Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Celebrity sighting in the sky!

On the flight from Atlanta to LA, HH and I sat 2 rows behind the writer Joel Stein, who has a column in both Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Not many people recognize writers, especially columnists, but he was wearing a little tag that said, “Joel Stein,” on it so that was kind of a gimme. I knew who he was but HH doesn’t read the paper so I had to explain.

Here's his website to give you a better idea of who he is and what he writes about.

As it turns out, Mr. Stein was playing flight attendant on our flight, making the mixed drinks or what the airline calls “adult drinks.” And for anyone who reads Mr. Stein’s columns, you know what he would do with a straight line like that. He told us over the PA system that he had been training all day so I guess he knows a little more than the rest of us!

He was wearing fashionably torn and stone-washed jeans with a long sleeved striped shirt, tails untucked, and ladies, he wears cotton briefs (couldn't tell the style but did see the elastic strip when he bent over - naughty, naughty!). Delta would NEVER let their flight attendants wear such sloppy clothes - or such unkempt hair - but Mr. Stein must have charmed them all.

I'd say he did a pretty decent job. If it were me, I would be flippin' terrified! But I do have to admit he was slow. He took soooooo long to mix drinks for people, and this is without much banter, that the cart was in the aisle next to my ear for so long I was starting to get claustrophobic. Although nervous, he covered it up well, cracking jokes when he could but being as conscientious as he could allow himself to be.

Afterward, HH and I happened to be walking from the plane next to him when HH decided to ask him where the article would be published (Time). Then Mr. Stein wanted to know how we thought he had done. We gave him 2 thumbs up (he seemed a little in need of support) and he liked that. He showed us his battle scars from his single day of intense training (he told us he had to practice with the water slide, among other things) and we replied that we were bummed it was such a safe flight and that he didn't get a chance to show off what he'd learned.

Mr. Stein liked that too.

We'll keep an eye out for his article!