Monday, June 15, 2009

Greetings from Seoul

Since President Obama has troubles with waterboarding as torture perhaps he should look into herding terrorists W-A-Y in the back of a United 777 international flight all middle seats and make sure to break up a family traveling together with the two children. Yikes!

Lousy service, lousy food, with no legroom.

And naturally as we approached Japan the 3 MPH tailwind became a 100 MPH headwind and slowed us down. Just what you need after 13 hours in the air. We were also told to stay seated after the plane landed so Japanese authorities could come aboard and test travelers for body temperature and collect health forms (the last thing you wanted to acknowledge in writing was coughing, sneezing or runny nose.)

They never bothered to do either but a when we landed two hours later in Korea those authorities did.

A smattering of passengers on both flights were wearing surgical masks and the workers at the airport taking body temperatures with a small wand like device placed near the forehead or ear canal all were wearing them.

Yes, my Mac laptop survived the trip--although Japanese security folks did pick it up and turn it around a few times, looking puzzled. Still trying to get the cable modem working where we are staying so my posts may get as crusty as the Gazette.

Speaking of torture: Since we are 13 hours ahead (it's Tuesday morning here) Amherst Town Meeting is probably still in session.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please, don't make fun of torture. If you are rich enough to fly half way across the world, I am certain you will never be water boarded in America. And, town meeting is optional, unlike torture.
Now, swine flu is another story. Seems like they are taking it seriously over there.
-signed, not a nitwit.

Anonymous said...

While you were away Sen. Feinstein and Sen. Whitehouse have continued their investigation into the use of torture by the Bush/Cheney administration. White addressed the Senate and appeared on evening news programs to announce that the story being told by the Bush/Cheney administration about the use of torture is a false story on just about every dimension. It looks like ticking time bomb scenario was a lie like so many others. It also looks like torture was used to extract false confessions about Saddam and 9/11 figures. I mention only becuase I know you are no fan of the Bush administration in this regard. Also while you were gone, I proposeda supermax prison to be built on Groff Park. No one has ever escaped from a super max prison and I know your neighbors would feel more secure knowning you were about to protect them, if supermax Groff Park ever yielded its first escape. In turn Shaffer decided to pave over Memorial Pool install a little league field becuase, and get this, swimming is an antiquated form of recreation.

Anonymous said...

Yobosaeoh!

Anonymous said...

Speaking of torture, there was last night's Town Meeting session.

Larry, you missed it but I bet you didn't miss it.

Anonymous said...

What are you doing in Seoul, Larry? My hometown :)

You obviously didn't fly Korean Air - the food is great, the seats are very comfortable, and they're family-oriented. A lot of adoptees/families ride KA.

Have fun and say hi to my Sister

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Amherst,

Clearly the Boston Globe knew that Larry was out of the country, as they just published a major article praising Amherst titled "The real Athens of America."

I guess we're not so bad after all.

Larry Kelley said...

We flew KAL last year when we pickup up Jada in China and they were W-A-Y better than United.


I'm just here as family support for my wife as she's here on academic business so all her expenses are covered.

And we know how much money bloggers make so if I can just sneak into North Korea...

Wow Anon 4:56 PM Amherst is a paradise--maybe you should grab the URL "onlyintheparadiseoftheHappyValley". Damn lucky thing the Globe pubhised that BEFORE they went belly up.

Anonymous said...

The Globe will be around longer than your failing health club. Maybe you can sell apples on the street corner like during the depression.

Larry Kelley said...

Well, I would make a bet with you but since you're an Anon it would be a tad hard for me to collect on it.