Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Grand Game: Find the MOST Appalling Passage

Sometimes here at KPC, we play The Grand Game. TGG involves readers picking out the most appalling passage of something someone has written.

This is a fine one. It comes from a "blog" the TSA has established (I'm not making this up) to give travellers a chance to vent about the....TSA!

Check this inspired entry.


HOORAY BLOGGERS!

A Win for the Blogesphere

Posters on this blog have had their first official impact on our operations. That’s right, less than one week since we began the blog and already you’re affecting security in a very positive way.

On Monday afternoon we began receiving questions about airports that were requiring ALL electronics to be removed from carry-on bags (everything, including blackberrys, iPods and even cords). This practice was also mentioned on several other blogs and left us scratching our heads.

So…we checked with our security operations team to figure out what was going on. After some calls to our airports, we learned that this exercise was set up by local TSA offices and was not part of any grand plan across the country. These practices were stopped on Monday afternoon and blackberrys, cords and iPods began to flow through checkpoints like the booze was flowing on Bourbon Street Tuesday night. (Fat Tuesday of course).

So thanks to everyone for asking about this and for giving us a chance to make it right. Our hope is that examples like this validate our forum and show the solid partnerships we can form with our customers - the traveling public - in not only increasing security but in making all of our lives just a little easier.

Thanks again and keep those comments and questions coming.


Now, let's play the game!

My favorite appallinghoods:

1. They misspelled "blogosphere." Misspellings are common in blogs, Angus and I do it all the time. But...if you are trying to convince me you are paying close attention to the blogosphere, please don't spell it "blogesphere."

2. The title of the post is, "Hooray, bloggers!" I'm no hipster, but even I know that the word "hooray" should NEVER be used except ironically. (I note the possibility exists that the entire "TSA blogs" gig is a giant ironic deception. If it is, it will make me so happy that I will touch myself. Hell, I'll be so happy that I'll touch ANGUS. But I detect no irony anywhere on their blog. They are playing it horribly, apocalyptically, straight.)

3. "blackberrys, cords and iPods began to flow through checkpoints like the booze was flowing on Bourbon Street." Um. I can't think of any way that that analogy makes sense. More importantly, the fact that these items had NOT been flowing through checkpoints reflects the REAL problem with TSA: small kings.

(Nod to Anonyman, who is being ironic when he says, "hello.")
(Update: "is" changed to "exists" in 2 above, to make it English, rather than Mungerish)

4 comments:

Shawn said...

worst passage: "grand plan"

nothing 'good, great, grand, wonderful' about the whole damn process.

referring to us as 'customers'; equally tomfoolish.

Angus said...

I'm with U Shawn on the customer thing. We are their customers like Fay Wray was King Kong's customer.

Anonymous said...

No, no.

Best line:

"So thanks to everyone for asking about this and for giving us a chance to make it right."

Cuz, ya know, they really *do* want to hear from us.

(I think they were being ironic w/o really realizing it...).

Michael Munger said...

Prison Rodeo has a point, but I would want to offer a friendly amendment:

"Being ironic without really realizing it" is the OPPOSITE of being ironic.

But PR is still right, because the irony is there, for the rest of us to enjoy.