The thing that’s always seemed so strange to me is that people line up way early even on flights where there are assigned seats. I just don’t get it. Why would you want to wait in line just to get the pleasure of spending extra time in a cramped airplane seat?
One time, this really paid off for me. I was waiting to fly from Fargo to Minneapolis, and finally stood up to board when there were just a few people left. When there were just three of us left in line, the employee taking our tickets stopped for a minute, then went to the phone and listened for a few seconds. She then announced to us, and the plane, that we had been delayed by high winds, and would not take off for another 60 minutes at the earliest. Everyone who had already boarded had to stay on board. I and the other two people who hadn’t yet gone in went to the bar, while everyone else waited on the plane.
I did this at a church supper once when I was a teenager. When my mom reprimanded me, I said loudly, “But Mom! You always said I should try to be a leader, not a follower!” Everybody laughed and I got to eat!
Since planes have been brought up, that is one situation where I try to buck the herd mentality. On every plane I’ve been on, when it arrives at the destination gate, everyone sits there and stares at the fasten seatbelt sign. As soon as it shuts off, everyone stands up. But, then nothing happens. The people at the front of the plane have to stand up, get their stuff out of the overhead compartment and exit the plane before there’s room for the people behind them to get out in the aisle, retrieve their stuff and get off the plane.
If you’re seated towards the back of the plane, it can be quite awhile before there’s room in the aisle. As a bonus for me, I’m too tall to comfortably stand in front of my seat. So, I just remain seated until the aisle clears up and it’s my turn to leave. This does tend to upset the herd. Especially the cattle that I may be trapping if I’m in the aisle seat. But, I’m not going to stand there half slumped over waiting, when it’s much more comfortable to sit and wait.
The problem is the limited overhead bin space. If you board too late, you’ll get your seat, of course, and whatever space is under the seat in front of you, but the overhead bins might be full. Also, I like to board early, buckle in and go to sleep, often not waking up until the beverage service begins.
This aspect of human behavior is what makes that first tripod scene in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds completely believable, to me. Some folks say that people wouldn’t crowd around like sheep and gaze into a smoking pit which had just collapsed in on itself, but they most certainly would.
I’m still hoping for an explanation of this post. I can’t understand what JohnT is referring to.
Since when do I have a whopping big icon, much less anything at all, showing up at the top center of my screen? And what does any of this have to do with right clicking?