Hubby's bar has, for the (memfault, but a few years anyway) time won The Dallas Voice Award for "Straight But We Still Go There Bar"

Yeah, that's what I like this job . . .

I showed a woman the steps to do a particular function in our program, and she said "Yes! That's exactly what we've been looking for! Thank you!"

Bless the customers with simple needs.

Timelies all!

Tired, but it's my own fault for staying up late watching the Olympics. (and that, on top of sleep dep from the con, is no fun.)

Hubby's bar has, for the (memfault, but a few years anyway) time won The Dallas Voice Award for "Straight But We Still Go There Bar"

Rock on, Mr Jane's bar!

13 bizarre beauty pageants

Miss Klingon Empire

Started in 1998 and held annually at the September Star Trek convention in Atlanta, the Miss Klingon Empire competition showcases women dressed up as a persona from Star Trek’s Klingon warrior race. The contestants are judged on beauty, talent (for which they are encouraged to perform a Klingon-related skill) and personality.

Yeah, I'm Olympics coverage tired too. I fell asleep watching the Tivo'd speed skating from last night. And I'm busy today so I'll be watching again tonight when I get back from rehearsal at 10pm.

I had something else to say, but it has escaped in my need to go get something to eat.

I would just like to say that it's entirely possible to not have "fat hate" and the like, nor be biased against people of any size, but to also like to not be scrunched into my seat because someone else is in my space.

However, I lay the blame at the airlines and how they've reduced the seat sizes over the last 20 years in order to put more asses on every plane and increase revenue (to offset the very much cheaper tickets that everyone demands). That goes for tall people, too!

Then here's my question (not specifically for javachik): fat people gotta fly; tall people gotta fly; BMI-"normal" people who have wide hips gotta fly; slim-hipped men with broad shoulders gotta fly -- what's the solution? Making seats a few inches bigger (and the rows a few inches further apart) will lead to price increases. It seems like the most reasonable solution, but no one likes price increases.

Making fat people buy a whole extra seat to avoid the problem of someone's clothed hip/leg touching someone else's clothed hip/leg is, IMO, ludicrous. For one thing, it's wasteful on flights that are already overbooked, where gate attendants are begging people to be bumped. If someone literally fills 2 entire seats, then yes, that person should buy 2 seats.

But what I'm wondering about everyone who objects to flying next to someone "fat" (and I put that in quotes because the definition varies from "literally does need a seat about 5 inches wider" to "OMG, she's, like, BIGGER THAN ME and her FAT IS TOUCHING ME!!!") because the fat person "spills into" the less-fat person's "space" is this: have they NEVER ridden other public transport?

And maybe they haven't. But seriously, you don't get people demanding that fatties buy 2 subway tokens (how the fuck would demanding your "extra space" work on the subway in rush hour, anyway?), or 2 bus seats, or 2 train seats, etc. And has anyone who's EVER ridden public transport when it's been full -- because that's what airplanes are doing these days; they're being oversold and damn near every flight (or at least the ones at peak times) are indeed full to capacity (I can't remember the last time I was on a flight that had more than *maybe* 1 empty seat) -- managed to avoid being pressed up against someone else, whether that someone else is fat, thin, tall, short, etc.? Seriously?

It's public goddamn transport. You travel with other people, you end up touching them. The difference between an airplane and the subway is that on a plane you pay a hell of a lot more and you can't get off before you intended to (god willing). On a subway, does your token buy you a premeasured space of X cubic centimeters? Or does it buy you a guarantee of transportation from point A to point B? I'm pretty sure that not too many people would argue for their premeasured cubic centimeters of space on the subway at rush hour.

So why is an airplane any different?

So, seriously. Yeah, overcrowded public transport sucks. For everyone.

I'm fairly sure Miss Klingon Empire is held at DragonCon, which is not a "Star Trek" convention. Ah, non-geek media.

I think an airplane is different because you pay more and are usually on it for longer. I think planes and trains are comparable--you are paying lots of money and going a long way. sometimes several hours. I used to take Amtrak a lot and seats are much wider on trains--and the same route on the train is much cheaper than on a bus, where you may end up sitting pretty darn close.

I last rode Amtrak sometime in the '80s, and the schedule adherence was not good. Has that improved at all? If I took a train, it would be a goodly distance.