Airplane tension

Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) is blogging now, and his post this morning got me thinking a bit.

Adams was apparently on a plane yesterday, sitting next to a guy who figured the flight attendant's instructions to turn off electronic devices didn't really apply to him. He kept banging away on his Blackberry throughout the takeoff. Adams writes about struggling with his options - turn the guy in and suffer thru the tension of sitting next to a pissed-off high-powered executive for the rest of the flight, or ride it out and hope that the Blackberry didn't cause the plane to tumble uncontrollably from the sky.

He went with the latter.

I have sat next to High-Powered Executive Guy (and his relations, I'm More Important Than You Guy and The Rules Don't Apply To Me Guy) a few times on airplanes. What is it with these morons?

I don't really think a PDA or two-way pager is going to crash the plane, but when did rules become arbitrary?

Are these clowns just as cavalier with traffic laws? How about property laws? Do they say things like, "Bob, I know you just spent your life savings on your new dream Ferrari, but, you see, the laws don't really apply to me. So I'm just going to take it for myself."

This is why I am ADAMANTLY opposed to allowing cell phone use on airplanes. More Important Than You Guy will spend the entire flight talking way too loudly on his slick black RAZR about how Charlie has totally screwed up the Smithson account. No doubt he'll be jabbing me in the ribs as he tries to take notes with one hand, and he'll probably do the "Hey, buddy, can you help me out" bit at least once when he drops his pen under his seat.

I am a ride-it-out guy. I have way too many Larry David moments in my life as it is, so I try to avoid the "Curb Your Enthusiasm"-type confrontation when I can. Thus, of my own volition and bad luck, I spend too many flights wrestling between the merits of confrontation vs slamming into the side of a mountain.

No wonder I hate to fly.