It is the fastest way to get between cities. That's all there is to it.

The first airline flight I ever made was to a job interview, from St. Louis to Orlando (where I eventually moved). I thought the whole reason that Eastern provided me food and drink was to comfort what was intrinsically an agonizing process.

Being strapped into a too-small seat, being subjected to G forces as bad as the worst roller coaster I had ever dared to try, being seated next to strange and possibly obnoxious other people; this was supposed to be a romantic thrill? And those were the days before searches and baggage x-raying and watching every word said anywhere in the vicinity of an airport, even if intended in jest.

Sure, things have gotten lousier. But not that much. It was never that great to begin with.

The great benefit of air travel is that it is fast. I couldn't imagine, and I hope never to experience, trans-continental travel on one of those floating concentration camps called "ocean liners." Those people upset about germs aboard airplanes should note the great number of people taken in gurneys off cruise ships, nauseous and weak from whatever carribean plague the poverty-wage crew spread all over the ship. Or maybe it was the nauseating activities run by the cruise directors...or is that cruise distractors? As opposed to this form of house arrest, give me the wham-blam-thank-you-ma'am of an airline flight.

I generally dislike people who use pseudonyms in posts. One of the reasons people can often be rude in these things, and get away with it, is the safety of anonymity. I believe that, if I am going to be making comments that people will argue with, I might as well take whatever blowback I get. Better than "drive-by postings."

You make a good argument that football players aren't all thugs and bastards, but besides the one who attacked me, my experience never played out that way. In my senior year of high school, the quarterback of the team became student council president. He was an egotistical, stupid lug with the genetic gifts of a perfect bod, a charming phony smile, and a lack of respect for the females he chased - including the more attractive female teachers.

It was the pride of my senior year that, for the following year, the student body voted "nobody" for the next year's president, indicating a disdain for student government and the beauty contest that was a pretense for democracy. The fallen faces of the student stooges was priceless. They hadn't found anything to replace it by next year. After that, the same old thing returned, with the same old quarterback and head cheerleader as the first citizens of the school. As Bowling for Soup says, "High school never ends" - take a look at who's running the nation, a former cheerleader.

Anyway, back to television and this column by the Cappucino Queen. Isn't it interesting how many of the posts are angry defenses of Texas? In the 60's, the worst you could say about Texans was they were egotistical. But after two Texans led us into wars - one real Texan, one Yalie playing Texan better than he played President - the Lone Star folk are starting to get defensive. Johnson will be remembered as a man who got into an ugly war that poisoned his good social legacy. But Bush's legacy will be harder to live down - and people won't forget that Texas enthusiastically elected him as Governor and President. They were proud when he was on top, and what does pride go before?

But I'm beginning to think that "Friday Night Lights" is being rejected by viewers for more than football or Texas. It's disgust at the pain of high school, and the awful social systems generated there that entrap us all for the rest of our lives. Maybe "That Championship Season" was a more influential play than anybody thought.

...neither is accepting mediocrity or cruelty.

I'm perfectly willing to accept people who are willing to post whatever crap they want, anonymously, with no responsibility, as long as it's understood by all that they're irresponsible cowards.

Take, for instance, this business where you recommend that I'm sick and deserve to be killed. Don't you feel better knowing that your message of contempt actually reached someone who was willing to respond to it? Isn't it better than looking at a post that offends you and saying, "Aw, hell, I can't say anything, this person is an anonymous coward"?

And I was not kidding when I said that some people must think that I'm secretly Bill Gates, able to send several big men in black athletic-cut suits, all named Guido, to come around to their house in the middle of the night, to give them a reason to get an electric wheelchair. Either that, or they're ashamed of what they are willing to write and refuse to stand by their words.

The ability to take criticism as well as give it out, in my reasoning, is a sign of maturity. Dropping a flaming bag of dog doo on a doorstep, ringing a doorbell and running is not. No matter what Jimmy Kimmel feels is funny.

As a matter of fact, if you're bothered by expressions of anger, and can't express it in a means like a post, I'm guessing you might let your bottled-up anger at the evil things in the universe (like Heather Havrilesky's writing) build up until you take a kitchen knife to your children. I'd say you and the political correctness brigade are the ones in need of therepy.