Don't know if anyone caught the interview with the pig's owner (was either on Sky News or the BBC - they took an interview from a Seattle station). Watching the owner, you got the feeling that she wasn't playing with a full deck of cards. Reminded me of the genteel expression that say a cult member might have post-brainwashing. Think of Amanda Plummer's role in
Pulp Fiction , someone who looks calm until, boom!, sometime throws 'em over the edge and they go postal in your local neighborhood restaurant.
But the pig
supposedly helped her as pet therapy (meaning Gitomer, you could get your 13 lb. hippo on if you could show it was part of some therapy you're involved in
). Yeah, and this marijuana I've brought on board is essential for my therapy (I'm being sarcastic here - not mocking anyone who legitimately needs it for medicinal purposes, e.g. cancer patients undergoing the hell that can be chemo).
And loved the fact that her pig, upon arrival, chose that moment to leave a present on the floor of the first class cabin (or was it the galley). She minimized it, saying something to the effect that it was only a little bit, and cleaned up rather easily. So I'm sure that the former executive who defecated on the UA food or beverage cart on his Latin American flight can claim the "it was only a little bit" defense. Yeah, whatever. Look, the pig doesn't belong (and I could launch into the Samuel L. Jackson riff on pigs from
Pulp Fiction but I'll pass on further use of the movie in this post) - and anything that defecates in an airline cabin, is something I would be real unhappy with. I wonder how the other passengers on the flight felt - not that it was a lil' ol' thing.
I doubt anyone will be able to get away with this stunt in the future, on UA, US, or any other US carrier.
And a quick plug for salesman (a/k/a Jeffrey Gitomer) - not only should you take a look at his website, but make sure you give his columns a read (they've been in the Charlotte Business Journal
http://www.amcity.com/charlotte/ (hopefully still there - and I'm sure in other well read publications). I'd say you could even give his radio commercials for a local business equipment service a listen on the 'net, but as WFNZ is no longer available on the Web (gee, thanks CBS Radio or Infinity, or whoever owns you now), and I can't say they're on other Charlotte stations, it's a hit or miss proposition.
End plug. End of brief rant as well.
[This message has been edited by CLTFlyer (edited 12-30-2000).]