Home of the brave

As I sat in DFW waiting for my boarding call from American Airlines, I noticed a young man--kid, really, nearby dressed in full army uniform (sandy-coloured, camouflage wear). It's not something I often see in Canada. Moments later, the P.A. announced "We invite our first-class passengers to board Flight #XXXX".

After a couple of minutes of glancing around taking in the scene while avoiding eye contact with anyone else taking in the scene, the following message came: "We now invite our AAdvantage clients to come forward for boarding as well as any of our military in uniform". At that point, a thought started formulating in my mind. By the time I heard "Passengers with seating in Zone A are now asked to...", the thought was complete:

We greatly respect our brave, patriotic young citizens who put themselves in harm's way risking life and limb so that we can continue to enjoy all the freedoms we hold so dear...but not as much as we respect large sums of money.


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Naked scanners may be dangerous

WASHINGTON — Some US scientists warned Friday that the full-body, graphic-image X-ray scanners now being used to screen passengers and airline crews at airports around the country may be unsafe.

"They say the risk is minimal, but statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays," Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine, told AFP.

"No exposure to X-ray is considered beneficial. We know X-rays are hazardous but we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly that they will risk their lives in this manner," he said.

"We still don't know the beam intensity or other details of their classified system."

Story

Nice. The government creates a device they won't release the specs to, forces you to submit to a scan, examines your genitalia, and says "Trust us, it's safe".

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Don't forget to check the oil

If you wondered how bad the economic downturn is for the airline industry, here's a clue. This Air Canada pilot at Toronto's Pearson International Airport was spotted doing a chore normally performed by other staff.

Doughnuts 'n stuff

I recently made a trip to Dallas, Texas. While clearing airport security at my stop-over in Detroit, I accidentally spilled some of the contents of the tray containing my metal objects, namely loose change. So as not to disrupt the flow of the line, I quickly got on my knees and collected all the coins I could see within my vicinity and put them in my pocket.

When I got to my destination, I reached into my pocket, grabbed the handful of (Canadian) coins I wouldn't be needing during my stay and placed them on a dresser. There they sat for 10 days.

When I picked them up as I was getting ready to head to the airport, I noticed a couple of odd-looking coins. My immediate thought was that the taco lady in Detroit had ripped me off, giving me "slugs" instead of quarters. I have a bad habit of never even glancing at my change whenever I'm handed it.

Upon closer inspection, they were each a 2-Euro coin. Four Euros! I'm not sure how much that is, but I seem to recall that the Euro is worth more than a U.S. dollar and a U.S. dollar is worth more than a Canadian dollar. Ok, I just checked. My little windfall has netted me just about $6 Canadian. Not bad for five seconds work. I'm going back to the airport tomorrow. This time I'm going to borrow a metal detector from the security staff.

By the way, I'm not sure if this is true of every Dunkin' Donuts shop in the U.S., but the one in the Memphis airport has the biggest apple fritters I've ever seen in my life. They are no less than three times the size of our Tim Horton's equivalent. I'm not exaggerating. I bought one and was expecting to pay like $3 for it or something, but it cost me no more than a regular doughnut, whatever that was. Amazing! It took me about 15 minutes to eat the damn thing which was delicious, and it sufficed as my lunch. What a deal!