the devil on the airplane

In betwixt the sleepless nights lying in starched hotel sheets and logging a series of nauseating transcontinental flights, I have come up with a few observations that I wanted to share with the internet universe.

But you know what? I'm TIRED. So the musings about the Austin woman with the matching bejeweled crosses on her purse and jeans will have to wait. As will the story of Phat, my conspiracy theorist shuttle driver in Virginia.

However, something almost amusing happened a couple days ago:

I boarded my flight Saturday morning after 3 hours of sleep the night before. I knew that for the next eight hours the only sustenance I would have would be the Nutri-Grain bar I took from the hotel, but on the flipside I had the second half of Harry Potter #7 to devour for probably the fifth time (I had read the whole first half on the flight over), so I felt slightly unstable but not quite If-I-hear-one-baby-scream-on-this-flight-I'm-going-to-have-a-rage-blackout.

As I was stowing my carry-on, I glanced at the man sitting in front of me. He had this debonair aura about him that was magnetic. Perhaps it was the dark blue suit and red tie. Or the subtle level 5 Mystic tan. He looks like someone famous, I said to myself. Then, a few minutes later, as I was flipping through one of the airline magazines, there he was! In the magazine. Featured as . . . the Devil?

It's Ray Wise, and apparently he plays Satan himself in the show Reaper, which I have never seen. But I'm pretty sure I've seen him in an episode of Law and Order: SVU. And he's also VP Gardner in 24 Season 5, in case you wanted to know more, which you probably didn't.

Anyway. The point is not that I saw a "celebrity." The point is that even Mr. Wise is having to cut back his spending these days, as evidenced by his descent into slum-class with the rest of us mere mortals.