Hey Kids - Read This Book
Or perhaps not.
New York author Robert Sayegh, up until a couple of days ago, was not exactly a household name.
True - he's published his share of articles in fairly well known circles and worked on a number of TV projects, but mention his name at a party up until last week and you were likely to get the old deer in the headlights gaze from anyone who was still listening to you.
Now he's written a children's book titled, "The Secret Origin of Mirrors" which I can see is still drawing blanks.
Bobby it seems has become a household name in Detroit of late, for being turfed off an Atlantic Southeast Airlines flight destined for New York.
According to reports, this modern day Dr. Seuss wanabee, fed up with a 45 minute departure delay, wondered out loud, "what's taking so f-expletive long?"
The dreaded F word.
On an airplane.
"Perhaps" he recalled, "I said it twice".
In Detroit of all places.
In the end, the airline decided not to press charges.
Instead they re-booked the New Yorker on the next flight to New Jersey which in itself is a harsher sentence than incarceration.
I guess Atlantic Southeast felt he'd blend in better with New Jerseyan passengers than with the Brooklyn self loading freight.
In his defense he claimed he'd not muttered the alleged obscenity at anyone in particular but rather to himself which as any writer can tell you, is a fairly common occurrence.
According to Shakespeare, the flight attendant seated behind him felt the F-bomb was directed at him - the flight attendant.
"Your honor - I move to strike the testimony of the witness on the grounds of a lack of credibility. No flight attendant in a seated position in the passenger cabin during a 45 minute gate delay is acting in a credible manner. A real flight attendant would still be trying to fit steamer trunks into the overhead carry on bins".
Besides which, as we all know from an incident last year on JETBLUE, a real flight attendant faced with a gate delay and a seemingly rude passenger would have taken matters into his own hands.
Steven Slater, formerly a gainfully employed flight attendant with JETBLUE, after a gate delay and heated discussion with a passenger, grabbed the PA system and unleashed a torrent of F* expletives and other related ditties before exiting the aircraft via the emergency chute armed with a half dozen cans of beer.
He was arrested by New York City Police upon entering the terminal.
Not so much for the expletives or even the dramatic exit - after all - this WAS New York.
But departing the aircraft with a 6 pack earmarked for sale to passengers at 35,000 ft? - That's grand theft folks and nothing irritates an airline more than when you steal from *them*.
With his new book "Secret Origin of Mirrors" coming out in August, Robert Sayegh's a tad concerned.
"This wasn't the kind of press I was looking for," he said in an interview.
Are you kidding me?
This thing will be flying off the shelves before school starts in September.
Kids nationwide will scour the contents cover to cover looking for content such as:
"Mirror Mirror on the Wall - who's the fairest of them all"?
"Blank expletive F word you bleep bleep"
You can't buy that kind of publicity - even in New York.
Slater was courted by Letterman an hour after he appeared before the Manhattan judge and his seeing eye dog.
I give Sayegh a week before he winds up headlining the talk show circuit in the good old Excited States.
Too bad Bobby wasn't up in our neck of the woods during the peak of the Air Canada strike.
Imagine the F bombs flying around while attempting to check in?
And then being told if he had a complaint he could send a registered letter to the airline's Customer Service Department?
It's the kind of *write stuff* that Reality Shows are made of.
Adios until next time
Dave Heron
Dave Heron is the owner and operator of: Pace Setter Travel & Tours (1995) Inc;
P.O. Box 612, 49 Elizabeth Street, Okotoks.
Tel: 403.938.5454
Toll Free: 1.800.206.7223.
Fax: 403.938.5568
Email:
pacesetter@nucleus.com
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