Well geeze, pencils and pens have always been allowed and they’re just as much a weapon, perhape more so, than knitting needles.
Glad to see she’s a knitter and understand but I bet you she thinks twice again about commenting with out really thinking.
Maybe I skimmed, but she sounded like she was more frustrated with the flight than with the knitter. I get grouchy when I’m crowded up against people and it’s one of many reasons I try not to fly. :pout:
I think that anybody sitting next to her would have frustrated her. However, venting in an online column was not a good choice! :fingerwag:
Well, I read the article, response, and comments and here is my 2 cents.
I must just be weird or something. People sitting next to me don’t really bother me. Neither does body odor or screaming children. I always try to assume that someone might have a reason for the way they look or smell or what they do.
I have a hard time, though, being tolerant of mean behavior. Some people just can’t help but be offended by everything and nasty to others. I don’t think that article had any place in professional journalism- but look at what “sells” and all the reality/soap operas of nastiness people find amusing.
I think her article made me more upset that she was speaking so disrespectfully about another human- one who really seemed to be trying not to be a pain and was just being friendly. Save your scorn for the people out there trampling on others on purpose.
What a hateful article! I will never understand people like this…
I’m reading the comments left… many are quite funny…
I really liked this one…
The sound of knitting needles hurt your head? You felt phantom bugs crawling on you? You were upset that you weren’t able to put your wine in your carry on? Were going through the DTs?
What a horrible, bitter life this woman must lead.
BTW - you can actually cause a lot of damage and possibly even kill someone from a blow from a tightly rolled up magazine (learned this in a self defense class). Somehow I don’t think she would have complained if her seat mate was reading a magazine though. How utterly ignorant!
There’s a HUGE thread on Ravelry about the column and the followup, including a letter from an editor in response to the outrage.
Read all about it –
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/needlework-on-the-net/406728/476-500#494
Heh, heh! Next time, she’ll be more careful than insulting the knitting community but I do agree that the bans are getting ridiculous.
Bambi
I don’t really see that as much of an apology. Knitter or non-knitter, her comments were just off base and RUDE. I got to thinking about it and I wonder if she was even on a flight b/c I just flew and was able to take my quart size zip-loc with me that contained hand sanitizer, lotion, nasal spray, chapstick, toothpaste etc. And did I read it right that they gave her peanuts? I haven’t gotten peanuts on a flight in years and this last time I flew they wanted to charge me $2 for soda/water and didn’t give me even pretzels !!
I agree, that “apology” was just a bunch of backpedaling to try and save face.
I also agree that her assumption that the twentysomething with the ipod didn’t knit was silly - I knit, sometimes with an MP3 player in my ears, and on a good day I might still be mistaken for a twentysomething.
What a cranky little misanthrope she is. Take this! :knitting: :knitting: 
Now that she has posted an “apology” of sorts, I’m a bit torn.
On a positive note, I am glad that she is a fellow knitter. I’m a little confused as to why she made knitting needles sound like dangerous weapons in the first place if she is, though. I totally get her point about how they allow knitting needles but not lotion, though. I fully agree that the standards are absurd. It would make more sense to me for them to allow liquids instead of knitting needles.
On a negative note, I also agree with her about the body odor part. I live in the Washington DC metropolitan area and I take the metro (subway) to work every day. Especially this summer when gas prices were skyrocketing, it was crowded. Hygiene becomes VERY important when you are packed in like a sardine. There was one instance in the past 7 months where I had to get off of a train and wait for the next one because the person standing next to me was making me feel sick to my stomach from their smell. There was another instance where I did physically throw up after being stuck on a train (broken down train in a tunnel ahead of us, couldn’t move, couldn’t get off, etc.) next to a similarly smelly person. As the author pointed out origianlly, air travel is suffering from similar problems as they cut the number of flights and fill the remaining flights to capacity. I would have been just as upset as she was if I’d been crammed onto a plane for several hours next to someone who smells–body odor or due to a strong perfume are the same in my opinion. Just clean yourself up and try to be as “neutral” as possible if you are going to be in a crowded place.
It would make more sense to me for them to allow liquids instead of knitting needles
Nope, needles can be seen and defended against.
Can you tell if the liquid is water, acid, or an explosive just by looking at it?
Thought not.
I do agree about the odor issue, be it natural or perfume, it doesn’t matter to my asthma. Some of the nicest smelling things can kill me, litterally.
Also, If they don’t allow you to bring a sealed drink onto the plain, then they souldn’t be allowed to charge you for a drink of water either!
enough said.
–Jack.
I’ve had no problem bringing an empty water bottle to the airport, then filling it from a sink/drinking fountain there and bringing it on the plane. Or buy water from one of the concessions. I seldom have to drink from it during the flight, though, because they usually have some liquid refreshments.
I think the apology sucks too. Snarkity snark snark! :!!!:
What a ray of sunshine she is. :teehee: