The night before I was due to board a flight to New York last week, I heard on the radio that airline safety in the US has hit an all-time high. Apparently, you can now fly every day for 200,000 years and still have almost no chance of dying in a plane crash.
While not being killed is certainly a perk of air travel, I would still say that, on the whole, flying has become about as much fun as an eternity spent ironing linen shirts without the assistance of steam.
Anway, the one exception I'd highlight is that rare occasion when you sit next to someone genuinely stimulating and interesting for, say, five hours.
Take Eric Stern, for example, a man with whom I would have said I had absolutely nothing in common. Eric and I sat together on that flight last week to New York. Eric is a very successful fashion stylist. I own three suits. Eric knows Kate Moss and Kate Winslet. I know Kate Spade (because Emma has one of her handbags). Anyway, we got on absolutely fabulously on that flight and I learned more about fashion in five hours than I could have ever dreamed. My wardrobe is being dramatically updated as we speak.
Paradoxically, I remember sitting next to a man from Pakistan on a flight to London in the summer of 2001. He told me he sympathized with suicide bombers. I don't think he was one, but that made for an interesting flight.
Who's the most interesting person you've ever sat next to on a plane?
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