Alaska Airlines Prays Travelers Like To Ponder
The folks at Alaska Airlines appear to take seriously the concept of flying on a wing and a prayer.
Unwrap the lunch tray on an Alaska flight, and inside, under the salami and cheese on pizza bread, next to the squirt pack of mayo and a sugar cookie, is Psalm 107:1.
Printed on a small card, with a blushing sunset in the background, the prayer is intended to provide customers with “an opportunity for contemplation with their meal, if they would like it,” said Jack Evans, spokesman for the airline at Seattle headquarters.
“There’s no intention to push any particular religion.”
People usually react positively to the cards, which are provided only with full meals, Evans said.
“Generally people are surprised to see it but find it a nice touch.”
Some think the cards are uniquely appropriate.
“I had one fellow tell me he figured he never needed a prayer more than when he was on an airplane,” Evans said. Kind of a nearer-my-God-to-thee thing.
“We hope most people don’t see it that way. We are looking for things that we mean to be thoughtful, calming comments, something people ponder as they have a meal.”
After all, the airline’s slogan is “For the same price, you get more.” Even a little prayer with lunch.
Not a bad idea, considering the fat and cholesterol packed in a salami and cheese sandwich with mayo on pizza bread and a cookie on the side.
Dome’s demise dooms millennium vigil
The voters of Washington may have put a bit of a crimp in Bill Sears’ plans for celebrating the arrival of the next millennium. Sears is executive director of Seattle’s Spirit of 2000, a statewide committee formed to prepare a salute to the year 2000.
One of Sears’ planned events is a peace vigil at the Kingdome, which has been booked by the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington for a multi-denominational event to ring in the new millennium.
Trouble is, voters doomed the Dome with their vote last month to build a new football stadium. Whether the Dome, planned for demolition, will even still be standing by the year 2000 is unclear.
“It’s kind of in limbo,” Sears said.
So is financing for the Dome extravaganza, which, stretching as it would all day and into the night, would be pricey. “A major sponsor would be needed,” Sears said. “Someone,” he added without hesitation, “like Paul Allen.”
The same guy, that is, who demanded the Dome’s demise to make way for a new stadium for his Seahawks.
But Sears apparently holds no grudge, even though he worked at the Dome for 12 years and campaigned to pass the ballot initiative to build it 21 years ago. The show must, after all, go on. If there’s still a Dome to hold it in.
Good employee benefits
Some workers are being relocated in anticipation of the Dome’s removal.
The first to go: thousands of Red Wriggler worms used in recycling bins to chew up Kingdome food waste.
Since 1991, the worms have demolished about 25 pounds of vegetables, fruit rinds, coffee grounds and egg shells a week.
The worms are now posted at a King County alcohol and drug treatment facility and at the county’s new jail.
Why move the wrigglers so soon? Fans will be chowing down at the Dome for at least another baseball and football season.
An official Dome press release states: “The resettlement was orchestrated by Kingdome maintenance employees concerned that these recycling workers be resettled safely in new homes before anything happens to the Kingdome.”
Only in Seattle. Anywhere else, they would have tossed ‘em in the woods.
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