>......Luuuuuuke........<

BUF - ATL (ASA)

I don't know if I can do this entry justice...it might have been a "you had to be there" moment.

Routine pre-flight instructions from the flight attendant, until she gets to the part about putting the oxygen mask over your face. There's a momentary pause, I was quasi-paying attention (having only heard this 1000 times before) when all of a sudden over the PA you hear the iconic "Darth Vader" wheeze... she's actually wearing the fake oxygen mask! and says in a very low, throaty voice that would have made James Earl Jones proud... "Luuuuuuuuuuke...."

It's little things like that that put a smile on everyone's face.

Champagne Flight

CVG - GRB Comair

It was May of 1998. Judy and I are celebrating...after 18 months of flying into Appleton Wisconsin and driving 40 miles to our account in Green Bay, we are on the inaugural flight...the very first flight....of Comair from Cincy directly to Green Bay. Judy, a 2 million miler, is telling me about these "champagne flights".

Seems that when an airline begins service to a new city, they pull out all stops and have champagne at the destination and usually the local news.

We pull up to the gate at Green Bay, and there are a lot of party streamers ringing the gate. Walk inside and see....a tray of cheese danish (each cut IN HALF) and a tub of ice with soft drinks in them.

Some party.

I laugh at Judy, pick out a wet Diet Coke and we trundle down to baggage claim. I pop the top on the Diet Coke, take a healthy swig...and spit immediately. Something is VERY VERY WRONG with the soda. It's like drinking liquid metal, the aftertaste is so strong. For a fleeting moment, I think someone has doctored this drink somehow and I have been poisoned. Judy looks at me worriedly. I examine the can...

....contents best used by August 1995. Three YEAR old Diet Coke? WTH?

Judy never lets me live this down.