THE DAILY BLADE: More DIY Profiling
In the latest case of jittery airplane passengers not wanting to take any chances with their lives, a family dressed in Muslim garb was removed from AirTran Flight 175 at Reagan National Airport after other travelers overheard Atif Irfan ask his wife, Sobia Ijaz, and sister-in-law, Inayet Sahin, whether the safest place to sit on the airplane would be in the front, the rear or over the wing. Sahin’s reply - sitting near the engines would be unsafe if there were an accident or explosion - alarmed the passengers enough that they alerted flight attendants, who contacted the Transportation Security Administration and evacuated the plane so it could be swept for explosives and the passengers could be re-screened. The New York Times reports:
[S]oon, Mr. Irfan and his wife were off the plane and being questioned in the jetway. The six remaining family members in the traveling party were taken off the plane as well, along with a family friend who happened to be on the same flight and who happens to be a lawyer for the Library of Congress.
Next, the nine Muslim passengers - all but one are United States-born American citizens - were taken to a quarantine area in the passenger lounge where they were questioned by F.B.I. agents. Mr. Irfan’s three small nephews were denied access to food in the family’s carry-on luggage.
Before long, Mr. Irfan told The Lede in an interview Friday morning, the F.B.I. concluded that the incident was obviously just a misunderstanding, and told AirTran officials that the family was cleared to travel. But he said AirTran still refused to rebook them, offering only to refund their tickets. The F.B.I. agents helped the family get on a later USAirways flight to Orlando, but those seats cost them twice as much. …
Mr. Irfan said the family is waiting to see whether AirTran will do anything more to resolve the matter. “We’re not looking for some big payout,” he said. “We just want something that would put us back where we started.”
But that’s not all he told the paper: “To be honest, as a Muslim … we realize this is an unfortunate aspect in our lives. Whenever we get on a plane, because of the color of our skin, people tend to look at us with a weary eye anyway.”
Um, if skin color were the issue, The Stiletto would be stopped and questioned every time she tried to board a plane. If Irfan wanted to be honest he would have instead said, “Whenever we get on a plane, because members of our faith have committed the vast majority of hijackings over the past 35 years, people tend to look at us with a weary eye.”
For its part, AirTran Airways agreed to refund the cost of the USAirways tickets, and issued a public apology to all the inconvenienced passengers:
We regret that the issue escalated to the heightened security level it did on New Year's Day, but we trust everyone understands that the security and the safety of our passengers is paramount and cannot be compromised," read a company statement. "We apologize to all of the passengers - to the nine who had to undergo extensive interviews from the authorities and to the 95 who ultimately made the flight. Nobody on Flight 175 reached their destination on time on New Year's Day, and we regret it.
The Morning After
There’s got to be a morning after – and if you’re like most party hosts the first light of day on January 1st glints off a couple of half-finished bottles of uncorked Champagne (one brut and one sec, if you’re the type who goes the extra mile to accommodate differing tastes). Normally, The Stiletto would have made a pitcher of Mimosas or Bellinis but this year, she went in a different direction for her New Year’s Day brunch: Bloody Marys with Tru Celery Peppercorn vodka and Tilted Palms’ 19th Hole Bloody Mary Mix (thanks to a dogged liquor distributor, who was able to get his hands on the artisinal vodka after a two-month search, and to Tilted Palms “Big Kahuna” Tom Laffey, who was kind enough to send over a case of his uniquely tasty mix to The Stiletto after she experienced technical problems with the order form on the company’s Web site). Best Bloody Mary ever. But that still left The Stiletto with leftover
Editorial Note: NPR’s Liane Hansen interviewed Ted Haigh, curator of the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans, who said that a concoction known as Corpse Reviver No. 2 (an ounce each of London dry gin, Cointreau, Lillet blanc and fresh lemon juice, plus two or three drops of absinthe) is making a comeback:
Haigh: It was originally conceived to be consumed in the morning to revive the corpse again.
Hansen: That doesn't sound like it would revive a corpse; it sounds like it would create a corpse.
[Hat Tip: MediaPost]
Bet They Smoke Cigars, Too: Part VIII
Two young men 18 and 19 stole a stash of $100 bills totaling almost $250K from their grandfather on Christmas Day, reports Pioneer Press (Minneapolis- St. Paul):
In a two-day shopping spree, authorities said, they bought at least six cars and trucks: from a $14,000 Ford F-350 pickup to a $1,200 Ford Focus. They reportedly spent two days in a hotel near the Mall of America and packed their room with the spoils of after-Christmas sales: clothes, shoes, a laptop computer and other electronics, including a flat-screen television.
They gave much of the bounty to friends, family and even simple acquaintances throughout
On Sunday evening, authorities caught up with the grandson, Andrew Selvig, 18, of
Selvig had $2,000 in his pockets.
The second suspect, Samuel Durkot, 19, of
Robert Selvig said his son - who had recently been living with his grandparents - told him the pair had won the money at a casino.
The Pioneer Press did not say so, but these two didn’t go bad overnight. Years earlier they must have seen a movie villain light up a cigar and decided to emulate his evil ways. They started out smoking stogies and ended up stealing their grandfather blind – at least, that’s what the American Medical Association thinks happens whenever a fictional character smokes a cigar onscreen.
To read other posts in this series detailing the global epidemic of evil child cigar smokers, click here (last item), here (last item), here (second item), here (second item), here, here (second item) and here (last item).
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