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Question: Has anyone ever been saved from an airline crash by using a seat cushion as a flotation device? I ask you. Has this ever happened? I feel like the answer is no. And yet, the entire airline ritual all revolves around the magical seat cushion. I wonder this constantly on planes but never feel quite resolved about it. Every time I think I have an answer, it slips through my fingers. I mean, lets just say that the answer is no. Then that would mean that the entire opening ceremony of any plane flight is in fact an enormous psycholgoic performance that is geared towards producing calm in the passengers. This performance may actually occurr more times per day than the sacrement. But if it is just a trick to make passengers feel comfortable, why belabor the point? I mean they even have notes on the back of your serving tray indicating where the cushion is.

And also, does this ritual actually make passengers feel comfortable? Does a person on a plane think to themselves, “well, I’m ok, because if something were to go wrong, the plane would land in a nearby body of water and then I could grab this cushion below my seat and float to safety.” Maybe. But it might also produce the opposite reaction which is, ‘this is ridiculous. These guys are in the midst of some strange performance art piece of lies!” Have you ever noticed that even if the plane isn’t going anywhere near a substantial body of water, they still do the dance. I mean can a plane land on the Mississipi river? Where does the cushion come into play in Kansas?

If someone knows the answer to this quandry, can you please tell me. I am at a loss and well, I’m tired of just passively accepting this new genre of airline safety performance art.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2005 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.