Christmas Travel

This morning I received an email from China Airlines, which turned out to be a Christmas card wishing me 'abundant happiness'. This might be considered a kind and festive gesture, except that I couldn't help but notice the picture of a sleigh being drawn through the air by a team of magical reindeer.

I've nothing against depictions of aerial caribou or elks or their relatives. I've nothing against that, except when they're shown in a communication from a company that is responsible for flying me to Taiwan in less than two hours. If we get to the gate and the ground crew are feeding the reindeer carrots rather than fueling the engines, I am not going to board. Enchanted snowmobiles, in my opinion, are not an appropriate way to travel to the Republic of China.

Perhaps if I was flying to Lapland they would be acceptable. But as my father would always tell me throughout my childhood, you can't rely on an arctic animal for transportation in sub-tropical climes.