Flying back from the NW this last time, I met the nicest ticket man ever. He was very friendly, asked all about my visit and what my husband and I did down in the south. Just a genuine super nice guy. Not the norm for an airline worker, at least in my encounters. It was refreshing.
I made my way through security with all of our bags, my daughter's pillow, pulling the computer out, the shoes off, taking up four of the plastic bins just to get through and made it up to the gate in plenty of time to sit around for a few minutes before we were allowed to board the airplane. Finally, after an outbreak of yelling and screaming and an angry man who was taken way by security we were allowed to board.
I'm always a little weary of getting on the plane and hoping that I won't be stuck next to some psychotic poop smearer or other hygienically challenged person. Unfortunately for my daughter, I usually make her sit in the middle seat so that I won't have to be elbow-to-elbow with the person next to me and she never fills up a seat anyway so I see this as fair, at least until she gets a little older and realizes it's not.
So walking onto the plane, I spot a very large man. By large I mean, LARGE. He was probably one of the largest people I have seen in my life...and come on people, I live in the second fattest city in the USA. It was a close one, but fortunately we were seated just behind him. I got settled in and buckled up waiting for the flight and then proceeded to analyze this man sitting in front of me. He couldn't have been that much older than I was. I couldn't understand what got him to the point in life where he was. I thought about asking, but really, I don't consider myself a Dr. Phil kind of person, so I kept my questions to myself.
Then the nicest-ticket-man-in-the-world boards the plane. This was weird. They usually don't leave the ticket counter I thought. He came on and approached the extremely large man in front of me and started speaking to him. He very nicely and discretely pointed out to the man that next time he flew, he would probably want to consider buying two seats so that he was not spilling over into another person's purchased seat. He was extremely nice about it and about as non-offensive as you can be and then went on his way. The stewardess came by and rudely offered him an extension seatbelt so that he could buckle himself in and we were off.
I'm sure this scenario plays out all of the time on airlines. I mean the seats aren't that huge, but they are large enough for a normal sized person. Unfortunately, the norm is becoming larger and larger and people think that is okay.
Enter CNN: Should Obese Passengers Pay for 2 Seats on a Plane?
Yeah Obese passengers should have to pay for two seats. They take up two seats, they should have to pay for two seats. If you are too big, don't fly. Walk to your destination. (Someone told me today I would be good on The Biggest Loser because I'm a hard ass like that. Not exactly those words, but it's all the same. Thanks Shannon :) In the end, everybody pays for obesity. Our taxes end up paying for these people who aren't taking care of themselves and become morbidly obese because they just don't feel like moving. GET MOVING. It's a very simple equation.
I read through some of the comments that people left on this article and I have to say that this one, obviously written by a morbidly obese woman, is one of my favorite:
April 16th, 2009 5:04 pm ET
I do not think this is fair at all, The airlines should make those seats fit more of the current “normal sizes” There are 64% of us considered “obese” and I will not fly that airline ever again if this is to be thier policy. I don’t like sitting next to someone bad breath or who smell like a brewery either but I bet they won’t quit selling drinks!
Our airlines are all jerks and so are the airports maybe if 64% of us who are obese should be catered to by a new airline and then they can all take a flying leap out one of thier rather tiny windows too! that airline would be successful you can be sure. You can see the clothing designers are beginning to work with us,our money spends the same whether obese or thin.
The clothing designers are beginning to work with you?? And this is a good thing? How about you get your booty off the couch and start getting healthy? Seriously people. Stop making excuses. To the girl who is 15-years-old and weighs 287 lbs already, stop listening to your mom making excuses for you and telling your doctor that you just "aren't motivated and don't feel like exercising." DO SOMETHING. or you will die and my tax money will pay for your diseases brought on by obesity.
This was long and potentially boring, but the bottom line is this....MOVE. DO something. Just stop sitting around and being lazy. NO EXCUSES.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
SuperSized
Posted by honestgrl at 5:48 PM
Labels: I'm speaking to myself here. Not that I've ever taken up two airplane seats. I hope I never do.
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5 comments:
Plus that lady couldn't spell their!
THERE is something they can do about THEIR conditions but THEY'RE a bit to lazy to do it.
Maybe we should start an airline. Fly the Fatty Skies. Only deep fried snickers, and fries chicken, and french fries, and fried bacon, and fried shoe laces, and frie...
I'm hungry.
Hmmm... I would have to disagree with that lady's assertion that all airlines are jerks. I happen to like all that I've used... minus US Airways. Plus, they seem to crash a lot. Anyway...
Personally, I'd much rather sit next to someone who has bad breath, or one who chooses to purchase an adult beverage for the seemingly universal charge of $5... unless you fly Alaskan, and then it's free... Or so I've heard. *ahem* ;-)
This overly-sensitive and unrealistic woman could be a nice seat mate and say, offer the halitosis offender a nice stick of gum. Or better yet, join in the drinking fun with the lush that she's half sitting on. If she was drinking a bit of the sauce herself, something tells me that not only would she be more enjoyable for everyone to be around, but she wouldn't be able to notice the smell of alcohol over the amount that is seeping out of her own lovely pores. (Is it just me, or is "pores" kind of a gross word? Hmm...)
As I've already stated, at some point everyone must wake up to their own lazy ass self and take some responsibility for themselves and their freaking health! I've already ranted to you about this issue. It's just frustrating. I just had a discussion about this very issue yesterday, and the person on the other end says to me about getting a gym membership/exercising, "well, I've been seriously considering it. But I'm going to think about it some more". I don't get that. I mean, I happen to live in my head, I'm aware. But at some point stop thinking and start doing! Good grief.
And may I just say that I get a lot of flack about the enduro geek related activities that I enjoy, and it generally comes from certain people I know who exercise for maybe 2 hours... a month. Don't talk to me about how exercising a lot is unhealthy... especially as you sit there drinking that venti, extra whip, extra fat, quad shot caffeine bomb accompanied by your butter enriched pastry. Yeah, definitely the authority about what is and is not a healthy way to train and be in good overall health.
Stop with the, "I'm going to start my diet/exercise program on Monday", and do it NOW. Today. I'm not perfect, clearly. But trying even a little is beneficial. Shoot.
As the saying goes, "the path to Hell is paved with good intentions".
But I digress... as usual.
(Nice use of the word "sauce" back there, right? I feel like I'm on an episode of MASH). I need to go to sleep. Ugghhh. :-)
Ok, at first I didn't think it was fair to make someone pay for 2 seats, but that they should be reserved 2 seats to not bother their neighbor, but then when the lady mentioned that they should have an airplane for fat people, I realized they would not be able to make much money because they wouldnt be able to get as many people on board for the same price. They too would have to charge double, just to remain afloat. And the clothes thing, they would need to pay twice as much for the yardage! Fat people cant afford to spend twice as much because they dont have jobs! they are disabled. WE pay them their income. You are so right, you would be a real motivator. You should have that baby and then apply to be the next Jillian "helper" lol. Come on, they arent going to get rid of Jillian, BUT they might want to have a third team or something like that.
I had to fly to Portland for a meeting last year and it was an early morning full flight. Two large men ended up in seats next to one another and they quickly discovered that there wasn't enough room for both of them to overflow their seats onto each other. Since I am a normal sized adult, the stewardess asked me to swap seats with one of the men so that he could overflow onto me. It was the most uncomfortable flight ever. I know that he was embarrassed because 1/3 of him was resting on me and there was nothing that he could do about it. If the airline had had a policy requiring people of "size" to purchase that extra seat both he and I would have had a much more pleasant flight.
I don't believe that every obsese person is on welfare or disability - I happen to know one who brings in 6 figures a year. He's working on his weight and doesn't make excuses about why it's too high. He's the first one to say that he ate too much and didn't exercise. I respect that. If he complained about it and didn't take the steps to change it, I would have a problem with that.
Ultimately obesity does cost society as a whole a big chunk of change and that's why I think that there needs to be some action taken by parents, schools etc. to start out children on the right path.
Oh how I wish I had read this when it was fresh...
An airline for Fat People? Who is she kidding? Take the bus lardy lard. At least it wont have to get off the ground. If I was fat, I would pick a plane with the least amount of fat people just to be sure my chance of getting up and coming back down (without a thud) is not compromised by the Twinkie industry.
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