Stunning feats of common sense

A stunning feat of common sense not soon to be repeated, thanks to Delta Airlines. On our return trip from Russia, my wife and I were bringing along her brother, and his (5-months-pregnant-non-English-speaking) wife. Plus our niece. Delta operates two flights out of Moscow daily. One goes to JFK in New York and the other to Atlanta. We were going to Atlanta... it's just that a funny thing happened on the way to the South. Moscow airport security is insanely tight. My bags were x-rayed three times and manually searched, both carry-on and checked. I was metal detected twice and then wanded down. This, of course, makes for a rather long check-in process, which means that we were running a little late. My brother- and sister-in-law were the last ones in line to get on the plane. Just one problem: it was overbooked, and Delta informed them that my sister-in-law, by virtue of being last in line, would have to take the flight to NYC instead. So let's review: A 5-months-pregnant, non-English-speaking woman with an infant. In New York. By herself. My brother-in-law convinced them to let someone take her place. They said that we had to provide that someone. Guess who went to New York. Qualifications: no baby (check). Speak English (check). For the first time in two weeks, being a monolinguist came in handy!

But, the upside was that I flew Moscow to NYC first class. Now, what did I do? I read the same book that I would have read in coach and ate slightly better food. That's all first class is.


This week (and probably next week's) theme:

To celebrate the fact that I'm back in the beautiful USA, this week's (abbreviated) theme is "Odd renditions of the Star Spangled Banner". Ever since this happened, people have taken the odd habit that we have of starting off any sporting event (but, curiously, no other type of major event) with the anthem to try to do it one better. Sometimes with hilarious results.

Today's entrant: Jessica Simpson at the 2004 Indy 500.

A quick game of Where's Waldo?

What were those notes?
Perilous flight? (she did it here too)
Check out the guy in the "Delphi" shirt
Why is she flirting with the crowd at the end of the song?


Onto the news:

It's good to see that even after two weeks, stuff like this still happens
(What I want to know is this: Why would your first thought be to call the police?)

Caution: Coffee contains caffeine!
(Just like FIF may contain nuts.)

In the same vein of "When life hands you lemons..."
(I was told that there was a heat wave while I was gone.)


Other bright shiny objects:

Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager!
(This is absolutely brilliant.)

Next time I get to pick the movie...
(Sacha Baron Cohen is a genius.)

Pat Robertson has converted
(Does anyone listen to him any more?)


And finally:

One other thing I saw in Russia: A tricked out Lada. With a spoiler.

But, speaking of cars, a minor league baseball team is sponsoring a Britney Spears Car Safety night.