What's it like to be a firefighter?

Smoke was slowly billowing out of a storage shed in Fireman's Park as I knelt just outside of the door.

I had been waiting for this moment all day. My heart pounded and sweat dripped in my face. I hoped my deodorant would hold up. The heavy gear weighed me down so much that it felt like someone was standing on my shoulders.

That wasn't the first time I put on a full firefighter suit July 23. When I was first handed a pair of pants by Capt. Matt Karpinski of emergency medical services at the Germantown Fire Department earlier in the day, my only hope was to get them over my butt. No female wants to ask a man for a bigger pair of pants.

With a little shimmying, I was able to Velcro them shut. I was fitted with every piece of firefighter gear that afternoon. I had no idea there was so much to it.

Here's how it went: One leg into the pants and a boot, then the other. Put your coat on. Latch every hook. Velcro your jacket shut. Put a face mask around your neck and hang it like an oversized necklace. Put a black fire hood over your head, leaving it sit on your neck. Next, swing the air pack onto your back, latch it tightly around your torso. Shove and fasten a helmet onto your head. Pull the hood over your helmet. Put on the air mask. Make sure it suctions to your face. Lastly, put on gloves. Once it's all in place, turn the air tank on and connect the tube from the tank to the mask.

And, do it all in two minutes. If you don't, you fail and you can't be a firefighter. Putting gear on in two minutes is a requirement.welcome to replica shoes web,best service and low prices.Shop bottega bag online and get complimentary shipping today.‎ I failed — by about 13 minutes.
Darth Vader issues?

The face mask didn't sit well with me. Something about wearing a machine to help breathe made me uneasy. Trust issues? Perhaps. Whatever it was it made me twitchy.

Karpinski had me try the gear on in preparation for the training exercise that night, which tested me in more ways than one. The exercise was simple enough. You go up stairs, over a picnic table and through a wooden tunnel in full firefighter gear and make it through the obstacles strategically placed to slow you down. You do this blinded by smoke, requiring you to crawl on your hands and knees.

The point of the exercise was to practice falling through a weak floor and getting tangled by debris. This can happen anytime firefighters have to go inside a burning building and they have to be prepared. The exercise was meant to simulate that. The firefighters have training every Tuesday so they are ready for any scenario.There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale.

The second time I put the gear on for training,Up to 40% Off bottega purses, shop farfetch today!‎ it took 10 minutes,The latest trends and best prices on Michael Kors Bags 2013. and Karpinski still had to help me. It had to be done correctly because this time I was going to enter a smoky building.

Even though I knew what to expect because I helped set up the training exercise, I was nervous.

As I slowly crawled into the building, the smoke was so thick I could barely see my hand in front of my face. The only thing that mattered was crawling blindly one knee at a time, up each stair and across the room.
Dreading the fall

As I slowly crept forward, I knew what was coming. I was going to fall and I didn't have a choice. I had to crawl forward.

I felt the floor bend beneath. I paused. Karpinski yelled to keep moving. There was a loud snap as my weight broke the plywood and I tumbled onto the padded floor. I rolled to my right. Karpinski landed on the floor after me. I twisted back to the crawl position and felt for a wall. The only way out was through a tunnel. I thought maybe I would be small enough to continue to crawl on my knees. It was impossible and I had to army crawl on my stomach. I've never army-crawled before in my life, much less through a small tunnel.

Halfway through the smoke-filled tunnel, irrational panic began to set in. "Is that sweat in my eye? What if the air tank breaks? Will they pull me out of the tunnel in time? My neck hurts, is this helmet going to break my neck? Am I going to die in here?"

I stopped mid-tunnel and thought back to what some of the firefighters told me earlier in the day, when I was not so subtly hiding my nerves about the training exercise.

"If you feel yourself beginning to panic, stop and take a deep breath. Just control your breathing." I did just that and started moving again.

Then, I hit the wires. They were lined tightly in the way. I tried to shimmy under them. Unless I could transfigure into a mouse, it was impossible.

In the past when I have found myself in unsettling situations, my instincts were not to fight or to flee. Rather, my instinct was to just sit. I go blank. For a few seconds in that tunnel, I just laid there and had no plans to move. Karpinski snapped me out of it, handing me a pair of wire cutters, shouting at me to use them. Wire cutters never really had much significance to me before last week. To a firefighter, wire cutters can save his or her life.

At last I was free. Free from the wire, free from the tunnel, free from the smoke and back outside. I wanted nothing more than to rip my face mask off, pound my chest and yell like a wild beast. I did none of this as everything at the fire department has a routine and stringent protocol, including taking off your gear.

I was actually grateful for the protocol because there were about 20 firefighters sitting on a hill watching me and waiting for their turn to go into the building. Seeing as I had a hard time just putting my gloves on, I didn't want to embarrass myself further. For me, the exercise was physically demanding, terrifying and well out of my comfort zone. For the firefighters, it can be a normal day. I emerged from that building with a great sense of respect.

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HIGH-HEELED SHOES MAY LOOK GOOD

Now is the season when women take their freshly pedicured toes al fresco, often courtesy of strappy high-heel sandals or open-toed pumps that look fabulous but sometimes feel like the masochistic torture tools that many podiatrists insist they are.welcome to replica shoes web,best service and low prices.

Michael Liebow, a podiatrist in Bethesda, Md., pulls out a wince-inducing photograph of a foot X-rayed in a high-heel shoe: It reveals the ball of the foot at a nearly 90 degree angle to the bones in the rest of the foot. It does not look good.

The X-ray is a prop that Liebow says he shows to patients who “walk into the office in six-inch heels and say, ‘My feet are killing me! Why?’?” He says he tells them, “That is not how your foot has evolved to walk.”

To sum up his brief and frequently futile plea for foot health: Humans are meant to walk heel-to-toe, with the leg at about a 90-degree angle to the foot and the ankle joint employing a 60-degree range of motion during normal daily activities.

By wearing a high heel, Liebow explains, “you’re altering the position of the foot and how the foot is to function. Therefore, lots of bad things happen.”

Among the more common problems podiatrists say they see in women are calluses and, more painfully, corns, hard nuggets of keratin buildup caused by pressure on the skin.

With high heels, corns develop up under the balls of the foot where the weight of your body presses down, and they feel like small rocks underfoot when you walk.

Liebow also sees capsulitis, a painful inflammation of the joints where the toes attach to the foot, and neuromas, or pinched nerves, where pointy high heels squeeze the toes. And when the heel is frequently in a high-heel shoe, it can cause the Achilles tendon (which connects the calf muscle to the heel bone) to tighten. When you kick off your shoes and the heel comes down to the floor at the end of the day, the extra stretching of the tendon can lead to a condition called Achilles tendinitis.

Wearing high heels can also cause inflammation of the connective tissue at the bottom of the foot, the plantar fascia. That can result in severe heel pain and the need for aggressive treatments such as oral anti-inflammatories, oral steroids, cortisone injections, walking boots and crutches.

All of these conditions can be incredibly painful, requiring corticosteroid shots and, ideally, flatter and wider shoes. His patients will take the shots, but give up the shoes?

Women, Liebow says, “will wear their high-heeled shoes until their feet are bloody stumps.”

Take Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. She wears four- or five-inch heels to work most days; on a recent Tuesday, she towered in five-inch stiletto-heeled black Sergio Rossi open-toed booties.

“There are lots of things that impact the way you look that aren’t necessarily optimal for every muscle in your body,” says Pletka, who admits that she has some high pairs “that are uncomfortable, no question.” But,There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale. she adds, “you want to look nice. I always get nice comments on my shoes. And I like it.”

Erika Schwartz, a podiatrist who practices in Washington D.C., says that when she asks her patients to stick with heels less than two inches high, “some say, ‘Oh, you’re so cute! No, I’m not going to wear under two inches,Discover the largest collection of cheap Michael Kors Handbags . but it’s very cute of you to say that!’”

Schwartz says she understands that many are in professions that demand a more fashionable shoe than the comfy, orthopedically correct footwear she wears to work. So she tells them to at least “walk in something else. Put those dress shoes on when you get to the office. Minimizing the amount of time that you’re standing or walking will minimize the issues that come along with such an unnatural position of the foot.”

Walking too long in high-heeled shoes can result in, besides all of the above,welcome to michaels kors bags on sale,best service and low prices. stress fractures, or cracks in the bones of the feet.

If wearing heels, Schwartz suggests that women avoid the thin, stiletto-style heel: “The bigger the heel, if it’s chunky or a wedge, seems to be better because the shoe has a wider base of stability. A skinnier heel and you’re more likely to have ankle spraining.”

Franklin Polun, a podiatrist with offices in Washington D.Shop for Michael Kors Satchel in many colors and styles at hotmkbags.C. and Maryland, passes along advice that includes going with a rubber-soled shoe over leather, because rubber is better able to absorb pressure on nerves in the feet. He also suggests shopping for shoes at the end of the day, when your foot is most swollen, rather than in the morning.

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These shoes were made for

The story of Oprah’s sore feet and metallic purple Manolo Blahnik stilettos is still getting plenty of mileage in Ottawa. When the queen of all media was here during a speaking tour in April, her aching feet prompted her to take off her sky-high heels, which she offered up to someone in the audience.

Sandy Sharkey just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The former longtime radio personality was standing next to the stage trying to snap a photo of Oprah when she suddenly became the lucky recipient of a size 10? pair of pumps. Lucky, too, that this is her shoe size.

Since then, the shiny heels have been trotted out at various charity events. On Tuesday, Sharkey, who was the guest of honour at this month’s high-powered Ladies Who Lunch event at the Westin Hotel, once more pulled out the shoes and numerous ladies lined up to pay $10 to have their photos taken wearing them.welcome to replica shoes web,best service and low prices.

“It was exhilarating to walk in the shoes of the wealthiest woman in North America,” says real estate agent Cindy Sezlik. “Even though they were way too big for me, they felt so comfortable. I would have paid $25 to try them on.”

The money raised will go toward Sharkey’s pet project — a wild horse sanctuary in California called Return to Freedom. During the luncheon, she spoke about her passion for animals, nature and photography.

“Because I was on the morning show, I would often spend my afternoon driving around taking photos. When I lost my job in January, I wasn’t devastated because it was never my entire life. I was lucky to have 33 years in radio.”

“I took 15,000 photographs when I was there. I’ve always had a love affair with horses, but also protecting animals from harm. Wild horses are the quintessential image of freedom.”

Sharkey credits Ottawa photographer Michelle Valberg for showing her the ropes and her husband for buying her a really good camera.

Ladies Who Lunch is the brainchild of Catherine Landry, who wears a number of hats in Ottawa, including charity fundraiser, event planner and brand developer for Big Rig Brewery. Her countless good deeds in the city have made her almost as famous as her long dreadlocks and endless enthusiasm.

She first got the idea for a women’s networking lunch in the capital after stumbling across one in the Parrot Club at the Basil Street Hotel in Knightsbridge (which has since closed its doors) while travelling in London.

“I was zipping around seeing the sights and popped in to see this hotel because it had a lot of history. I peeked in this room, which was pink and lime green, and saw all these beautifully dressed women having tea and sandwiches. That image was captured in my mind.”

Landry saw similar lunches taking place in Miami and at the Russian Tea Room in New York with waiters in white gloves and society women dressed to the nines and wanted the same for Ottawa. Her last two events have been a sell out, with 140 ladies from every type of profession, including designers, media, small business owners, farmers, lawyers and authors, to name a few.Discover the largest collection of cheap Michael Kors Handbags .

“Ottawa, you are a cosmopolitan city and can support such an event. The Westin has been amazing. Executive chef Kenton Leier is insane and makes us the most ridiculous lunches. John Jarvis (the general manager of the Westin) is the best thing since sliced toast. I want to take this idea to the Westin in Vancouver and out East so that it’s coast to coast,” says Landry, who has teamed up with the hotel’s catering chief Ann Rickenbacker.

The luncheon, which cost $60, included a meet-and-greet cocktail and appetizer hour followed by a three-course sit-down lunch at Daly’s Restaurant overlooking the Rideau Canal. The three-hour event included a table-to-table fashion show courtesy of Valamode, a new online high-end consignment store, a Prada fragrance launch by perfume personality Sid Cratzberg and mini shopping area featuring items from Viens Avec Moi boutique, Dream Weaver gift store and Just Because doll-clothing designs.

The next Ladies Who Lunch, which will be the eighth such event,Shop for Michael Kors Satchel in many colors and styles at hotmkbags. is being planned for Aug.welcome to michaels kors bags on sale,best service and low prices.There are numerous diversified high heels at christian louboutin shoes for sale. 20 in Almonte at the Heirloom Bistro.


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The boutique based in the back

Within the first few days of opening the mobile store - known in the trade as a "fashion truck" - things were going well.

Then the power went out.

"The store was mobbed, and we lost the lights and the air conditioning three hours after we opened," says Abby Kessler, co-owner of the fashion truck and its bricks-and-mortar companion.

They managed to fill the generator and the team got back to making sales. Parked on the University of Pennsylvania's campus, an area without many boutiques or clothing shops, the truck was filled with students and employees of the nearby dental school.Welcome to Michael Kors Classic Tote Outlet online now.

But three hours later, it happened again.

"It turns out you don't fill a generator the same way you fill a car's tank," says Ms Kessler, who had to make a call to the company that designed the truck to determine the problem. "But what do we know about generators?"

Prior to opening the truck just a few weeks ago, Ms Kessler and her business partner Katie Lubieski operated in a world of jewellery, handbags, retro-print dresses, pretty shoes and sparkling tops.

The finer points of car repair and maintenance were not in their repertoire.
'Perfect idea'

For eight years, the two have operated the Smak Parlour boutique in the Old City district of Philadelphia. They sell their own line of distressed T-shirts, as well as studded shorts, neon tops, cherry-print dresses and other youthful looks. Their prices - at under $100 ($65) - appeal to a diverse crowd.

The store was such a success that they began to think about expanding last year.

"We thought about a second store, but having one store is like having a baby. We weren't sure we were ready for another full-time commitment like that," says Ms Kessler.

Then they heard about fashion trucks in Los Angeles. "We knew right away that was the perfect idea," she says.

By providing their customers with a mobile shopping experience - turning the back of a box truck into a glamorous parlour, complete with dressing room, skylight and a selection of stock - they could keep costs low while bringing their product to a new audience.

"Overhead is a lot lower than a typical retail structure," says Natalie Nixon, director of the strategic design MBA programme at Philadelphia University.

"You're not paying for utilities, not paying for lighting and heating. You don't have to hire as many sales team members, and you can manage your inventory in a much more sophisticated way."

Of course, while it's cheaper to pay a parking permit fee than pay a monthly rent, there are still hefty start-up costs.

A used box truck can cost $20,000-$30,000 ($13,000-$20,000), although Ms Lubieski scoured advertisement website Craigslist and managed to get a good deal for $8,000 below budget. The truck then needed a major overhaul - French doors, hardwood floors, track lighting, air conditioning and a skylight.

To cut costs, Ms Kessler's graphic designer boyfriend designed the wrap on the outside of the truck. The two women also secured a $20,000 grant from a local small business organisation.

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Google Algorithm Busts Chinese Car

Every sci-fi movie about inventions rising up to take over the world is built upon one unchangeable seed crystal: the moment when the technology does something its inventors never predicted. As The Verge reports, that’s exactly what happened to Google engineers in 2010, with a truth-and-justice twist — Google’s AdWords software exposed a Chinese car theft scam.

AdWords is Google’s moneymaker, using your web surfing habits to beam custom-tailored advertising into your browser. To prevent these ads from tailspinning into a spamfest, AdWords uses an algorithm to filter out ads for counterfeit items or phishing sites. But as the story explains, after an update in 2010, AdWords began flagging run-of-the-mill Chinese used car ads. Google engineers were perplexed — the system was meant to block ads for counterfeit handbags, not Hondas.

But what Google engineers thought was a glitch was actually the software outsmarting its pesky human builders. The cars being advertised weren’t counterfeit,Shop the latest bottega handbag from top designers at anmison. but the ads were part of an offline fraud scheme:

Scammers were taking pictures of cars on the street, and when a hapless customer showed up a few days later offering money,Shoes, bottega wallet and more,free shipping!‎ they’d steal the car and hand it over. By the time the mark realised he had purchased stolen goods, the sellers were long gone, taking his money with them.

What led AdWords to sniff out a crime where its builders only saw commerce? The algorithm decides based on thousands of factors, but it’s likely that high-price transactions on newly-created accounts tripped the fraud pattern detectors. Sounds simple enough, but it’s fascinating, and perhaps a little scary, to realise that Google’s software is so good, it can even pinpoint fraud that occurs offline,Welcome to Michael Kors Classic Tote Outlet online now. on the streets of China. For the whole fascinating story, head on over to The Verge, and if you’re a criminal, online or off, remember that AdWords has a very particular set of skills. Skills that make it a nightmare for people like you.

While searching for decor pieces for his Short North shop, Aesthetic owner Adam Johnson came across a striking, redand white-striped sofa buried in a dealer’s warehouse. Noticing its unusual pattern and mint condition, he knew it was a oneof- a-kind find.

“It’s actually a sample of something that was never created,” Johnson says. “Sometimes I have to go out of my way to find things Columbus doesn’t have. You can’t find something like that again.”

His love for the odd and exclusive dominates Aesthetic, which opened in the Short North in October after a stint in a 150-square-foot Clintonville space. The store expanded to 1,000 square feet to stock a globetrotting decor collection—Italian-designed porcelain plates, cage-like industrial ceiling lights, towels hand-woven in Ethiopia and decorative leather punching bags.The latest trends and best prices on Michael Kors Bags 2013. Later this summer, Aesthetic will carry American-made scarves and handbags, and plans for a wedding and gift registry are in the works.

“You shouldn’t buy on a trend—you should buy what you love,” says Johnson, who tracks down products during East and West coast trips and daily design-blog perusal. “If you stay true to who you are, people will follow you.”

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Shoes of Prey hunts for $20m

Online designer shoes retailer Shoes of Prey has been named Kogan Australian Online Retailer of the Year, which will no doubt help in the founders’ bid to attract $20 million in funding.

The company,welcome to michaels kors handbags sale,Free shipping‎!The latest trends and best prices on Michael Kors Bags 2013. which was started by three friends Michael Fox, Jodie Fox and Michael Knapp in 2009, has been making a big dent in the retail world simply by letting women design their own shoes online.

The three founders have since started another company – online spectacles store Sneaking Duck. It was also a finalist in this category, and last year won BRW’s New Retailer of the Year and Innovation in Retail awards for helping transform Australia’s $1 billion prescription glasses industry.

The Shoes of Prey site, which as of Tuesday has 130,000 Facebook likes and more than 7000 Twitter followers, lets women design every kind of shoe imaginable from ballet flats, to stilettos and sandals, to ankle boots.

Customers can jump on the site, pick the type of shoe, the colour and the material (including snakeskin, soft leather, silk and suede). It takes about five weeks to make a pair. The shoes, which cost $139 upwards, are then delivered for free to the customer’s door within days.

Shoes of Prey has already attracted big investors, including the co-founder of software company Atlassian, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Silicon Valley investor and blogger Mike Arrington (he co-founded venture capital firm CrunchFund), and US start-up investor Bill Tai of Charles River Ventures.

The company previously raised $3 million from investors and is now looking for an additional $20 million in funding to employ more staff in its Sydney-based office as well as boost marketing efforts.

Shoes of Prey’s director of fashion Jodie Fox, who recently ran 3km in high heels, says more than 10 million shoes have been designed on the site. The company opened its first actual store in Australia earlier this year, at David Jones’s CBD store in Sydney. Fox says the David Jones store has helped boost recognition as well as sales.

“Customers always ask what our shoes look like in real life – this is the best way to show them,” Fox tells BRW. “We’ve been outstripping our [sales] targets since we opened our doors.”

The Kogan Australian Online Retailer of the Year was announced on Tuesday morning in Melbourne by the peak industry body representing Australia’s $258 billion retail sector, the Australian Retailers Association.

The Visa Australian Retailer of the Year award went to Specsavers, while the eBay Inc Australian Multichannel Retailer of the Year award went to Specialty Fashion Group.

ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman says Shoes of Prey stood out as a leader within the online retail sector, with its “groundbreaking website”.

“This retailer demonstrated to our expert judging panel a strong track record in building their business through superior customer service, cutting-edge marketing strategies and an innovative approach,” he says.

Shoes of Prey is also a finalist in the World Retail Congress Awards to be announced in Paris in November. Other finalists in the “store design of the year” category include big names like Haus Cumberland from Germany,Shop the latest Michael Kors Jet Set Bags on the world's largest fashion site. the Chilli Beans Flagship Store from Brazil and Karl Lagerfeld’s concept store in Paris.

“We’re looking at raising another round of funding,Find the Latest Michael Kors Kingsbury Here. Shop Today! so awards like this really help in raising our credibility,” Fox says. “One of our pillars is to be innovative in everything that we do.”

Fox says the directors may also look at opening more bricks and mortar stores like the David Jones flagship. Shoes of Prey has also partnered with Australian designer Carla Zampatti for an exclusive collection of shoes. Fox has also been heavily promoting the company, recently attending New York Fashion Week.

A number of Australian start-ups such as Kaggle have flocked to Silicon Valley to try and grow their business, but Fox says she and the co-founders chose to stay in Sydney. “There wasn’t a good enough reason to leave Australia,” she says. “There’s great talent and opportunity here.” Find the Michael Kors New Arrival you will want to use for-ever!

Fox says while it’s harder to raise capital in Australia than in San Francisco, “we love being in Sydney and want to be part of the tech environment being fostered here”.

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Airline gives lesson in bad customer relations

OK, I know I'm running late, especially in a modern airborne world monitored with unforgiving strictness by a pyramid with the TSA at its peak,Shop discounted mk handbags on hotmkbags. Congress just below and dozens of hundreds of data-crunching passenger advocacy groups forming the base.

Still, everything seems comparatively routine as the door thumps closed behind me on Delta's overbooked Flight 2376, scheduled to make the run from Atlanta to Tampa. It's Monday and it's about a quarter after 5 p.m. Five minutes to push-back.Shop hotmkbags for the latest fashion trends in Michael Kors Shoulder Bags for ladies. The plane, a Boeing 757,Buy Michael Kors iPhone Cases Michael Kors handbags with big discount and free shipping! is full. More than full, in fact, as we shall discover.

After all, airports and airlines have rush hours, too, which was made abundantly clear in my dash from the nether end of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's Concourse D to its counterpart of Concourse B. The walkways were clogged. The underground “plane train” was jammed.

The reason I was spurred to uncommon urgency was twofold: An already tight connection had been abbreviated by the 15-minute hold air traffic control in Atlanta placed on my originating flight from Asheville, N.C.Welcome to Michael Kors Classic Tote Outlet online now.; and there was a delay retrieving my FAA-authorized carry-on, which had to be checked because the overhead bins in the 28-seat puddle-jumper out of Asheville were designed when the traveling public was ladies in white gloves carrying small handbags and makeup cases and businessmen gripping slender leather briefcases.

But I had hustled and presented myself while a handful of standbys were awaiting the outcome of their status, only to discover my original destination — a dreaded center seat — had been reassigned.

Hadn't Delta's super-smart computer network logged my presence on the flight from Asheville? Wasn't my arrival at Gate B-2 anticipated? Maybe it assumed I'd ditched my itinerary in favor of the peculiar charms of the Samuel Adams Atlanta Brew House. (Briefly, no: Since all the Paschal's restaurants closed, dining in the Atlanta airport is dead to me.)

Reassignment required the intervention of the gate supervisor, who applied swift typing skills and her license-to-override ID card to the task, and it was quickly done. New seat: 34A. A window? A window. This could not have worked out better.

Moments later I was settled in, and here came a member of the Tampa-based flight crew down the aisle, her gaze fixed on me like a drone's laser targeting a missile strike. Had I left something at the gate? Was I eligible for an unclaimed upgrade?

Guess again, lowly coach monkey.

Braking at Row 34, clamping hands on the seats along the aisle, she leaned over the couple returning from a week in New Orleans and, with a prosecutor's accusing glare, declared in a voice that dominated the rear third of the cabin, “If you get up during this flight, you may want to go back and thank the pilot in the jump seat who gave up this seat for you. You were the last passenger on this plane, and they wanted to take you off, but he said he'd take the jump seat. So you may want to say 'Thank you.'”

Wait. What?

Had that just happened? Had the flight attendant, pinning me down with herbrace-for-impact posture, just publicly chided/scolded/embarrassed a 30-year loyal client who's logged more than 650,000 lifetime miles on her airline?

All for the sake of a free-riding employee who, following long-standing protocol, relocated to a less comfy seat for a 90-minute hop so the paying customer can occupy the seat he paid for?

And is dressing down a passenger what Delta CEO Richard Anderson meant when he said, in the July 2013 issue of Sky magazine that was conveniently in the seat back pocket at my knees, “At Delta, we've found that common values are far better than any detailed manual could ever be. ... Delta people, from the CEOs [sic] office to the front line,Shop for Michael Kors Monogram at hotmkbags. rely on our culture and our core values to guide our business decisions every day”?

Monday afternoon, one brand-loyal passenger received the whip-lashing of a lifetime from one employee's interpretation of Delta's core values. Or is that how the biggest companies work these days? Delta's press office did not respond to a request for comment.

Sigh. I guess I'm old-fashioned. I liked it better when Delta loved to fly, and it showed.

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