The Citizen, 2015-02-12, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015. PAGE 5.
Sometimes life plays out the way it does
in the movies. Case in point: that Korean
Air Lines executive who flew into a rage
when a flight attendant served her a
complimentary snack of macadamia nuts in a
plastic bag rather than on a plate. She forced
the attendant to kneel and apologize and
demanded the plane return to the gate so he
could be kicked off the flight.
Yes, well now the executive, who is a
daughter of the airline’s chairman, has been
fired, publicly shamed and arrested as a result
of the incident. She will forever be known as
the ‘nut rage nut’.
But hold on...here’s another news story
about a group of Chinese tourists that went
crazy on a Thai Air-Asia flight because they
couldn’t sit together. They threw hot noodles at
a flight attendant.
Noodle rage.
And last month, several flights in the U.S.
were interrupted by passengers going postal
over reclining seats that wouldn’t recline – or
because of seats in front of them that reclined
too much.
Recline rage?
What these incidents all have in common is
not just bad behaviour or diminished
expectations – it is airplanes.
These meltdowns didn’t occur on buses, in
taxis, elevators or barbershops. They happened
on those sardine cans with wings that are
supposed to be the ultimate in travel luxury
and convenience.
It’s not your imagination – air travel really is
getting worse. I speak for those of us who
travel in ‘economy’ class (which ought to
called ‘steerage’) – not for the poobahs and
pashas who fork over an extra grand or more
each for the privilege of relaxing up front
sipping complimentary champagne in their
spacious and private cocoons.
For the rest of us, it’s an endurance test of
skinny aisles, smelly washrooms and canned
announcements. “Insert the buckle in...”
Thanks, pal. I mastered seatbelts back when
Lester Pearson was PM.
And then there’s the actual seat you
purchased for the flight. It’s perfectly
contoured for a normal-sized dwarf who
unfortunately, you are not.
That’s not your imagination either – airplane
seats really are getting smaller. On United
Airlines 767 airplanes 166 passengers are now
shoehorned into a space originally designed
for 152. Air Canada 777’s have all been
reconfigured to have 10 seats across instead of
the original nine. Most airlines have even
whittled down the ‘seat pitch’ – the space,
front to back, allotted for each passenger. Used
to be 32 inches, now it can be as little as 28.
The airlines taketh away but the airlines also
addeth – extra fees mostly. For everything
from baggage to wireless service to reheated
snacks at which a street pigeon would turn up
its beak at.
Are you old enough to remember when
airlines offered unlimited baggage? Free hot
meals? Complimentary wine? It wasn’t long
ago.
It wasn’t so very long ago either that Al Gore
offered a pithy observation on the horrors of
modern air travel.
“Airplane travel,” said Gore, “is nature’s way
of making you look like your passport photo”.
Frankly, I was surprised to hear that from the
lips of Al Gore. I’m pretty sure he flies
Executive.
Arthur
Black
Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
Pretty recently I wrote about how
important hockey was for my
development as a young boy (and since
then I’ve become convinced that those lessons
are needed for younger generations now more
than ever), but I failed to look at the dark side
of hockey: the parents.
I guess that statement could be said of pretty
much any sport really. Some parents, the ones
who aren’t on the bench or in the dugout or out
refereeing but make themselves part of the
action by being loud, obnoxious and
disrespectful, are pretty much the worst part of
organized sports.
I speak from experience here. I’ve seen,
from the ice, as a player, parents of friends, of
classmates who were acting beyond what is
socially acceptable. I’ve seen, as a referee,
parents who should be ashamed of themselves
(and who probably should have been charged
for their actions) embarrassing their children.
I’m sure this isn’t a popular opinion but I
hold that whenever a parent who isn’t a referee
or a coach gets involved with a sport beyond
observing and cheering respectfully, things
quickly go downhill.
Take, for example, the Toronto Leaside
Girls’ Hockey Association.
Recently, the organization issued a policy
stating that coaches tapping players’ shoulders,
helmets or buttocks were forbidden.
Okay, the latter I can see, but the touching of
shoulders or the helmets is necessary to the
game.
One of the lessons that has stuck with me,
for going on 25 years now, was the danger of
throwing your stick at another player.
I was five or six years old and playing for
Goderich at the Clinton Arena. My coach at
the time taught me a lot about what it meant to
be a defenseman.
Most of all, he taught me that there should
never be an attacker behind me, in front of the
goalie, so, when I saw a player slipping past
me, I threw my stick at him.
I’m sure I knew it wasn’t right, but I didn’t
know exactly how wrong it was.
It turned what probably would have
been a chance for me or my teammates to
catch up to him and stop him into a penalty
shot: the worst possible goal-scoring
scenario in a hockey game.
When my penalty ended and I returned to
the bench (not to play the rest of the game if
my memory serves me right), my coach put his
hands on both my shoulders and said, “That’s
just something you don’t do. Never do it
again.”
Had he said that as I got on the bench or in
the dressing room after the game, I probably
would not have remembered the lesson.
I remembered it because he put his hands on
my shoulders to capture my attention and
quietly said that it wasn’t something that was
ever to be done and I remembered it.
I also remember my first goal, because it was
a complete fluke.
I was out of position, resulting in a two-on-
one and, luckily, my defense partner stopped
the opposing team’s advance. He dumped the
puck, prompting a line change for our team.
However, due to being out of position, I was
closer to the puck than I was to the bench. I
took the puck, skated it in and put it in the net.
I don’t remember where it was or where it
happened, but I remember, fondly, the feeling
as my coaches and teammates smacked my
helmet and told me good job.
There are, of course, lines that can be
crossed. I’ve never been comfortable with
overly-touchy human contact, but people
touching each other’s rears is certainly past
where I draw the line so I don’t think that’s
necessarily a bad rule.
The no-touching of the shoulders or the
helmets idea, however, is completely out of
line.
When a young player messes up or gets hurt,
you need to be there to put a hand on their
shoulder and tell them it’s going to be all right.
When they do well, you need to contact them
to congratulate them so they know that you
know the congratulations are sincere.
When you’re dressed in hard foam, near-
bulletproof plastic, steel cages and impact-
plastic helmets, the personal touch is kind of
gone from hockey, that’s why players take
their gloves off when they shake hands (or they
should anyway).
It reminds them that, while they may be
nothing but opponents with features hidden by
a mask on the ice, off the ice, the other team is
actually populated by human beings.
It also teaches respect.
When a coach puts his hand on a player’s
shoulder and tries to set him straight, it isn’t
because he wants to hurt or intimidate him (or
it shouldn’t be anyway), it’s because he wants
a player to focus on the words he is saying and
remember it the next time he finds himself
wanting to throw his stick.
When a trainer kneels beside a player and
puts a hand on his shoulder or thigh (or, you
know, the three inches of padding at the
shoulder ot the one inch of padding at the
thigh), it’s not for any nefarious reason, it’s to
assure the player that someone is there to help
them and take care of him.
And finally, when a player or a coach taps
someone on the helmet (taps, not punches –
there’s a big difference there), it can be one of
the most re-assuring moments in the game. It
can make you feel like you’re on top of the
world, but it also reminds you that, without a
coach to show you how to play the game and
your teammates to help you out, you wouldn’t
be feeling so good.
I want everyone reading to take note of the
fact that none of this had anything to do with
parents (except the coaches and trainers). All
of these great things happen with or without
parents being at the game. Parents should be
aware of that.
Your children are going to learn, have fun
and be educated with or without you so if you
are one of those people who can’t separate
yourself from the action, who can’t sit and be
happy that your child is enjoying themselves,
do the coaches, the other players, the referees
and, most importantly, your own children a
favour and watch from the glassed-in, heated
areas that most arenas provide. At least in
there, you’re not going to be interrupting
the game.
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
A knife to a gun fight
Leave it to an Ultimate Fighting
Championship (UFC) champion to be
the voice of reason in the debate on
performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) and
their place, if any, in modern sports.
Big news was made earlier this month when
Anderson “The Spider” Silva, one of the
UFC’s most celebrated champions, tested
positive for PEDs prior to beating Nick Diaz,
who also failed his test, at UFC 183, held at
the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
To put Silva’s positive test in perspective, he
is perhaps the greatest fighter to ever set foot
in the UFC’s octagon. So imagine if Wayne
Gretzky had been found to be on steroids.
That’s the kind of impact on a sport we’re
talking about here.
When interviewed about the positive test,
longtime UFC champion, Canadian Georges
St. Pierre – who may now own the title of
greatest UFC fighter ever in light of Silva’s
positive test – struck out not at the harm PED
use does to the legitimacy of the sport, but
rather to the harm PEDs can do to fellow
fighters.
St. Pierre likened a fighter on PEDs to a
“biological weapon” saying that if the UFC
was to allow fighters to use PEDs, they might
as well be bringing a knife into the octagon
with them.
“It’s an advantage that you have over your
opponent that you should not be able to
compete with, because you put the health of
the competitor in jeopardy,” St. Pierre said in
an interview with The Globe and Mail.
Whether it’s organized fighting, baseball,
hockey or football, the point St. Pierre is trying
to make is one that, admittedly, most people
hadn’t considered in the lengthy, on-going
discussions about PEDs that have dominated
sports bar conversation since the 1990s.
In baseball, there is talk of tainted records
and the illegitimacy of statistics that have been
on the books for decades. But what about the
safety of players?
In baseball, for example, you have players
swinging heavy, wooden bats and throwing a
heavy, hard projectile in a hyper-competitive
environment. What then happens when you
have players throwing and hitting baseballs at
a level that is, by definition, super-human?
Pitchers still stand 60’6” away from hitters
whether they’re using PEDs or not. They’re
not wearing helmets and they still have no
way, other than a glove, to protect themselves.
In football, where the long-term
repercussions of concussions are finally
coming to the forefront, you have players
running faster and colliding at higher speeds
than ever before. How then is a human body
supposed to hold up to a collision with a super-
human body?
By definition, the playing field is not level
and players are most definitely being put in
dangerous situations as a result of PEDs.
And in a sport like UFC, where the object is
to inflict pain on your opponent, there’s no
doubt that PEDs and competition are a
potentially lethal mix.
So when we argue over whether Barry
Bonds, suspected PED user, is the legitimate
heir to Hank Aaron on baseball’s home run
throne, I think we’re forgetting something.
In addition, as the new generation of sports
fans comes along, proclaiming the PED era in
baseball to be its most exciting, there are some
very real issues being lost in the shuffle – not
the least of which is the players who carry out
our beloved pastimes and their safety on
and off the field and during and after their
sports careers.
Other Views
Humanity remembered in touch
It’s the rage while in the air