[Update at end of post]
We’ve all seen Goldfinger, third in the long-running franchise featuring Ian Fleming’s fictional MI6 operative James Bond, which concludes as the villain of the title ill-advisedly looses off a gun in an aircraft cabin and is sucked out through the shattered window by the force of the depressurisation. So we all know why the windows on modern aircraft are sealed.
We’ve all seen Goldfinger, third in the long-running franchise featuring Ian Fleming’s fictional MI6 operative James Bond, which concludes as the villain of the title ill-advisedly looses off a gun in an aircraft cabin and is sucked out through the shattered window by the force of the depressurisation. So we all know why the windows on modern aircraft are sealed.
I can't open the plane's windows?
All of us, it seems, except US Republican Presidential
hopeful Mitt Romney, who has continued
his campaign of gaffes during a fundraising visit to California. Mitt’s
wife Ann was also present at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, despite an unsettling
moment when the plane taking her to Santa Monica had to make an unscheduled
landing at Denver, Co., because of an electrical fault.
And, as the candidate talked of his concern, there came the
gaffe: “When you have a fire in an
aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find
any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the
windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem.
So it’s very dangerous”. Oh dear, Mitt.
So the man bidding to take over the most powerful job in the
Western world does not know why aircraft windows do not open. And he believes
that this is a problem. Hell, Mitt, it they did
open, then it really would be a
problem.
[UPDATE 26 September 1215 hours: he didn't mean it seriously, folks, he was joking! Yes, now the story is that the Romney gaffe was really a pre-scripted joke. Really? Now, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here.
One, jokes about aircraft safety, especially just after your wife - who happens to be standing next to you - just got involved in an emergency landing, are Not A Very Good Idea. In fact, if you look at the video of Mitt's remarks, there are Very Few Laughs after he delivers the "joke".
And two, making your joke hard on the heels of being painted as gaffe-prone is only going to make folks think you are indeed gaffe-prone, rather than suddenly having discovered an off-the-wall sense of humour that nobody can remember you having had before.
So the joke is more than likely to end up backfiring. Like this one did]
[UPDATE 26 September 1215 hours: he didn't mean it seriously, folks, he was joking! Yes, now the story is that the Romney gaffe was really a pre-scripted joke. Really? Now, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here.
One, jokes about aircraft safety, especially just after your wife - who happens to be standing next to you - just got involved in an emergency landing, are Not A Very Good Idea. In fact, if you look at the video of Mitt's remarks, there are Very Few Laughs after he delivers the "joke".
And two, making your joke hard on the heels of being painted as gaffe-prone is only going to make folks think you are indeed gaffe-prone, rather than suddenly having discovered an off-the-wall sense of humour that nobody can remember you having had before.
So the joke is more than likely to end up backfiring. Like this one did]
1 comment:
I'm doubly confused. Not only is the window thing just a bizarre comment, but it seems that he thinks the best thing to do with a fire is give it more oxygen. Odd. Well, at least we know what to do if he ever spontaneously catches fire...
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