Text 15910, 136 rader
Skriven 2011-09-20 12:01:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: paranoia 931
====================
 ML> exactly. What had happened. The airport had closed all the runways
 ML> but one for some reason (claimed: maintenance), and the open one was
 GJ> Did anyone believe that?

No, but rather than terrorism we figured it was another case of
airline idiocy.

 ML> off to one side and wasting gas for an hour. Why on earth would
 ML> they not (plan A) taxi back to the gate and siphon off half a ton
 ML> of fuel, saving time and money; (plan B) taxi back to the gate and
 GJ> They were unlikely to be set up to take fuel out of planes, but only
 GJ> to put it in.

Back in the olden days, the planes could be divested of their fuel.
I think that it was a 727 or DC-10 in which I saw this happen.
Airbuses are not equipped to do so either on the ground or in
the air, with the result that an Airbus in an emergency must
circle for a huge long time before landing, presumably because
some loony EU parliament members were afraid of hydrocarbon
droplets falling on their heads. It is possible (also I read
somewhere) that the new generation 737s have been constructed
according to the EU standard.

 ML> kick off half a ton of passengers, saving time and aggravating 6
 ML> people to the gratification of 150; or (plan C) race around the
 GJ> Upgrades given as a reward to those passengers would probably be
 GJ> cheaper than the cost of the burned off fuel ($800?).

But there are denied boarding rules as well, so that people
bumped off the plane automatically receive a bandaid of $200
or more each. Upgrades are an additional perk, but as there are
so many elites on these flights, seats in first are hard to
open up. I estimate that the cost to the airline of catering me
in first is about $25 - a bottle of wine or three or four
Courvoisiers plus food. The food cost is negligible: they set
up to cater the capacity of the front cabin (plus crew), no
matter how many first seats they actually sell; the cost of
that many meals is almost the same as that of 10 or 15 (the
number of seats they actually sell, plus crew), because the
expense is largely in the storage, handling, and transport of
the product.

 ML> airport for 20 minutes instead of sitting in the penalty box for
 ML> three times that. Further: why the coincidence of this runway
 GJ> I wonder how many other aircraft were held up in the queue for that
 GJ> single runway???

Word has it, and this is unverifiable, zero. Certainly few, see below.

 ML> closure happening in the 15 minutes between our pulling off the
 ML> gate and our getting in line for departure. This all leads me to
 ML> imagine that Continental's operations management is worse than
 ML> United's.
 GJ> Or, more likely, there had been a terrorist scare of some kind, and
 GJ> Continental's management reacted predictably.

No terrorist scare. We heard and/or saw regular takeoffs of the other
airliners, from Delta, United (now part of Continental but still
under different management), American, Jet Blue, Southwest, and
AirTran (now part of Southwest but still under different management).
Didn't see any US Air planes, but that might have been owing to any
of a number of reasons not limited to organizational incompetence.

 GJ> Did you hear of the passengers and crew burnt in a Canadian Air flight
 GJ> from Vancouver to Sydney, when the plane dropped suddenly just as the
 GJ> tea and coffee trolley came out, and boiling hot water showered over
 GJ> people?  Two crew and about 7 passengers had to be treated on arrival
 GJ> in Sydney.  Not the sort of hazard that would be expected on a flight.

I presume you mean Air Canada. I don't think Canadian Air has been
flying for at least a decade. I have had flights with coffee spillage,
and it hasn't been enjoyable. Worse was the one with alcohol spillage.

 -=> Glen Jamieson said to Dave Drum <=-

 GJ> That is all very interesting, but as has already been indicated on
 GJ> this Echo, confusion can arise in your supermarkets or greengrocers
 GJ> when you ask for such things as "chilli peppers", as distinct from
 GJ> "bell peppers" or "sweet peppers".

There you go again spouting about things about which you
have scant experience. 1. At the supermarket, you needn't ask
for anything - it's either there or it's not. If there is
any confusion about the nature of the peppers, it's yours.
2. At a greengrocer's, if there were such a thing, you'd
be hard pressed to find an idiot working who didn't know
about peppers. By the way, nobody asks for "chilli"
peppers unless they want hot peppers. It's waiters in
downscale restaurants who wouldn't know, but that's because
they're from Queensland or someplace like that.

   Of course if you ask for "the only
 GJ> cultivar group of the genus other than Capsicum Rhomboideum that does
 GJ> not produce capsaicin," the counter attendant would know immediately
 GJ> what you wanted!

Why would one ask for such a thing?

 GJ> Here in Fantasy Land we are a simple lot, so we just use the one word
 GJ> name that everybody knows - capsicum - and no one is confused.

In fantasy land, it appears everyone is confused. Anyhow.

Bell pepper. 3 syllables.
Hot pepper. 3 syllables.
Black pepper. 3 syllables.
Capsicum. 3 syllables.

STUFFED MUSHROOMS
cat: airline, Hawaii, starter
yield: 1 batch

6 oz canned crab
1/2 c mayonnaise
2 c shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese (combined)
1 ds pepper
1 ds Worcestershire sauce
2 trays fresh mushrooms [1 lb?]
8 Tb butter

Wash mushrooms and take out stems. Dab mushrooms dry with
paper towel.

Combine crab, mayonnaise, and 1 c shredded cheese,
Worcestershire sauce and pepper.

Melt butter in a small pot, and dip mushroom caps into
melted butter. Line mushrooms in a 9x13" pan. Stuff with
mixture and sprinkle 1 c shredded cheese over the tops.

Bake mushrooms at 400F for 10 min, then broil until golden.

Vernon L. Enriques and Jodi A. Hood, (the late) Aloha Airlines
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