MPC Press International

Question.  If you are sitting comfortably on a plane, in your stocking feet, and need to use the lavatory at 30,000 feet, must you put on your shoes?  For one, it can be uncomfortable fitting your expanded feet into your shoes at this high elevation midway through your flight.  More important, does it matter if you stand on an unsanitary floor in socks that will be thrown in the hamper upon your return home?  Of course those socks will first touch the inside of your shoes (which may be smelly and dirty already, but not from what is covering a public bathroom floor).  I don’t seem to care but are there any informal rules here?  Thoughts?

Tags: bathroom, feet, flight, hamper, socks, stocking

Do you talk to the person next to you?  We all think about saying more than “hello” to the airplane passenger in the adjacent seat.  Some of us have a firm view, one way or the other, and those that do generally believe in keeping quiet.  A minority consider it fair game and a way of life to at least ask, “are you heading home or away?”  And an overwhelming majority, talkers or not, do not want to be seated next to the John Candy character from Planes, Trains and Automobiles.  It takes a lot of work to keep up conversation in a polite way with this type of neighbor.  All of us have been confronted, and everyone has tried the sleep route, shutting our eyes (rude perhaps, but not so rude during takeoff) at the first lull in the conversation.  With a chatty cab driver, it is easy to fake an incoming phone call, and at some point cell phone calls will probably be status quo on planes.  Recently, I sat next to Henry Winkler on a plane, and he couldn’t have been nicer.  I would bet that everyone speaks to him on flights.  In fact, an obnoxious passenger behind me, upon overhearing me ask about Happy Days, said, “I guess we just can’t leave Fonzie alone.”  Or maybe I was the obnoxious one for making small talk.  I took a five hour flight this week, and as we were landing said my first words (other than “excuse me”, when climbing over to go the lavatory) to the adjacent passenger.  After 5 minutes, we discovered that we were childhood friends who just didn’t recognize each other.  Going forward, I may be more chatty, after this pleasant occurrence.

Tags: automobile, conversation, Fonzie, plane, train

TVs are bigger, slimmer, better.  Cameras are digital; yes, we can see our pictures right away!  Heck, we have microwaves.  Even paper bags have handles now.  A lot has changed over the last 30 years.  But I was looking at a box of Cheerios yesterday (we’re working on a cereal promotion campaign with Rhyme) and I realized that nothing had changed with this product.  Of course, I am happy that the flavor has stayed the same, but we all know how tricky it is to open the plastic.  You don’t want to use scissors, as you will lose some of the ability to fold the plastic back into the box.  So, you pull the plastic from each sides with hope of separating.  Not easy, and frustrating.  And when you do succeed, rolling up the plastic does not work well until half of the cereal has been eaten.  How do you keep the cereal fresh?  And how do you open the plastic?  There must be a better way!!!

Tags: camera, cheerios, microwave, rhyme, T.V. plastic.

We are not awarded points simply for letting dishes get clean by soaking them in the sink. This is actually new to me; I just learned it.  Let’s say you put all of the plates and forks and knives in the dishwasher.  Obviously the lasagna pyrex would take more than a few minutes of scrubbing so the simple solution is to let is soak overnight.  You leave it filled with water and some soap in the sink, right?   (And hand soap is fine, even though she thinks there is a difference between hand and dish soap.)  Then you have done a wonderful job completely cleaning up from dinner; she’ll be so happy.  But here is the response:  “Do you want me to finish what you started?”  C’mon, you’ve done it all, really.  No, I guess not.  If the sink is not completely cleared and clean, you’ll receive no points.

Tags: clean, dinner, lasagna, points, pyrex, sink, soap

No, I’m not talking about betting.  Toilet paper.  Do you pull it from over or under?  In my informal polling, I have found that 90% of the people believe that over is correct.  But the only justification cited is that, when you pull it over, you can create the triangles that they make in hotels.  Not enough of a case, in my view.  There must be something good about the under method?  How about this: if your hands are wet, and you grab an over roll, you could dampen additional sheets.  But, if you pull it from under, you don’t risk harming the rest of the roll.

Tags: polling, toilet paper, triangles