Joseph H. Johnson was charged with intimidating an aircraft flight crew member by writing a comment card rambling about the possibilities of the plane crashing and the passengers being trapped on Gilligan's Island with only Lovey Howell for female companionship.
The comment card read (apparently in full):
"I thought I was going to die, we were so high up, I thought to myself: I hope we don't crash and burn or worse yet, landing in the ocean, living through it, only to be eaten by sharks, or worse yet end up on someplace like Gilligan's Island, stranded, or worse yet, be eaten by a tribe of headhunters, speaking of headhunters, why do they just eat outsiders and not the family members? strange... and what if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight and we plumited (sic) to earth, landed on Gilligan's Island and then lived through it and the only woman there was Mrs. Thurston Howell III? No Mary anne (my favorite) no ginger, just lovey! If it were just her, I think I'd opt for the sharks, maybe the headhunters."
I understand that the feedback mechanisms promote this (the aircrew would be castigated if they ignored a possible threat, while there is no sanction for treating every little potential problem as if it were a bona fide danger to life and limb), but isn't this just a little overboard?
Most of my family is attending the 2010 William C. Shaw Lecture on 17 February. Airline "security" is one reason I'm not going.
|