Werd up

I was reading the paper yesterday and came across something that would be amusing if it wasn’t so serious.

Initially reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and picked up by Australian media, the story is of an Australian woman arrested for saying ‘Fair Dinkum’ to a flight attendant when informed there were no pretzels on a Skywest Airline flight to Pittsburgh.

Sophie Reynolds, 41, of Queanbeyan (a metre or so outside of the capital, Canberra), said the words were out of frustration. An unnamed Skywest Airlines spokesman said: “When other passengers or crew members feel uncomfortable, it’s our standard procedure to contact law enforcement, just as a precaution.” And also suggested there’d been ‘aggressive behaviour throughout the flight’.

When asked about her custody, Ms Reynolds was told by Pittsburgh police that: “You swore at the hostess and there are federal rules against that.”

[Pause here for impact.]

In Australia, that’s like arresting someone for saying: “Well, gee, really?” Worse words are ‘crikey’, ‘strewth’ and ‘bugger’. Strewth is an old word abbreviated from God’s Truth and bugger, well, we all know what that means. Yet the words are a part of the vernacular here as much as Goddamn, son-of-a-bitch and Holy shit are in the U.S. A more innocuous epithet would be hard to find than Fair Dinkum.

Would Brits be arrested for saying ‘Codswallop’ or ‘Blimey’?

Does every passenger on air flights have to undergo sensitivity training so as not to offend the tender mercies of crew and other passengers?

And there are federal laws against using colloquialisms? Which idiot came up with that? Would Ms Reynolds have been safer saying “Goddamn son-of-a-bitch?” Or should she have said something like: “Oh, well, I’m sorry to hear that and please accept my heart-felt condolences on the loss of the pretzels.”

Down Under we’ve heard of the over-the-top excesses of airline staff when dealing with fractious passengers, from diverting to remove an argumentative passenger, to demanding absolute obedience. All of which cannot make a long flight any easier.

Yep, I shake my head and think of the oft-used expression: Only in America. If it happened here, there’d be bucket loads of embarrassment spread around.

‘Fair Dinkum’ is not swearing, nor is it aggressive behaviour to grumble about the lack of snack food when passengers pay for food via their overpriced tickets. Maybe we should call it ‘The Great Pretzel Fraud’. Economy class truly has become cattle class.

I think I prefer to catch Amtrak.

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While over at Scifi.com, I saw a link to an article on The Secret To Selling SciFi by Jane Espenson. It’s a worthwhile read with some home truths.