Yes I Am A Princess
At LAX the other day (well, actually, next to LAX, in El Segundo, up on a hill) I was watching planes take off, when a man came up to the fence near me holding his young daughter, who was maybe three or four years old. He began calling out aircraft types along with airlines to her. "Hey look, over there, Southwest taking off! Do you know what that is? 737. Yeah! And look over there, Northwest. That's a 757!" That sort of thing. It made me wonder if I would ever feel the desire to indoctrinate my as-yet-theoretical children to the ways of planespotting. Would it make them grow up into budding young planespotters or is it just a freak genetic occurence where, in the womb at some point, some bit of code gets switched on and you're destined to be into planes later on?
At around the same time, down at the bottom of the hill, by the perimeter fence, I saw a "K-9 Police" car roll up. The cop got out looking official and somber, and then opened the back seat. Out of the car came a German Shepherd, bounding around excitedly on the grass. It was shocking only in that I have a notion about police dogs as being generally very serious. About as serious as their police-man counterpart, if not more, really. And yet here was this dog momentarily becoming a total dog and jumping around on a little patch of grass and peeing on trees and stuff.
The two incidents are unrelated and yet something about the fact that we were all next the airport while these great big machines thundered around in all directions kind of tied us all together.
Meanwhile, does anyone out there want to know which of the States I've been to? It would be pretty boring if I listed them, right? So, how about a graphical representation, brought to you by world66.com:
You can also do countries in a similar fashion. I should mention that I discovered that tool on a blog about travel which sometimes has some interesting stuff on it.
Speaking of travel, I'm going to Venezuela in May, and while researching Angel Falls, the famously enormous waterfall located in the jungles of that country, I came across the fact that people actually base jump off of it. Which is a thought I find totally terrifying yet fascinating. At this website you can watch a video of a guy doing the jump. It's pretty incredible. Anyway, some day I think I might want to do that.
Let's hear it for ba.com, the website of British Airways, for holding what I think must be a world record for number of choices for honorifics/titles to go before your name when making a reservation. I just came across this the other day in my part-time work as a frequent flyer consultant/adviser. They must have fifty choices for what goes before your name. Are you a Baron and want that to be reflected on your boarding pass? You'll have no problem at ba.com. Are you a Jonkheer, a Khun Ying, a Rear Admiral, a Sig Na, a Wg Cdr (what is that, wing commander or something?), or do you like to be addressed as "The Very Reverend"? You are in luck. Are you a Princess? Not a problem. It makes me want to book on ba.com just so I can have a boarding pass that reads 'Rear Admiral Gabriel Leigh.' But would it all fit on there? Perhaps the shorter 'Princess' would be more likely to show up in its entirety. Could they deny me boarding for saying I was a Princess? "I say sir, you are clearly not a Princess." To which I would have to respond, "How dare you!"
Want something to amuse yourself for two hours? Ever wonder about those Nigerian scam emails and who's actually writing them? Ebola Monkey Man is for you then, my good Jonkheer.
At around the same time, down at the bottom of the hill, by the perimeter fence, I saw a "K-9 Police" car roll up. The cop got out looking official and somber, and then opened the back seat. Out of the car came a German Shepherd, bounding around excitedly on the grass. It was shocking only in that I have a notion about police dogs as being generally very serious. About as serious as their police-man counterpart, if not more, really. And yet here was this dog momentarily becoming a total dog and jumping around on a little patch of grass and peeing on trees and stuff.
The two incidents are unrelated and yet something about the fact that we were all next the airport while these great big machines thundered around in all directions kind of tied us all together.
Meanwhile, does anyone out there want to know which of the States I've been to? It would be pretty boring if I listed them, right? So, how about a graphical representation, brought to you by world66.com:
You can also do countries in a similar fashion. I should mention that I discovered that tool on a blog about travel which sometimes has some interesting stuff on it.
Speaking of travel, I'm going to Venezuela in May, and while researching Angel Falls, the famously enormous waterfall located in the jungles of that country, I came across the fact that people actually base jump off of it. Which is a thought I find totally terrifying yet fascinating. At this website you can watch a video of a guy doing the jump. It's pretty incredible. Anyway, some day I think I might want to do that.
Let's hear it for ba.com, the website of British Airways, for holding what I think must be a world record for number of choices for honorifics/titles to go before your name when making a reservation. I just came across this the other day in my part-time work as a frequent flyer consultant/adviser. They must have fifty choices for what goes before your name. Are you a Baron and want that to be reflected on your boarding pass? You'll have no problem at ba.com. Are you a Jonkheer, a Khun Ying, a Rear Admiral, a Sig Na, a Wg Cdr (what is that, wing commander or something?), or do you like to be addressed as "The Very Reverend"? You are in luck. Are you a Princess? Not a problem. It makes me want to book on ba.com just so I can have a boarding pass that reads 'Rear Admiral Gabriel Leigh.' But would it all fit on there? Perhaps the shorter 'Princess' would be more likely to show up in its entirety. Could they deny me boarding for saying I was a Princess? "I say sir, you are clearly not a Princess." To which I would have to respond, "How dare you!"
Want something to amuse yourself for two hours? Ever wonder about those Nigerian scam emails and who's actually writing them? Ebola Monkey Man is for you then, my good Jonkheer.
posted by Gabriel Leigh at 11:32 PM
2 Comments:
Another cool posting by GWL. Upbeat, fun and informative. When the boy's on, he's on.
'That's a very positive comment. Do you know GWL?'
'Only through his writing.'
'But aren't your initials BWL?'
'Yes, what of it?'
'Oddly similar, wouldn't you say?'
'And aren't you oddly inquisitive.'
'So you're not related to the person known as GWL.'
'I am related to all people who write well.'
'That sounds like a bunch of crap to me.'
'Well, as the offspring of illiterate morons, it would, wouldn't it?
Good stuff! Keep it up!
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