John Ziegler takes my breath away

Well, there also might be the recent asthmatic bronchospasms to account for. It’s a bit cold in here and some virus apparently has gotten its claws wrapped around me. I’ve got my voice back—sort of—and my energy level has come up from the basement. Oh yeah, and I’m concerned about the math class I missed yesterday.

But I got some entertainment in the form of watching John Ziegler, documentary filmmaker and graduate of the Melvin Udall School of Dating, get dumped after drinks.

I wonder if Ziegler is any good at math? He doesn’t seem so skilled at addition, for example. “Someone who is informed and rational, which I realize is kind of an oxymoron for women” + “Ideally you find someone with a manageable degree of irrationality” = misogynistic, despite his claim to the contrary. And he actually appeared surprised that “she didn’t seem to like where I was coming from.”

Hey Ziegler, ya think?

And, like a predictable misogynist, it’s all about her. “I don’t know maybe she was threatened…” How about putting the mea culpa squarely where it belongs by just admitting he ought to stick to documentaries? The producer–provided it’s someone else–will tweak his bad math and if Ziegler ever feels like fast forwarding to the 21st century, maybe he can figure out how to multiply.

The real men of the future are in kindergarten about now learning things like disjoint sets and one-to-one correspondence. They’ll later know how to take a woman’s breath away without having to rely on some sort of viral attack.

Update: The link above quotes a HotAir commenter’s take:

It could be that Ziegler caught something – now edited out – that made him want to end this quickly. No sane guy – on a date with a chick who is pretty cute – is going into this unless his goal is to get out of the date. I’ve done something similar to this in the past, a bit more tactfully, but what guy (or girl) hasn’t pissed off the date on purpose, just to end it.

(Operative word: No sane guy.)

The update also says Ziegler, who hadn’t yet seen the video, suggested via e-mail something may have been edited out to misrepresent him.

I’m quite sure lots has been edited out, including what the girl might have said or done to make her date dislike her, or for her to come off as unsympathetic to us audience members. But apparently Ziegler dislikes us as well, enough to hint anything the show’s producer’s wiped could whitewash that crap.

I never would have thought the guy who interviewed Sarah Palin could be such a hypocrite.

In a New York minute

Hurrah!

A few days back I happened upon an online conversation about the most popular man in America. One poster argued that Sully was not a hero, as his actions did not go above and beyond the call of duty. “He was trained to do what he did.” Or something like that. (I’m paraphrasing here as even I don’t remember which forum I saw it in.)

U.S. News and World Report lays out a few reasons Flight 1549 landed as it did, not least of all being rational decision making in a cockpit buzzing with alerts and visuals that would have made my forehead sweat even just watching it in a movie. Which I’m pretty sure it will be.

Check out some of these details:

Thorough training. Sullenberger may be a model aviator, but it wasn’t heroism that brought Flight 1549 down safely. It was rigorous training that’s inbred in the U.S. aviation system. Pilots have to fly for years before they can command an airliner, and even experienced pilots must routinely train in simulators and pass “check rides” at least once a year under the supervision of Federal Aviation Administration inspectors. Pilots sometimes gripe about overzealous FAA inspectors, but the oversight contributes to a culture of accountability and fastidious attention to detail in the cockpit.

The emphasis within the paragraph is mine, and I highlighted it because I also want to have a word about the ferries. They wasted no time getting to the passengers and crew, actions and attitude I have come to consider as very New York. Before anybody gets their hackles raised about how good people exist elsewhere, I’ll say it first. Good people exist elsewhere. But say what you will about New Yorkers, their speed in talking, typing and multi-tasking is matched by the efficiency with which they set to the task in times of crisis. We’ve all heard the stories about how calmly and in an orderly fashion they exited the World Trade Center, even as they turned to see the horror behind them. How people stopped, wordlessly, to pick up someone who couldn’t make their own way and did without verbal collaboration. They just did it.

That’s what the ferries did. They just did it. Yes, this of course could happen elsewhere. Perhaps it might be better said as, “They might not come off as ‘Minnesota Nice’ but they won’t let you get hurt without putting up a fight against the crisis.” It seems to me a culture of accountability in which, no matter who you are, if you are in danger, they summon what they have and make their way to you. When the matter involves cöoperation with other agencies, even out-of-towners, they don’t seem afraid to act jointly.

Speaking of which:

A clear division of labor in the cockpit. From the time the engines stopped producing thrust – presumably because they ingested birds – Sullenberger and Skiles had about three minutes before the powerless plane glided back to earth. And the cockpit would suddenly have become an intense environment to work in. Other airplane systems would have been failing, since they’re powered by the engines….Once the pilots chose their course, they would have started to prepare for a water landing. All in three minutes.

Three minutes!

The water landing was obviously shocking to those on board – yet mild compared to what could have happened. “I believed the impact would be violent but survivable,” wrote one passenger, who happened to be a pilot for another airline. “It was much milder than I had anticipated. If the jolt had been turbulence, I would have described it as moderate.”

Wow. Just…wow.

OK, so maybe he is not a hero. But there is, as has been said, “reason enough to lionize.” The pilot, the co-pilot, flight attendants, ferries, the heavy-equipment operators who hauled that big bird from the water later. Even the passengers. I’ve heard no reports of fights breaking out or even frightened acts of spite. I even read about passengers who gave the clothes off their backs to a fellow passenger (who later was near-interrogated by reporters in warm coats). These passengers seemed to have themselves made a great team, and every single one of them survived.