Onboard Entertainment
There’s nothing like a live show.
I had just boarded my flight and was deep in a foggy London daydream as I settled into my Economy Plus bulkhead seat. My trance was broken when, like a fire alarm at 3 am, a woman’s bellowing southern accent leapt from the row behind me…
“Hey, you don’t have a TV!”
For a moment I was mortified that I had forgotten to pack my TV for my UK trip, but I snapped to my senses as I realized the observation was directed to her son-in-law, in the aisle seat beside her. Because there was no seatback display in front of him, his video screen was retracted into his armrest — hence no “TV.”
Of course, I was only assuming it was her son-in-law. In the absence of factual information, I invent a backstory for the small vignettes that play around me in life. The characters in this story were the quiet daughter in the window seat, her first-time flyer, high-volume mother in the middle seat, and the daughter’s know-it-all husband in the TV-less aisle seat.
Before I could stop myself, my head reactively spun around to see who was expounding on the TV inventory of a United 777. As my eyes locked with Mrs. Mom in her cotton candy bouffant, I’m sure the smirk on my face revealed what I wasn’t going to say — that in all of my years of flying, that was the goofiest thing I…
