Monday, April 14, 2008

The Illusion of Intelligence

Next time you come across a politician and they talk to you as if you
are a moron and give you the feeling that they are much smarter then
you, repeat some of these stories to them:

A Washington , DC , airport ticket agent offers some examples of why
our country is in trouble!


1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that
her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.
(On an Airplane!)
2. I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to
Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the
passport information. Then she interrupted me with, 'I'm not trying to
make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts .' Without
trying to make her look stupid, I calmly explained, 'Cape Cod is in
Massachusetts ; Capetown is in Africa .' Her response - click.
3. A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida
package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando .
He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that's
not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied,
'Don't l ie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin
state!' (OMG)
4. I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, 'Is it possible to
see England from Canada ?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'But they look so
close on the map.' (OMG, again!)
5. An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent
a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had
only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to
rent a car he said, 'I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will
need a car to
drive between gates to save time.' (Aghhhh!!)
6. An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how
it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 am and got
to Chicago at 8:33 am. I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of
Illinois , but she couldn't understand the concept of time zones.
Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.
7. A New York lawmaker called and asked, 'Do airlines put your
physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to
whom?' I said, 'No, why do you ask?' She replied, 'Well, when I
checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said
'FAT,' and I'm overweight. I think that's very rude!' After putting
her on hold for a minute while I looked into it (I was laughing). I
came back and explained the city code for Fresno , CA is 'FAT' -
(Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination
tag on her luggage.
8. A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii.
After going over all the cost info, she asked, 'Would it be cheaper to
fly to California, and then take the train to Hawaii ?'
9. I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked,
'How do I know which plane to get on?' I asked him what exactly he
meant, to which he replied, 'I was told my flight number is 823, but
none of these planes have numbers on them.'
10. A lady Senator called and said, 'I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola ,
Florida. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?' I
asked if she meant fly to Pensacola , Florida on a commuter plane. She
said, 'Yeah, whatever, smarty!'
11. A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he
needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about
passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. 'Oh, no I don't. I've
been to China many times and never had to have one of those.' I double
checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him
this he said, 'Look, I've been to China four times and every time they
have accepted my American Express!'
12. A New Mexico Congresswoman called to make reservations, 'I want to
go from Chicago to Rhino, New York.' I was at a loss for words.
Finally, I said, 'Are you sure that's the name of the town?' 'Yes,
what flights do you have?' replied the lady. After some searching, I
came back with, 'I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code
in the country and can't find a Rhino anywhere.' The lady retorted,
'Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!' So I
scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, 'You don't
mean Buffalo, do you?' The reply? 'Whatever! I knew it was a big
animal.'

Now you know why the Government is in the shape that it's in!

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