Flying

A Taiwanese airline has a couple of their planes branded with Hello Kitty, inside and out and every which way. I'm a fan of the whole Hello Kitty thing, sort of in a fascination with the extreme pervasiveness of it all. She's everywhere, and she's everything. I can't imagine the number of hipsters with Hello Kitty tattoos. Don't even try to. Your head might a-splode. I especially like the concept of the HK plane, but something about it makes me uncomfortable. What happens if the HK plane crashes? Doesn't the extreme cuteness of it all make the tragedy ever so much more tragic?

I used to fly in planes a lot, not so much any more, and I miss it. I find the experience mostly relaxing. Something about the sound of the circulation fans chills me out and puts me to sleep. I sometimes was able to sleep through takeoff, which is a somewhat disassociating thing, to wake up suddenly at 30,000 feet. So I usually catch a quick nap, and then read uninterrupted except for the soda and peanuts, and then I'm someplace new. I just like flying. Once I flew in a Southwest Airlines plane decorated to look like the orca whale Shamu. It was like the HK plane, decorated on the exterior, with the napkins, pretzel bags and plastic cups decorated with images of the plane. The stewards and stewardesses wore neckties decorated with the SWA and Shamu logo pattern.

I learned something interesting the other day. When Delta Airlines started the first passenger service in their DC3s the first qualification for being a stewardess what that you had to be a licensed, registered nurse! Then again, in those days the planes were barely insulated, and the ride was very rough, and almost everybody aboard got sick, sooner or later. But the seats were huge! Bigger than today's La-z-boy chairs, from what I could tell. Almost as big as the behemoths in today's first class sections. I've never flown first class, but it sure must be nice. So nice that they have to put up a curtain, to shut themselves off from the peasants. Must be nice.