The Year In Ideas

No_Weak_Heart writes "The New York Times Magazine (registration required) presents its annual compendium of ideas. The list ranges from acoustic keyboard eavesdropping to land-mine-detecting plants to water that isn't wet. What catches your fancy? And what do you think is missing?"

Comments

Mexicans really DO smell like fabric softener

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure you've all heard this alleged "common stereotype" on Trolltalk before and laughed at the hilarilty of it, thinking "LOWL, that's funny because it's absurd and surreal; nobody would actually believe Mexicans really smell like fabric softener, hence the cleverness of the ridiculous statement. OHMIG RUHR!" That's what I thought, too. That's what I used to think.

Yesterday, I was on a flight from Brownsville, TX (a Mexican border town) to Houston George Bush Intercontinental to await a connecting flight back home. Don't ask what I was doing flying out of Brownsville, TX.

Now, Brownsville, TX is a filthy Mexican border town. Even though the only flight from the airport it to Houston on Continental, the airport is jokingly called "Brownsville International" because many Mexican citizens, unable to take a flight into the United States because of immigration law, will hop the fence (or swim the river or whatever the fuck they do) from Mexico into Brownsville, get on the Continental flight to Houston, and from there they can get anywhere in the USA. Proof of citizenship or legal immigration status isn't required for domestic flights, i.e. Brownsville to Houston, even though you just know that half the passengers on the flight are illegal immigrants. Proof? There are a lot more Mexicans on Brownsville -> Houston than on Houston -> Brownsville, and most of the ones heading from the border to the heart of our country don't even speak English.

So anyway, I'm at the Brownsville airport. Now, legally, the government can't check citizenship or immigration paperwork on a domestic flight. Still, the Brownsville airport is packed with INS agents and Texas rangers in addition to the regular police officers and TSA agents that you see in every airport. They were probably there mostly to scare off illegals before they could get on the plane, even though AFAIK they didn't have the power to do anything to anyone without probable cause. At the security checkpoint, right next to the TSA ID checker, stood two INS agents asking every person entering the line if he was an American citizen. Every person, even the whites. They even asked me. I thought about saying, "I know you're so afraid of being accused of racial profiling that you can't allow yourself to exercise even a modicrum of common sense and discretion, but, still, fuck you." Instead, I said "yes."

So (again) anyway, the plane was an ERJ. Now, ERJs are tiny, cramped, noisy, and slow as I'm sure you all know. And there's no First Class. There is, however, one thing I like about the ERJs. If you get on the left side of the plane, you don't have to worry about having a neighbor. Since there's only one seat on the left, it's aisle and window. It's cramped, yes, and there's not enough room between seats to type on your laptop, but at least you don't have somebody you might hate sitting next to you. That's if you snag a seat on the left side of the plane.

Such was not the case this time. Normally, I hop on the web as soon as my flight reservations are made and pick out a good seat, and if it's an ERJ I always grab a seat on the left. Since I'm Elite on most airlines, I can usually get a seat I'm happy with. Unfortunately, this time around, the flight was already heavily booked up (short-term change of plans, y'know), and I couldn't get on the left side of the plane.

So I wound up getting crammed onto the right side of an ERJ with a Mexican right beside me, another Mexican in front of me, and a third Mexican behind me. And, you know what? Mexicans really do smell like fabric softener. The one in front of me smelled like Snuggle, the one behind me smelled like Downy, and the one beside me smelled like pure Aminoethylethanolamine.

What's up with Mexicans? Do they just was their clothes in this stuff, or do they actually bathe in it?

So, the popular Trolltalk meme turned out to be true. They smell like fabric softener. End of story.

At least fabric softener doesn't actually smell too bad. A few hours later, on my f

AGREE. PARENT WAS IN GOOD FAITH. MODS ON CRACK.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wish moderators would read posts before modding them down. Parent in 100% right. Suppression of politically incorrect ideas should not be allowed.

MOD PARENT FUNNY

[Anonymous Coward]

I've already posted to this thread and can't mod this up, but it sure deserves it.