#987 – Triptych
Posted on March 24, 2010 at 12:00 am by Chris
Chapter: Comics
I haven’t flown very many times and I have lucked out that I haven’t had to sit next to anyone too weird. Maybe I’m the weird one that people get stuck next to? I usually just fall asleep. Any weird person next to me on a plane stories?
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Wow, those eyebrows really take up space… Wait! Does that mean Biff gets to take three times as much carry-on luggage as everyone else?! 😮 Man, that might be worth it!
Oh, and *I* am usually the weird one next to whom no wishes to sit… 😀
I’ve never been on a plane, but I regularly take the train when I visit home from college. One time I sat next to an old man who spoke only Chinese, but insisted on trying to converse. We finally fell into a sort of gesturing/facial expression language. He showed me pictures of his family, and he really, really disliked a man I believe was his son-in-law. I bought him coffee.
That’s neat Enlyn!
Yeah, trains involve meeting some seriously weird (but good) people. I met someone going back east and they gave me a novel about a cat’s perspective on WW2.
Man, i sat next to this guy once…he told me he works for a car company, he has to fly around the country and investigate car accidents. And he’s summed all these deaths up to an equation that determines profit. talk about morbid….
I was flying back alone to college from a business trip in North Carolina, and there was no one sitting next to me as I boarded my flight out of Charlotte. As I read waiting for the plane to taxi, a woman (autistic or similarly impaired) was complaining to the flight attendant that a man had taken her seat and was making a small scene. Other passengers were rolling their eyes and making snide comments to each other during this. The flight attendant told her to find an open seat, of which there were two in near proximity; another man refused to let her sit with him, so I offered the seat next to me.
The woman was grateful and extremely talkative. Turns out she had a fear of flying, so my “study and sleep” time turned into “preoccupy this woman so she stays comfortable” time. In the end, she was nice enough, and even though I bore the burden, it was worth it watching the jerks around us be annoyed for 3 hours with our louder-than-usual conversation.
@PTTG could you perhaps tell us the title of said novel, I’m very interested now.
Personally I’ve always ridden next to a family member, therefor I’m the weird person to sit next to.
One out of Three people are weird. If you’re sitting next to two normal people… you’re the weird one!
not so much /next to/ someone weird, but i think my family are people you dont want to be on the same PLANE as.
especially when were spread all over the plane, unable to get seats next to each other.
and when my sisters get into the crosswords and trivia in the in-flight magazines
“HEY MUM, WHATS A FOUR LETTER WORD FOR…”
hat being said, we did have people laughing. i dont think anyone could tell we were on our way to a funeral
Not next to a person, but once on my way home from London the plane was about one hour late, and the airline company gave everyone a drink while we waited… And EVERYONE in my section of the plane ordered tomato juice.
Not exactly the smell you want when already feeling a bit sick >_<
And then the servers asked every person ordering tomato juice if they wanted "Ice or spice" in it, to which they all answered "Ice AND spice, please", "Just ice, no spice" or "no ice, just spice", or some other like it… Instead of just saying "both", "just ice" or something like that.
Does family count?
@ Mister Disco : I believe the book PTTG is referring to is called “Blitz Cat,” by Robert Westall? I actually read it a couple times growing up. It is a fun and interesting book, morbid and sad many a time, but otherwise entertaining. The cat is named Lord Gort, who was some kind of royal. There is a funny part of the book where a character believes Lord Gort is not the cat’s name, but owner, and hopes to receive a reward for finding it.
I am in the military, and I quite often fly in uniform (even when I am not required to). So the person who I sit next to invariably asks me about my service, and if it is a young boy, eventually asks that mortal question, which I try to carefully avoid answering. I have never sat next to someone uncomfortable to be near while on a plane, fortunately.
last time I was on a plane from New York to London I got put next to a guy with a bronx accent who smelled so bad I could feel the smell coating my teeth. After a few minutes I’d thrown up in my mouth twice and got up to speak to a stewardess. She thought I was just being fussy till she came over – then she moved me to another seat and I got meals and drinks from first class for free as an appology from the airline. YAY for Air Canada 🙂
PTTG: Dude, I would tottaly read that book!
I’ve never seen stuck beside someone strange on train or plane. I might just be that person someday.
@Mister Disco: I don’t know if PTTG will be back, but one of the short animations from ALLEGRO NON TROPPO tells a similar cat’s perspective story. If you haven’t seen FANTASIA, you’ll miss out on some ANT’s direct parody, but it’s not a prerequisite.
@Baughbe: I Laugh Out Loud at the question. My condolences. My family probably emapthizes with you, on my account.
Hm…I’m usually with family…and we’re ALL the wierd person nobody wants to sit next to (so, obviously, we have no trouble sitting next to eachother).
I’m morbid yet talkative, my sister’s autistic, and my father always either talks too loud or too quiet, and forgets words half the time. My mom doesn’t fly anymore. She got sick of our luggage always going to Atlanta or something while we went to St. Louis…
I live on the East Coast of the US, and on a flight back from Japan I had to sit next to an overweight Korean man who smelled like soggy, rotten donuts and constantly was hacking snot out of his nose. Boy was that a pleasant trip!
does my grandma count? =3 She has a habit of commenting or LOL-ing when she’s watching a funny TV show, even when she’s alone. Now that planes are equipped with personal TV screens and headphones, she’d be laughing so hard at her own screen. I’m sure everyone heard her but no one knows what she’s laughing at ‘cuz they can’t see or hear which show she’s watching ^^;;
OK, so now I confess how weird I am to sit next to… Last time I flew, I was stillin the Nav, and was doing a Body Escort. IOW, I was accompanying a dead sailor home (Pre-9/11). That means dress uniform whilst travelling or in public until after the deceased has been interred and The Flag delivered to the NOK. It’s a real social-stopper when people ask why/where you’re going, and you drop that bombshell into the conversation. OTOH, I did get deplaned ahead of everyone else, including First Class, so I could render honors as the casket was removed from the cargo hold. 😛
not sure if i count as one of the “weird people to sit next to” but what ever, I cant help but think of one of my favorite quotes, “everyone is normal until you get to know them”
Usually the weird person I sit next to is my husband…
Yeah, I was in marching band all four years of high school. In my Senior year, we got invited to the Rose Bowl Parade. Being a gigantic band from two small high schools in Ohio, we had to charter a plane to take us there.
During the flight, all 250 of us decided we would sing our entire marching routine during the trip. The flight attendants weren’t sure what to do about this, and we eventually heard over the speakers “This is your captain speaking. The copilot is trying to get some sleep, so it would be appreciated if you could be a little quieter.”
After hearing this, we all switched to lullabies. EASILY the best memory I have of high school.
biff is the only subscriber to sky barn monthly, sky barn weekly gets many more subscribers.
That’s the airplane magazine from the seat in front of him. Even Biff knows that Sky Barn Monthly is weird.
@daniel that is awesome, all the best memories come from marching band and jazz choir, lol
i have to add something. we were on a bus back from a Florida trip for marching band. one of the chaperones asked me what I was listening on my cd player. and of course i said Beatles.. she said.. finally something normal. I was like.. um it’s normal for a 17 year old to listen to Beatles? i’m 26 now ^^
Once, flying back from France, I ended up sitting next to a man who started the flight by chewing tobacco and who drank 15 beers over the course of a 7-8 hour flight. He was, however, very friendly. Turned out he worked on an oil rig in Africa and was flying home for his time off. He was good at holding his alcohol and had pictures of his workplace. =D
Usually I’m the weird person people sit next to.
@ladyamethyst83,
yes it IS normal for a 17 year old to listen to The Beatles. i would be said 17 year old, and said band would be the majority of music on my iPod. 😛 i’ve loved The Beatles since i was able to coherently produce and spew forth my own opinion. i think it’s genetic too…..
as for weird plane stories, i’ve got none. oh well. that being said, i lable myself as a random insane ninja pyro. (and the ninja part isn’t all me. it’s been proven.)
Let’s see…
I’ve ridden on a plane next to a couple Korean nuns, coming to the States to return the favor – since we had come and saved them from their ‘sinning’ ways, from watching US television, they felt we now needed it… Couldn’t really disagree with them, other than to point out that TV has little to do with reality!
I took a bus from Kuala Lumpur into Thailand, with two other white people on the whole bus. One looked the cowboy/redneck part, and I almost blew him off completely – and then it turned out he was a roadie/musician for the Violent Femmes. Taught me about snap judgments!
A couple times, flying into my hometown, sat with and chatted to someone just getting in with no plans on how to get home, so I gave them a lift…
And once, my wife and I got a whole row to ourselves, so she slept across three seats, and I jealously watched her.
heh i am probably one of those people. who is weird XD
on my last flight, going back to home from Mississippi (well, Baltimore really), i was still sick, and blowing my nose with toilet paper 😀 hehe it was soooo much softer than paper towels :3
i was in the middle next to my friend and some random dude, whose wife and 2 young daughters were in the seats in front of us. heh :3
@pttg (even though I know you won’t read this):
I read that book! I don’t remember much of it (and it didn’t seem super morbid) but I remember this bit where the cat snuck into a bomber and flew with the crew… but the cat was deafened by the landing and he ended up flying with them a lot. Good book.
Anyway, I recently went to NY with my class, and the people I was next to were cool and interesting. Both times the person to my left was quiet/asleep/etc and the person to my right was a youngish female. Very different people, cool to talk to. We also met a couple of people with extreme Brooklyn accents on a train ride back to the hotel. fun trip!
College kid with a truly foul odor. Whatever the phrase “unwashed hobo smell” brings to your mind, it’s probably not far off.
In retrospect, I should have asked to be reseated.