As someone that lived in Japan for a decade I know that most any pac-tour to Canada must include one or all of the following:

Vancouver, Lake Louise, Banff, Niagara Falls and the Green Gables house in Cavendish P.E.I. I know people that have done all of the above in a 5 day tour. Not very relaxing but hey, it's not my vacation!

Never seen a Fairchild in real life, but isn't that the same type of aircraft that crashed in the Andes all those years ago - immortalized in the book titled "Alive"?

I try to avoid travelling to the States on friends "buddy" passes or on my partner passes.

Why? Because I ALWAYS get selected for secondary inspection.

Much like your peeve about uniformed personnel getting the third degree, I don't know why but the powers that be seem to think that someone travelling WITH an airline employee, or is as close to a spouse as you can be is deemed a security risk worthy of further inspection.

It makes no sense to me, and detracts attention from those who perhaps are more worthy of the attention of the TSA. Italian grandmothers with pasta sauce for example. Sorry, couldn't resist.

And the airlines are wondering why business is down?

We all know that this liquids ban is BS, but this was driven home even more clearly when I travelled through Japan waaay back in 2002.

You go through security - if they found a bottle of water (which they did) they set it on top of a machine that flashed either red (danger Will Robinson) or green (nothing bad here).

So the technology exists to avoid all this bullshit, but I suppose that the intent of whoever orchestrated the events of 9/11 was to keep the American public fearful, in-check and afraid to speak up.

I for one hope Patrick continues to address the TSA idiocy. Maybe eventually someone will get the message. I know Flight Attendants in uniform that have had corkscrews confiscated from them at security. They get on board and what do they find? Corkscrews. Not as good as the ones they had confiscated (which is why they carry their own), but corkscrews none-the-less.

I doubt the next President will change anything. Hell even those who were pinning their hopes on Obama should realize that he just voted in favor of your telephone conversations being monitored - all in the name of "Homeland Security", a Nazi'ish term if ever there was one.

Thanks for addressing this Patrick. Every time I hear some passenger tearfully describing what they thought was a dive to their demise after a decompression, I shout out "they are supposed to do that!".

Granted, I enjoyed my emergency descent many years ago immensely(seeing anything not strapped down floating in mid-air was way cool) but I can see where it would unsettle others.

The masks didn't inflate! (They aren't supposed to unless you pinch off the flow)

RE: doors opening in-flight, I would remind others that even if the aircraft is still pressurized it can be very difficult if not impossible to open them on the ground. Remember the Saudia aircraft where everyone died because after landing due to a fire, the aircraft wasn't de-pressurized and no-one could get the doors open?

I know from first hand experience thanks to cheeky pilots that opening an aircraft door even on the ground with the aircraft not-fully depressurized is difficult - but can be done. Passengers ears won't think it very funny, but way back when, some Pilots did.

After 10 years living in Japan I HAD to bring home a washlet, which is the combo toilet seat with heated seat/bidet etc.

I was so looking forward to installing it. I knew there'd be some issues because it requires electricity to operate, and any North American toilet I've seen never has an electrical outlet as close as would be necessary to plug it in, as is standard in Japan.

After running into problems with several electricians who wouldn't install the outlet where I wanted it, the washlet sits unused. Though reading this article has inspired me to perhaps drag it out, and see what I can do about getting it hooked up.

Someone up above (or is it down below?) asked how it dries you after soaking you. Theres a blowdryer function.

I wouldn't walk across the street to any high school reunion of mine.

I hated high school and most of the people in it. If you weren't a jock or a druggie, you were nothing. Perhaps as a result, I wasn't too surprised about the Columbine shootings.

The only person I'd really like to see is the guy that taunted me endlessly, calling me vile names and goading his minions in to taunting me as well as he figured I was gay. It got o the point that I considered suicide. I just found out several weeks ago that bingo!... He's gay - and time has NOT been kind to him.