed to be protective systems in place, and the fact that both these incidents happened a single day apart, both on Continental, tells me they need to clean house when it comes to their training on this issue. Hopefully this is the last time we hear of a child endangered like this. I'm sure the lawyers retained by the victims' families will have something to say behind closed doors as well. To me, there is an underlying issue that is equally important, if not more so (if that's possible). For those children to have been put on the wrong plane, it means boarding passes were not checked against the manifest. Huh?! With all the security put in place after 9/11, we still have airport security people who don't get it? For those directly responsible for who did or didn't get on the plane, INCLUDING THAT PERSON'S LUGGAGE, I'm not sure re-training is the answer. I'm thinking pink slip. Bright pink. Buh-Bye.

Sometimes I read other travel sites for a laugh, because the advice they give can range from inaccurate to pathetic. But once in a while, somebody gets it right (unlike me, who is right 100% of the time...as my followers well know). USAToday posted an article on line today, about taking teens on vacation, and I really think it's spot-on. Here's a link:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2009-06-17-traveling-with-teens_N.htm

I don't have teens, but I once was one. And I've been around enough traveling families to know this is excellent feedback, and worth a read for those who do have middle-age kids.

Remember Al Pacino in the movie And Justice For All? He had a memorable courtroom scene where, after being admonished by the judge that he was out of order, he screams "You're out of order! You're out of order! You're ALL out of order!" Now a baseball umpire has had a similar experience, at a high school game in Iowa. Umpire Don Briggs had no problem with any of the coaches or student athletes last Thursday, in a game between Winfield-Mount Union and West Burlington. His problem was in the stands and bleachers. He said parents and fans became extremely unruly - yelling, arguing and threatening to fight each other. The Ump ran onto the field, waved his arms, raised his voice and threw his right arm in the wild swinging motion that says "You're OUTTA HERE!" So who was he ejecting from the game? The crowd. All of them. Over 100 spectators were tossed out of the stadium, and told the game would not continue until every one of them had left. It took a while to get everyone to agree to leave, but the game resumed after a 40-minute delay. West Burlington won 12-11. Just to be safe, Umpire Briggs called police as a precautionary back-up. West Burlington police officer Al Waterman says there were no arrests, and by the time he arrived he did not witness any unruliness. All this in the state that gave us Field of Dreams.
"Is this Hell? No - it's Iowa!"

Have you ever told somebody a bit of news which you THOUGHT would spur a reaction, but got virtually nothing? It happened to a Georgia couple recently. Chuck Hill was playing the Georgia Lottery, and when he scratched the ticket he realized he had won $5,000 in the "Weekly Win Fall" game. He came home to break the news to his wife Karen. After hearing he had just won $5,000 her reaction was "So?" As it turns out, Karen is also a player. She had bought a scratch-off ticket for the "World Class Millions" game on her way to work. Her $20-dollar ticket won the $1-million dollar Grand Prize! The couple has two children, ages 6 and 8, and say they will pay off their bills before deciding what to do with the money.

From the lucky to the unlucky. NOTE TO SELF: If I ever decide to have and excruciatingly-painful tattoo placed on my head, I will not sleep through the procedure. A Belgian woman is suing a tattoo artist, alleging in her lawsuit that she woke up and found 56 stars inked on her face. The 18-year-old claims she fell asleep in the tattoo parlor, and the artist misunderstood her request for 3 stars, mistakenly adding another 53 of his own accord. She says she awoke to "a living nightmare." The tattoo artist in his counter-claim says the teen was not asleep during the procedure at all. In fact, she looked in the mirror several times and was completely happy with the results, until she got home and her father saw it. The teen says she wants to keep some of the tattoos, mainly the ones on her forehead, but plans to have the rest removed.
"Is this Hell? No - it's Belgium!"

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there's a great bit from the Middle Ages, where an old man is loaded onto a cart carrying "the dead", but he's still very much alive. He keeps proclaiming "I'm not dead yet. Actually, I'm feeling much better." Flash to current-day Europe, where an 84-year old Polish woman woke up in the hospital morgue, because her doctor her declared her dead. She was taken to the mortuary after she had collapsed at her home. The mortuary staff was quoted as saying, "she wasn't showing any signs of life, even when we were putting her into the plastic bag. Suddenly when we took her into the morgue she started to move." A doctor was quickly called, and confirmed the woman's vital signs had returned. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was placed in intensive care. Experts say the woman may have suffered from a disease that has symptoms which mimic death.

"Actually, I'm feeling MUCH BETTER!"