Excuse me, I've never posted before, but these comments made me irate!! I don't think MoveOn went far enough! And its members, unsolicited, donated $500,000 to the group by Friday of Betrayus week. After a general thank you email, another $500,000 was donated by the next week. Sound like a dead group to you now? Let's waste no time or energy with infighting like this. We need to get the repukes out of power now and get back to sanity. We should thank MoveON for not giving up the fight.

She's already being edged aside by the repukelicans. Haven't heard much from him/her lately, I think they've given him/her the word that they don't need or want his/her spewed venom anymore. Did anyone ever give her much credence? I remember her touting one of her retread books with Matt Lauer. Then of course the John Edwards Out-of-left-field remarks. Let's never even utter her name again, and maybe she'll go away.

I used to love FNL. Then came season two, and it wasn't just the murder. It seems Tammy became a 16 yr. old again, all flirty and silly, after the baby was born. Then QB Matt's speech impediment became worse, more slurring, almost like he lost about 20 IQ points and drank a fifth of booze. Then his grandma was cured enough of her Alzheimers to follow football games from the bleachers. AND the poor family manages to pay for a live-in nurse to care for said grandma. Lyla goes born again, Jason becomes an award winner at Buddy's dealership, our wise, decisive Coach leaves a wonderful college job for a cut in pay and . . . . I guess you get the message. It was more than the story line, the characters changed, and not for the better. More for the sillier. I am hoping for a better season 3, but who knows??

OK, you want suggestions? I have them.

1. CLEAN the plane. I've seen people vomiting, missing the bags, babies" diapers being changed, food and drink spilled. I mean call Stanley Steemer and clean and detail the whole damn plane. They smell. Sniff them sometime.

2. CLEAN THE BATHROOMS!!! Detail-type clean them! They look like cesspools sometimes after one flight, and smell as bad.

These two things wouldn't cost anywhere near a retrofit of seats or video screens, and things would be so much more pleasant.

3. MAKE THE BATHROOMS BIGGER!! These damned cubicles were made for a man to step into, urinate, wash hands (hopefully), then back out of. Women have a harder time just turning around in the damn thing. And nowhere to put the purse.

4. The gals need a place to hang their purses, so we don't have to put them on the floor of our tiny seat area. We don't know whose shoes have been on that floor, or if they have just stepped out of the bathroom (seee # 2 above) onto the floor space.

5. Flight attendants have gotten surlier and less. . . helpful I think is the word. My poor mother, who doesn't walk well, and gets a little claustrophobic, was once helped by a delightful attendant who stood by the bathroom door, held it open a little bit for her, and even talked to her kindly through it all while keeping her back turned and turning away others waiting for the bathroom. Unfortunately, that was about 20 years ago. Wouldn't happen today. Mom still remembers that nice lady. Customer focus, or a nice brush up course in customer service, would do more to help us through the unpleasantness of cramped seats, poor alignment, etc.

Of course, any flight, regardless of the discomfort, which ends successfully, is a good flight. I always thank the pilot as I exit. And if we didn't bounce four times during landing, I always compliment him/her on the ability to finesse the plane.

I too have flown, and will continue to fly, SWA. But let's face it, one can cancel up to one day before because SWA perfected the overbooking stuff and standby stuff and "we'll give you a free ticket to anywhere if you give up your seat and take the next plane out" stuff. But it is cheap and pleasant and serviceable, and the attendants really do have fun doing their jobs (or it looks like they do). I recall a recent flight to Anchorage on UAL, a 6 hr odyssey from O"Hare in Chgo, and we didn't even get pretzels or a cookie. The only choice was a $5 sandwich. And this was 3 years ago, and my travel agent couldn't believe such a long flight wouldn't serve SOMETHING!! I realize the fuel cost thing is a real problem, as does anyone with a car. But we can all get together and toast George Bush for that big problem. You know, the Iraq war was going to pay for itself with all that free-flowing OIL. Yeah, and we have paid and still are paying for THAT miscalculation. And wasn't it ST. Ronnie Reagan who deregulated the industry and everything, trashed the striking air traffic controllers, and started this descent into chaos???? God help us, and not just on our next flight out of town.

Oh, my, I am so happy to hear you are a paisano, and I agree that there is nothing wrong with your original last name, and you were only kidding about changing it. Smith is just your pen name, right? Patrick in Italian, if my Italian grandmother was correct, is Pasquale, as she was Pasqualina and they referred to her as "Pat". I could be wrong, though. Keep up the good work, Patrick, and be proud of your Italian heritage. I want to fly on one of your flights some day!!