Editing problem in new Southwest Airlines commercial

I admit that this is a very picky post. However, I have been known to be a stickler for details, and if you don't believe me, ask Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her mystery plane controversy which I first reported on the hallowed pages of this blog.

The other night while I was watching the new Southwest Airlines commercial that shows the ground crew running over to an airplane of another company and baring their hairy chests which spell "Bags Fly Free," I happened to notice that somebody royally screwed the ad up.

Here's a link to the ad, which notwithstanding the editing problem, is actually one of my favorites. Diane's mother happens to find the "Y" very funny.

Did you notice anything?

Well, look again closely and this time pay attention at the :14 second mark. You can see the plane clearly in that shot and you can see that it has twin engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage. I presume this is an MD80, as seen directly below.
Now, pay close attention at the :21 second mark. At this point, we are shown the perspective of a passenger in the above-referenced plane looking out the window at the crazy ground crew. Notice, however, that in this shot, you can make out the wing of the plane, and - and this is the key point - an engine mounted on such wing!!!This means that we are dealing with two different planes, folks. The only explanation that I can think of for this is that Southwest's fleet is composed exclusively of Boeing 737s. The competitor's plane is clearly not a Boeing 737 - you know, with the rear-mounted engines and all. I assume that since Southwest wanted to use their own aircraft for the interior shot, they had to use a Boeing 737.

My question: why not use an interior shot that doesn't include the wing?

New traffic at Albany

So there I was entertaining guests at my home on Saturday evening when I look out the window and see a giant plane heading into Albany International's Runway 1. I jumped up and shouted, "What the hell is that?"

After looking at the unusual beast in the air through the binoculars, I identified it as a Boeing 747. What was a Jumbo Jet doing in Albany, I wondered. So I went to Flight Aware to check out Albany's traffic and spotted a whole host of visitors we usually don't get the pleasure of seeing, including many 757's from the West Coast.

The Flight Aware maps of these flights showed that they had all done some circling in the NYC metro area before diverting this way, so I suspected that their visits to Albany were weather related. This assumption was later confirmed by the TU, which identified the B747 as a cargo plane from Brussels.

Piss-poor idea

ANA, Japan's second largest airline, will be introducing women-only lavatory facilities on flights. This does not seem like a good idea on several fronts. My first thought, from my very limited experience in observing female bathroom lines, they tend to be five times longer.
The article also cites that at least part of the reason for this change was due to a customer survey in which a large percentage of women passengers thought this would be a good idea. Hmmm - they must have been shocked to hear that. Among the reasons the women cited for the women-only lavatory was that men leave the toilet seat up. Are any of these women married? If so, do they have separate facilities in their own home? Now, the only thing I really know about Japan is that there is no space on the island-nation, hence multiple-level driving ranges, and the whole sleeping in a drawer bit. So I presume that most dwellings do not use precious, precious space on multiple and unnecessary bathrooms.

And finally, I could totally picture the situation where there would be a boy passenger who really has to go, but is forced to wait in line while a perfectly useful airplane lavatory is waiting unoccupied. Now, the airline did say they would waive the rule in cases of "emergencies" and when "few women are on-board." But I'm thinking, isn't every time you have to go an "emergency"?

Views from the AESOB

This was the view from my office window last Thursday - this is definitely one of the perks of working on the team that I work on. Yep, the view, the benefits, the parking space, the entertainment...the list goes on and on.

This was right before the blizzard. This is not a black and white picture. There are absolutely no effects on this shot.

And here is what all those ominous clouds led to.

Let's settle down with the citizen's arrest

Bucky Turco, PI extrodinaire, snapped a picture of a snoozing TSA agent at a gate at LaGuardia Airport. The agent eventually awoke and started her duties. He was so outraged and shocked, that he put the picture up on his blog and it eventually go to the TSA. Now, the agent has been assigned to desk duty pending an investigation.

But Bucky is pretty darn smart: "To be fair, she could have been on a break."

Ohhhh. Right.

She. Could. Have. Been. On. A. Break.

I guess in Bucky's America people are guilty until proven innocent. So Bucky thought, "Sure, she could have been on break, but I'm going to post her picture anyway." And now he might cost this young lady her job. Granted - it was a probably not the best place for this agent to take a break. Had I found myself in the same situation, I probably would have noticed the event unfolding before me and thought, "Hmm. To be fair she could have been on a break." And I would have left it at that. It is no worth somebody's job to be taking a picture of the young, probably tired out of her mind TSA agent. Would you rather have a sleepy agent, or an alert agent screening your bag, Bucky?

Well done Bucky, well done, indeed. In case you couldn't tell, I was being sarcastic. To be fair, you are an ass.

The Misty cat steps outside

Diane and I have been experimenting with having The Misty Cat explore the hallway environs. Our condo is a relatively small place for her, especially compared to Denison, where she even had an enclosed porch to go play and stalk in.

Each night around 11pm, we open the door and let her out. We're at the end of a pretty long hallway, so she has a lot of space to explore. She's walked all the way down to the elevator by herself and even into the stairwell up to the 9th floor.
One night she even went down to the basement with us to throw away the garbage, although she cried during the whole elevator ride down. It's strange to see her so scared, because usually I am the one that is the scared party.

Mandatory monthly post

I admit that I really don't have much to say in this post. This is basically going up so that I won't miss out on a "January 2010" tab on the archives roll.

Basically what has happened since I got back from Colorado on January 3rd is that I've been working. In fact, yesterday was the first day since January 4th that I did not go in to work. And most of it is President Obama's fault.

No worries, though, right? Even though a lot of people were putting in these long hours, it was for a worthy cause that will improve the State's education system. Except that the bill never passed. So I learned a valuable lesson - nothing is ever certain in the Legislature until the voting machine starts recording a vote.

Ever since that, I've been getting reacquainted with Diane, since it felt like months that I'd seen her. Last night we went to the River Rats game against the Adirondack Phantoms in Glens Falls, and it was very enjoyable. I maintain that the Glens Falls Civic Center is a much superior minor league hockey venue than the TU. It's smaller and the people give a damn. I couldn't get over how loud it was every time the crowd reacted to an event on the ice.

So, that is all for now, until my next mandatory February posting.