Laughing at Canadians

In the evening, once our bags had finally arrived, we went out. There was a comedy night at an ex-hockey stadium; a small room, tucked away within a downtown mall.

The comics were a mixed bag; the host didn't tell any jokes for five minutes, which wasn't a very good strategy, and the first comic was a bit insipid, but it improved as the night went on. There was a Quebecois who was chubby and shouted about burgers, there was a smarmy guy with a moustache, and then there was the main attraction, a hammy guy with straggly grey hair who possibly went on a couple of minutes too long, but did have the experience of working a crowd not to make things feel drawn out.

United and Special

I felt some regret at what I'd written yesterday about United; was I jsut over-entitled? After all, the plane still had seats, and flew, and so on. But given the rudeness of the cabin crew, I started to feel less forgiving for United again. It's not that they were universally rude - we kept heard them having cheery conversations with the people in the rows directly in front or behind us. But every time they reached us, they became sullen and grumpy. Perhaps they hated vegetarians. Perhaps they were annoyed that I discovered when you request apple juice, they have to give you an entire can of the stuff rather than a slosh of juice from an already open carton. Or perhaps they didn't like my beard, or the haircut of the affable Marine who sat next to us. Whatever. At least if they'd been rude and grumpy with everyone, it would have been easy to accept. You don't always want to be made to feel special.

The Perfect Bag

My laptop case, just three months old, is close to death. The outside is tearing apart as the strain of a laptop, a couple of paperback books, a Kindle and countless other electronic ephemera is taking its toll on the poor thing's fabric. And so I can see, as its demise creeps over the horizon, that I need a new bag.