Sure, it was just 12 days after the alleged plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic was foiled, but this item regarding the smoochy transatlantic flight of George Tsikhiseli, a television journalist, and his writer boyfriend, Stephan Varnier, from this week’s New Yorker, has little to do with terrorism. Here’s an excerpt:
“The purser asked the men to describe what they’d been doing, and she acknowledged that their behavior had not been inappropriate. Tsikhiseli then asked if the stewardess would have made the request if the kissers had been a man and a woman. Suddenly, Leisner said, the purser “became very rigid.” Contradicting what she’d told them before, she stiffly said, “Kissing is inappropriate behavior on an airplane.” She then said that she was busy with the meal service and promised to come back.
Half an hour later, the purser returned, this time saying that some passengers had complained about Tsikhiseli and Varnier’s behavior earlier. The men asked more questions. Who had complained? (She couldn’t say.) Could they have the stewardess’s name, or employee number? (No.) Would the purser arrange for an American Airlines representative to meet them upon landing at J.F.K.? (Not possible.) Finally, the purser said that if they didn’t drop the matter the flight would be diverted.”
Have you ever heard of the “no kissing” rule? Would the same demands have been made on a straight couple? What do you think?
Air Kiss [the new yorker]
(thanks brett)
