A 44-year-old Brooklyn woman was returning from vacation in Haiti when she began to have trouble breathing. According to her cousin who was on the flight with her, she was refused help twice by the flight attendant, then she was brought two oxygen tanks with masks—but both were empty. Her cousin requested an emergency landing, but before they could touch down in Miami she was dead, so the plane continued to JFK. The airline isn’t commenting on why the emergency tanks were empty in the first place. “After the flight attendant refused to administer oxygen to Ms. Desir, she became distressed, pleading, ‘Don’t let me die,’ Mr. Oliver recalled.”
maintenance
Fix Your Old Christmas Lights
By 11.30.07
Save some money by re-using your existing strings of light this Christmas—even if they’re currently acting all wonky. Here are some handy guides on how to repair dark strings of Christmas lights, whether they’re LED or the classic incandescent type. They’re fairly detailed, with a sort of techy “how things work” vibe, but contain a lot of useful information. For example, just because a string of incandescents has an AC outlet at the end, that doesn’t make it an extension cord—the more power you pull through the cord, the greater the current and the higher the risk of shorting out bulbs.
How Long Does It Take United To Get A Maintenance Crew To Fix Something With Duct Tape?
By 8.14.07
How long does it take for United Airlines to get a maintenance crew over to your plane so that they can “fix” something with duct tape? The answer is 45 minutes, not including the time it took to “de-plane” the passengers.
Don't Get Your Oil Changed At Walmart
By 4.2.07
The employees and their manager spent most the time spraying each other with air hoses and windshield fluid. 3 hours later, after seeing other folks come and go, we were told our vehicles were ready. We paid and left quickly, trying to avoid any other confrontation that would delay us even more. Flash forward to last week, my wife told me that her check engine light came on while going to work and the same on the way home.
We have to admit we didn’t know there was such a thing as a Walmart oil change before this letter.
New Year’s Resolutions for Your Computer
By 1.9.07
And lo, the back-up drive we ordered from Office Depot did arrive on time. And there was rejoicing. And there was reading of the website “Lifehacker.” And then there was further rejoicing, for Lifehacker had posted 7 New Years Resolutions for the PC. And they were good.—MEGHANN MARCO
