The Honest Courtesan

On Thursday, I returned to Seattle from London; the two halves of the trip couldn’t have been much more different.  The transatlantic leg saw me assigned a business-class seat very early, attended to by a sweet and maternal air hostess, and comfortably sleeping through the first five hours of a smooth, quiet flight in my roomy full-recline seat with a soft pillow and snuggly blanket.  But for the transcontinental leg, I was placed at the last minute in the usual bolt-upright bus seat which barely has room for my rather petite self, much less enough room for either of the people I was stuck between.  After pulling away from the gate we were forced to sit on the runway for two hours, increasing the total time I was stuck in that seat to about eight hours and increasing the amount of Valium needed to stay calm by double; on top of that the ride was bumpy most of the way, even on the approach to Seattle.  By the time I got home it was nearly 11 PM and I hadn’t had any solid food for roughly 25 hours, so after an egg sandwich and some Vegemite toast it was straight to bed for me, and I only woke up two hours early the next morning.  I’m still not quite back to normal; as I type this it’s only 9:30 PM but I’m already fighting off sleep, despite having retired and arisen at my normal times.  Ah, well, in a few more days I hope to be rested up and back to what passes for normal in my world.  In the meantime, you might be interested in this article I wrote for the current print edition of Reason; I’d also point you in the direction of Tina Dupuy’s radio show on Sirius from last Friday, but it was live and I don’t think there’s a way to listen to it now.  But for the time being, I should probably get a strong cup of tea before I fall asleep and crash my head into this keyboard.