A German entrepreneur is trying to start up Smoker's International Airways (Smintair) for high-end travelers who want to indulge their vices -- smoking, drinking -- in the air. A story I read about it characterizes the goal as bringing air travel back to the days when it was glamorous.
Ah, yes, we remember the movies of a half-decade or more ago where a cocktail in one hand and a cigarette in the other was the epitome of glamour. The puffers and drinkers all looked like Lauren Bacall or Humphrey Bogart. People following their examples didn't think about the smokers who ended up with sallow skin and wrinkles, hacking up half a lung, or the drinkers who passed out and peed in their pants, or crashed their car or beat up their lovers.
Somehow that doesn't seem as glamorous.
This entrepreneur, Alexander Schoppmann, goes on to be quoted as saying that "I haven't seen a sick smoker in my life" and that concerns about second-hand smoke are "the biggest scam of all times." Apparently the guy hasn't spent enough time in hospitals or hospices, not to mention reading medical studies.
And his planes, he claims, will be so well-ventilated that "you will not even notice the smell of somebody smoking a cigarette or pipe in the next seat." Well, mabe not, if your sense of smell or taste has been completely destroyed by smoking, or if you're wearing an oxygen mask.
Give me a break.
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2 comments:
Even though that's John Stossel's line, I have to agree wholeheartedly. The air in a plane WITHOUT smoke is bad enough (ask me about San Antonio). I'll be interested in following the workers' comp claims for this venture...
Even though I used Stossel's line, let me assure you that he isn't one of my role models. ;)
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