Brevity by Dan Thompson for September 05, 2012

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    SusanSunshine Premium Member about 12 years ago

    No fair!

    I want them to start with anyone (like me) who’s been waiting to use the bathroom on the plane, cos she’s afraid to leave the gate when we’re about to start boarding.

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    Ottodesu  about 12 years ago

    About a year ago I saw a guy react most violently (but only verbally) when told he couldn’t take a cup of coffee on the the flight. Not much reaction from anyone, he proceeded to his seat. Flight was delayed a few minutes while security arrived and escorted him off without any further comment. I got to wondering if he will ever be allowed on an aeroplane again.

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    SusanSunshine Premium Member about 12 years ago

    Bev — yeah like THAT works!

    Every time I hear the word “bathroom” makes it worse…and you want me to say it umpteen times myself!

    LOL!!

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    SusanSunshine Premium Member about 12 years ago

    Otto — yeah, they sell it to you at the airport and then make you throw it away!

    “But don’t worry, sir, as soon as we’re safely in flight, we’ll pretend we’re glad to serve you a small, complimentary cup of something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike coffee.”

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    jreckard  about 12 years ago

    I went to the airport and got a subway.

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    Varnes  about 12 years ago

    Air travel is a great time to see how many expensive screwdrivers you can drink in an hour……My personnel best: 5. But I was reading a good book, and forgot to drink….

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    Mongo  about 12 years ago

    I take the train.

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    Tom Falco  about 12 years ago

    That stuff always stinks up the plane.

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    massha  about 12 years ago

    SusanS, unless you are going on a REALLY tiny airplane, you have plenty time to use the restroom even after the boarding started. Just go. By the time you come back, there still will be a line. (Tons of personal experience)

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    runar  about 12 years ago

    When was the last time anyone here boarded a plane from a runway using one of those portable stairways?

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    PSTMD  about 12 years ago

    Santa Barbara Airport uses portable stairs. Every flight, Every Day. And when you land at LAX, you descend an outdoor staircase and procede into the airport for your next flight.

    If you’ve never used a stair, you’re not flying to small airports.

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    vermel33  about 12 years ago

    Just go to Long Beach Ca. Airport they all board that way @runar

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    hippogriff  about 12 years ago

    massha: Even some small planes qualify. As best I have been able to determine, the first in-flight toilet was on a deHavilland DH9a (originally a very light bomber from WW-I) in the luggage compartment. It consisted of a well-anchored bucket with a toilet seat and lid on top and entered service in 1919. Like today, it was unisex, which raises the question, why did Phyllis Shafley abandon her kids to fly around the country telling people the Equal Right Amendment would force women to leave their children to go to work and require unisex restrooms?

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    SusanSunshine Premium Member about 12 years ago

    Bev! I kinda suspected that, you meanie! LOL

    hippogriff — I think Massha was just telling me I had time to use the airport restroom during boarding, even if the passenger list was short…. and not saying there wouldn’t be a bathroom on a small plane.

    But that’s interesting — hope they could UN-anchor the bucket to empty it!When I was a kid my family flew a few times in a WWII vintage C47 (Gooney Bird)…

    Unpadded metal bucket seats down the sides faced a huge pile of strapped-down cargo in the middle.

    Trying to stand up and pick your way between cargo and passengers (mostly uniformed military) to use the rudimentary bathroom facilities was pretty daunting for a 12-year-old girl!

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    hippogriff  about 12 years ago

    Susan: I certainly hope so! However, judging from photos, the bucket seemed special made, with a flange at the bottom for securing with clamps on the floor. I would suspect that the seat & lid combo had some sort of gasket to prevent splashing damage to luggage in turbulent air. It was before my time!.There is a C-47 currently mothballed in the Netherlands. The plan is to fly it again in 2034, the centennial of the first DC-3 flight. (C-47 was the military version, just a larger door for easier cargo loading, as a jeep wouldn’t fit through the airliner’s door.) See Project Dak – short for Dakota, the British name for the C-47 and used through most of the world. The US name was Skytrain, but virtually never used, even in USAAF.

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