Sex and Absurdity in the Not-Always-Friendly Skies

ELLIOTT HESTER'S new book has gone into a second printing, and that's probably a good sign.

It suggests that we are starting to come out of it. Though the commercial aviation system remains under the tightest security measures ever, and new warnings keep coming about terrorist threats, the book's success shows that we can at least laugh again about the fundamentally miserable, and altogether unnatural, experience of traveling by air.

The book is "Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet," published Jan. 14 by St. Martin's Press.

"It was originally supposed to be released Oct. 3," said Mr. Hester, who has been a flight attendant since 1985. But early October was no time to be promoting a book that has chapter titles like "Payback for a Condescending Jerk," "Pass the Defibrillator, Please," and "Lechery at 30,000 Feet." So it was delayed for three months, till things calmed down.

Another terrorist attack would, of course, revoke this immediately, but now, deep in the winter of 2002, there is a sense, especially among business travelers and other frequent fliers, that flying is starting to return to normal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/13/business/13TRAV.html