On airplane now, large woman spilling onto me!

[geekette]

I think that those passengers whose legs cannot fit into their assigned space should have to buy an entire row and then sit perpendicular so as to not overflow.

YES I AM KIDDING!!!!!

Meanwhile, does anyone really use the word "recline" with airline seats? That's not really what it is, it's merely a slight deviation from upright which, IMO, is not at all Reclined.

I don't bother, it's just not enuf to make a difference. If you are tall and sitting behind me, we'll work it out. I won't recline and I will accept your need to periodically move your legs if you agree to not jam a knee into the middle of my back. A nice tappy tap and I will lean forward so you can readjust and bash the seat back as you need to.

 

[Tia]

What is just as bad is a child kicking your seat back repeatedly throughout a flight

 

[ScoopKona]

I think that those passengers whose legs cannot fit into their assigned space should have to buy an entire row and then sit perpendicular so as to not overflow.

YES I AM KIDDING!!!!!

I'm pretty sure this is the reason I usually get an exit row seat without having to pay for it. (Or they find two empty seats and put me in one of them so I can sit diagonally.) The airlines know damned well they're putting too many people in too small a space.

It's one thing to demand that a morbidly obese person buy an extra seat. That person can lose weight and (eventually) fit in the seat. It's quite another to try to shoehorn someone with a 38" inseam into a seat with with a 32" pitch.

 

[pjrose]

Tappy Tap the Seat Back

That's got some rhythm to it - we should be able to make up a song.

The kicking child might instead be the tray-table going up and down, up and down, up and down.....Since I realized that was the cause of my annoyance years ago when I was blaming an innocent little cherub (yeah, right), I've been very gentle and quiet with my own tray-table.

And Geekette - wouldn't someone sitting sideways in an entire row be parallel to the seats, not perpendicular? Well, perpendicular to the plane, parallel to the wings.....'tis all relative.

I had visions of Scoop and other height-endowed types (38" inseam? Wow!) buying the two aisle seats and sitting across them making a bridge of his legs. Wouldn't the little ones have fun racing back and forth climbing over or crawling under! We could start another thread about kids (other people's of course) and air travel.....but let's not.

 

[Beefnot]

Scoop is really only 5' 11", but just all legs.

 

[geekette]

Pj, I went with perp in relation to the other pax whose legs are in front of them. But, professor, I accept whatever changes you determine. My brain is exhausted this week so I'm just glad to not be cranky. Being Right is reserved for work, Tug is Play.

 

[pjrose]

Whether Scooper and his leggy ilk are perp or par is indeed relative. Talking about perp, the original perp in this thread is, thank goodness, not a relative, but instead Ms. Large Goldfish, who is clueless about courtesy, and most likely about what she inspired here in TUG-Land. Look at that, did I get back on topic or what? hee hee hee.

 

[geekette]

Crap, I missed the part about her being Ms Large Goldfish?? Guess I'll be going back thru the record number of posts to figure out what that reference is about...

definite kudos on completing the circle well,tying up the tangents and landing right back at home base!

 

[pjrose]

Crap, I missed the part about her being Ms Large Goldfish?? Guess I'll be going back thru the record number of posts to figure out what that reference is about...

definite kudos on completing the circle well,tying up the tangents and landing right back at home base!

How many mixed metaphors are in that sentence?

I'll make the search easy - go to the original post

 

[Rose Pink]

Friend of my DD is training to become a physician's assistant. She just diagnosed a 4 year old with type 2 diabetes.

We can joke and/or cuss about airline seats but the sad and sorry fact is we are killing ourselves and our children. We have a nation addicted to junk "food" and, although the simple answer is to just stop eating it, the fact remains that it is much, much more difficult than it seems. With other addictions such as tobacco, etc, a person can stop it altogether. However, a person must eat. Having worked with people with eating disorders I know how dieting (or completely avoiding certain foods) can turn into disordered eating--IOW, changing one type of disordered eating for another type.

Fat people are not simply lacking discipline or willpower (some of them maybe but not all or even most). They have addicted brains. We need more education. People simply do not understand how what they eat affects their brains.

 

[ScoopKona]

Fat people are not simply lacking discipline or willpower (some of them maybe but not all or even most). They have addicted brains. We need more education. People simply do not understand how what they eat affects their brains.

As a society, we expect smokers to stop smoking. We have made laws and levied taxes to encourage them.

We expect drug addicts to kick their habit. We have made their addiction illegal and will incarcerate them if they don't do it on their own.

As I said way back on the first page of this thread -- we mollycoddle the morbidly obese. At SOME TIME IN THEIR LIVES they should have noticed that they can't fit through a doorway without squeezing. And they should have decided to do something about that. They can get help -- just like the alcoholic and the drug addict.

Just like I don't want someone's nicotine, alcohol or cocaine addiction to become MY problem on an airplane, I don't want someone's lifetime of poor food choices to become MY problem, either.

 

[Rose Pink]

I agree with you, Scoop. And most of them do try to get help. The diet business does billions of dollars annually and yet people are getting fatter than ever because they don't understand why they feel compelled to eat.

We understand why tobacco and cocaine are bad. Our society, as a whole, is still largely in the dark about food addiction. Why are we selling soft drinks to our school children? Why are airlines serving them along with other processed foods such as cookies, pretzels and crackers? Why are we not taxing junk food like we do tobacco?

It' more than just being painfully uncomfortable on a plane. This obesity epidemic is costing all of us in terms of health insurance premiums.

I wouldn't be surprised if the OP's seat mate hasn't been on many, many diets already. Some of them may be the reason why she got so big in the first place.

 

[Beefnot]

It's also about what people eat, not just how much. Have you seen the dietary information on Cheesecake Factory entrees? Oh. My. Lord.

 

[Tia]

It's also about what people eat, not just how much. Have you seen the dietary information on Cheesecake Factory entrees? Oh. My. Lord.

Don't ruin Cheesecake Factory for me! Lucky there isn't one close by though.

On the other hand obese people's problems do become societies problems when dealing with health care costs and special equipment needed etc.

 

[pjrose]

OMG, yes, Cheesecake Factory's food is terribly high in everything. However, the few times I've eaten there I've brought one 1/2 or 2/3 of my food for the next day.

Re addictive eating and overeating, some other considerations are culture, upbringing, and income. Fried Everything is part of the culture in some areas, and equates with Mom's cooking, comfort food, and so forth. It may well the the only way someone knows how to cook. If people were brought up with everything covered in gooey cheese, dessert every night, etc, that's what they learned.

Fresh vegetables and leaner meats and whole grain foods tend to be more expensive than the less healthy alternatives. If you can take a pound or so of the highest fat ground beef and dump some Hamburger Helper on it and make dinner for your family, and if it never occurred to you to first drain the fat from the cooked ground beef, well..... Potatoes, by themselves, are not unhealthy - but if you are used to them fried, it's a different story.

We can try to educate all we want, but these influences are really hard to undo.

 

[amycurl]

As a nation, we've also made the decision to subsidize high fructose corn syrup with our tax dollars, yet not done the same with fresh greens. There's a reason why one is more prevalent than the other. And if you're looking at calories per dollar, some choices become obvious. You can feed a lot of people more cheaply at Taco Bell than you can at Whole Foods. That is, if you can even find a grocery store (any grocery store) that even carries fresh veggies in your neighborhood.

It's not just all about choices we make as individuals, but choices we make as a society.

 

[pgnewarkboy]

As a society, we expect smokers to stop smoking. We have made laws and levied taxes to encourage them.

We expect drug addicts to kick their habit. We have made their addiction illegal and will incarcerate them if they don't do it on their own.

As I said way back on the first page of this thread -- we mollycoddle the morbidly obese. At SOME TIME IN THEIR LIVES they should have noticed that they can't fit through a doorway without squeezing. And they should have decided to do something about that. They can get help -- just like the alcoholic and the drug addict.

Just like I don't want someone's nicotine, alcohol or cocaine addiction to become MY problem on an airplane, I don't want someone's lifetime of poor food choices to become MY problem, either.

Scoop I am sure you can do better than this post. Obesity, and morbid obesity are serious medical problems. The reasons for obesity and the way to lose weight and keep it off are not yet fully understood by science. Research in this field is ongoing. Mollycoddling is not the cause and ridicule is not the cure.

 

[Beefnot]

Scoop I am sure you can do better than this post. Obesity, and morbid obesity are serious medical problems. The reasons for obesity and the way to lose weight and keep it off are not yet fully understood by science. Research in this field is ongoing. Mollycoddling is not the cause and ridicule is not the cure.

While science is trying to figure it out, obese people should stop eating so much. When they see all these obese people losing weight, science will have figured it out.

 

[ScoopKona]

Scoop I am sure you can do better than this post. Obesity, and morbid obesity are serious medical problems. The reasons for obesity and the way to lose weight and keep it off are not yet fully understood by science. Research in this field is ongoing. Mollycoddling is not the cause and ridicule is not the cure.

For what seems to be the fifth or sixth time this thread: I don't care HOW they became morbidly obese. That is not my problem.

My problem is when they're invading my personal space. Whatever they do away from me is not my concern.

My problem is that airline employees would rather let the morbidly obese impose on others rather than take the chance of hurting their feelings by telling them to buy an additional seat.

That is the debate in a nutshell. Despite the repeated attempts by apologists for the morbidly obese to make ridiculous comparisons, the fact remains that they are taking more than they paid for at the expense of people who aren't getting what they paid for.

Period. I cannot make it any more clear than that.

 

[Ridewithme38]

For what seems to be the fifth or sixth time this thread: I don't care HOW they became morbidly obese. That is not my problem.

My problem is when they're invading my personal space. Whatever they do away from me is not my concern.

My problem is that airline employees would rather let the morbidly obese impose on others rather than take the chance of hurting their feelings by telling them to buy an additional seat.

That is the debate in a nutshell. Despite the repeated attempts by apologists for the morbidly obese to make ridiculous comparisons, the fact remains that they are taking more than they paid for at the expense of people who aren't getting what they paid for.

Period. I cannot make it any more clear than that.

So let me ask you stretch, its ok for the Airline to provide you with an exit row seat free because of your height, but the wide should have to pay for an extra seat?

 

[Rose Pink]

So let me ask you stretch, its ok for the Airline to provide you with an exit row seat free because of your height, but the wide should have to pay for an extra seat?

Scoop has no control over his height. It isn't a fair comparison.

The obese do have an opportunity to not be obese. What I've been saying is that many of them do not know how. They have tried and tried and tried and failed and failed and failed, each time getting larger and larger. We live in an obesogenic environment. I am not making excuses or coddling anyone. Weight loss can be achieved but the signals we get on a daily basis conflict with a healthy lifestyle.

We've battled tobacco addiction with some success by heavy educational compaigns and by restricting the environments in which it is allowed. We've instituted taxes to help defray the costs of public tobacco education. We restrict when and where it can be advertised. You don't see advertisements for alcohol and tobacco during children's programming but you certainly see advertisements for candied cereals! We don't sell cigarettes in school vending machines to finance school sports but we do sell candy and soft drinks to our children in school vending machines.

I could go on and on and on. But then, I'd just be going on and on and on.

 

[Beefnot]

What if it was demonstrated that, at least in some cases, someone had no control over their obesity, but rather it was genetically coded? Are they entitled to a free seat then? Do they get a special ID card that reads "genetically uncontrollable obesity" that gets them extra airline seats and other compensatory perks?

 

[SunSand]

Just took a southwest flight and a pretty good size guy sat next to me. He had a C boarding pass, so only the middle seats were available. Here's a tip for anyone who may be oversized, carry along free drink coupons. He gave me 2 SWA free cocktail coupons. There was no way I was going to complain about this guy. I was feeling too good by the end of the flight.

 

[Beefnot]

Just took a southwest flight and a pretty good size guy sat next to me. He had a C boarding pass, so only the middle seats were available. Here's a tip for anyone who may be oversized, carry along free drink coupons. He gave me 2 SWA free cocktail coupons. There was no way I was going to complain about this guy. I was feeling too good by the end of the flight.

Aah, i only more big fellas were like Del Griffith...

 

[Passepartout]

This thread has morphed from 'the fat chick next to me plays her video game and bothers me' to voluntary vs. involuntary obesity vs. inseam length.

Whenever I'm out and about and and see a morbidly obese disabled person motoring around on a scooter, I wonder, "is that person disabled because they are (self inflictedly) morbidly obese, or are they morbidly obese because they are disabled, and simply can't burn the calories the are provided?" Kind of a 'chicken and egg' question. Which came first?

I have an old school chum who is disabled, and has been for decades. She simply can't be on her feet moving around due to phlebitis and open ulcers on her legs. Her income on disability is only about $600/mo. and frankly, fat calories from mac & cheese and cookies are cheaper calories than meat and salads. Over the decades, she has ever so slowly become one of those whom I would consider morbidly obese. There just is nothing she can do about it. I would pity the person who would have her beside her on an airplane. If she were on one, I could see her playing a game on her phone to avoid any uncomfortable conversation with some innocent seated beside her. I don't agree with it, but can easily see it happening.

There is no easy answer. The incapacitated morbidly obese can't afford 2 seats. In Heathpack's OP, the airline did what they could by providing the extra large person an exit row seat. it's just too bad that she and her DH had paid extra for the privilege of sitting beside her. She still could have scrunched her shoulders in and sat uncomfortably still for the duration of the flight, and apologized to H for taking her space. Didn't happen and it's all water under the bridge.

Jim