Text 512, 138 rader
Skriven 2006-04-18 13:42:47 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Michael Loo
Ärende: STATUS CYMBALS 537 50418
================================
 -=> Quoting Michael Loo to Glen Jamieson <=-

 GJ> Apparently the double Star Gold cards are rare enough that there were
 GJ> no other contenders for 2A.
 ML> To be quite honest, there were 26 premium seats and only
 ML> about 20 qualifiers (comprising double golds, US Air golds

So you were lucky to get 2A, and the first brandy.

 ML> In a reference to obsequious attendants,
 GJ> is it acceptable in your country to tip such persons as the check-in
 GJ> chick in a similar manner to wait staff, or does that come under the
 GJ> heading of bribery and corruption?
 ML> It is frowned upon, and that's one of the offenses for which
 ML> instant dismissal is mandated - another is the upgrading of
 ML> relatives and employees before the golds (I almost typed
 ML> gods) get theirs. That is of course not to say that the
 ML> agents don't upgrade their friends and refuse every $100 bill
 ML> folded into one's passport and boarding documents.

So everyman and woman has his/her price!  (Somehow, I can't see you
slipping the $100 bill in with your documents to the check-in!  If you
did, with your non-sartorial appearance, it could well result in
removing you from the line and being given a strip-search)
 
 GJ> A uniform and a bit of gold braid is immensely helpful there.
 ML> Not a chance of that for me, though my father is a wannabe army

I'm sure that if you arrived, wearing a spectacular uniform (hired for
the occasion) with no obvious indication of country of attachment,
that would make an immediate status impression, at least until they
saw your nationality on your passport.

 ML> person, with a lifelong fascination for firearms and other
 ML> weaponry, pomp and circumstance, and blind obedience. Of course
 ML> with his eyesight he wouldn't have got far in the service but
 ML> insisted on this kind of discipline with my brother, with the
 ML> result that on receiving orders, my brother stands to a sort of
 ML> parody of attention and bellows "yes, SIR" in an artificially
 ML> deep voice, something that meets with mixed reactions from my
 ML> father but that nauseates me. To tell the truth, the army might
 ML> have been good for my brother, if it didn't kill him first.

Which raises the thought that if your own eyesight had been better,
you might have been drafted.  How would that have affected the balance
of world powers?!
 
 GJ> (Carol isn't much help there.  She is not good at fawning.)
 ML> You noticed ...

Ha!  And again, Ha!
 
 ML> and troublemakers in the Nth Estate who would be more than happy
 ML> to stick it to the Man, whether credit card company or airline.
 GJ> That depends on Rupert's directives at the time.  Does News Ltd have
 GJ> any shares in AA?
 ML> You are a worse cynic than I am! Your Adelaide compatriot may
 ML> be the epitome of evil on this planet, but he doesn't yet have
 ML> complete control over all the media.

With 2 members of my family having formerly worked for Rupert, but now
Independent, I have been told tales of how his tentacles spread,
cancer-like, to the furthermost outposts of his empire.  Even in
Darwin, journalists have sometimes come up with some juicy story about
goings on at the nearby US air base, but then the editor has been told
that he "doesn't want to publish" the article.  It amuses me (in a
sick sort of way) whenever I have seen some politician announcing on
TV liberalisation of the laws governing media ownership, with our -
now your - Mr Murdoch standing in the crowd behind him, smiling.
 
 GJ> I plead ignorance of such high level iconic status cards; mine are of
 GJ> a much lower level.

 ML> Of course. Back during my trips to Italy, I carried a card
 ML> of such rarefaction that both in Rome and Berlin it was
 ML> misunderstood as a low-status card. In Rome I succeeded in

Out smart(card)ed yourself!

 ML> having the agents call United and verify that the white card
 ML> trumped the blue, silver, and gold cards; in Germany the
 ML> inflexibility of the agent yielded me lovely row 36; after I
 ML> landed, though, someone apologized and admitted that I would
 ML> have gotten a first class seat had the agent been appropriately
 ML> following orders.

Just heard a little story on a radio interview with an actress/author,
who was at a check-in counter behind a rather self-important actor
who, pulling rank, shouted, "Don't you know who I am!!".

The check-in man drew back and in an equally loud voice announced to
the waiting multitude, "We have here a man who doesn't know who he is.
Can anyone help him?"
 
 GJ> On my last trip through Singapore, I had to unpack all my things,
 GJ> including my toiletry bag, before they found that the pointy object
 GJ> seen on the X-ray was a small pair of tweezers, oriented so that it
 GJ> looked like a tiny dagger.  That was a bit embarrassing, though the
 GJ> staff concerned were very good-natured, and not at all over-bearing or
 ML> Thing is had you been of the appropriately brown persuasion,
 ML> would you have suffered worse? The American examiners are in
 ML> general almost acceptably color-blind in their annoyingness.

Interestingly, my main examiner then appeared to be of that "brown
persuasion", as are quite a few Singaporeans.   And yes, the American
examiners seem to be equally unpleasant to everyone.
 
It is interesting to see what items may be considered "Royal".

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
 
      Title: Brown Rice Royal
 Categories: Side dish
      Yield: 6 Servings
 
      2 c  Sliced fresh mushrooms
    1/2 c  Finely chopped green onions
           -- including tops
      1 tb Vegetable oil
      3 c  Cooked brown rice
           -- cooked in beef broth
 
  Cook mushrooms and onions in oil until tender.  Add rice.  Toss
  lightly. Heat thoroughly.
  
  Each serving provides: * 119 calories * 2.7 g. protein * 2.7 g. fat *
  20.8 g. carbohydrate * 292 mg. sodium * 0 mg. cholesterol
  
  Source: Brown Rice Reprinted with permission from The USA Rice Council
  Electronic format courtesy of Karen Mintzias
 
MMMMM
 

___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30 [NR]

--- FLAME v2.0/b
 * Origin: Braintap BBS Adelaide Australia (3:800/449)