Author: luxpat

  • Keeping Warm in a Smallpox Blanket

    Don’t bother wasting education on people (Africans, in this case) who don’t need it because they are meant to serve. That’s what a minister of education meant when he said, “Education ‘must train and teach people in accordance with their opportunities in life,’” as quoted in Mandela’s autobiography. We all call bullshit, his argument is…

  • Nannies

    Rich people have nannies. I’m not rich. I became rich when A’idah told me that she charged $20 per day to care for my infant son, clean my house, and cook me dinner. When I was six years old, a cashier at the grocery store paused before taking the food stamps from my mother’s hand.…

  • Scary Things They Have to Say in Airline Policy

    Cathay Pacific reserves the right to deal with unruly passengers in several ways, one of which is “making the passenger exit the aircraft while the aircraft is on the ground” [emphasis mine]. I was so glad I’d chosen Cathay Airlines when I read this. THANK YOU Cathay. I hadn’t considered that you might have reserved…

  • TSA, National PTSD, and Prosthetic Breasts

    Every time we travel to a new country, we pay attention to what’s going on at security to get through quickly without embarrassing ourselves more than usual. As you might expect, the US has the strictest checks we’ve seen. A sample of recent screening points: Philippines: Metal detector, no full-body scan, no electronics removed from…

  • Hong Kong Laid Over: A Exploration of the Senses

    The airline gave us a dark plush room in a nice hotel located in the heart of Hong Kong. There were two shower caps, one sewing kit in a hard plastic case, two free bottles of water, one large can of peanuts for eight dollars, two paper bags on a peg next to the toilet…