in the Toronto Star today

This Toronto Star article asks if it’s rude to recline your seat on the plane.

I already know I’m not going to enjoy reading the article or the responses. There will be a contingent of people who feel it is their right to recline, that they own the seat AND the air space behind it, and your comfort is no concern of theirs.

on NPR 19 years ago

I said my piece on NPR years ago.

Here’s the interview on NPR from nineteen years ago. You can read the transcript, or listen to this five minute story here.

No, really. That’s an NPR interview from 2006, with me. Oh, and also Randy Cohen, ethics expert. Mostly Randy. But also me. A bit.

(My opinion: speaking as a long legged guy who would like to believe he speaks on behalf of everyone, no, you should not recline if there’s anybody behind you, except in very limited situations, and no, I don’t care that the seat can recline, that doesn’t mean it should.)

I was a big fan of The Ethicist, a New York Times column written by former Letterman writer Randy Cohen, and I honestly can’t quite remember how NPR decided to include me in this story. Randy had written a couple of books on ethics in every day life - I quite enjoyed them. Full of discussions of important issues like “Is it OK to move down to a better seat at a baseball game?”.

And I’m pleased that I managed to change Randy’s mind, slightly, in this discussion about the issue of seat reclining.

the Knee Defender

I mentioned in the interview that I’d bought a Knee Defender, a plastic gadget you could slide over the arm of the tray table to prevent the seat in front of you from reclining. Here’s how that works.

I still have this.

I still haven’t had the nerve to use it.