I flew on Continental Airlines, out of O’Hare (ORD), on my recent trip to Houston. The experience had the usual bit of good and bad.

First, there was the usual fuss from some people about the security process. Why do people make such a fuss? Like it or not, this is the procedure, and yelling about it isn’t going to make it better. The best solution is to be prepared and get through quickly.

Once on the plane, we encountered a family of 12, spanning at least three generations. Unfortunately, their assigned seats were not together. They all sat together, though, and then tried to work it out with the other passengers who were displaced by their maneuvering. This caused a bunch of confusion and a bit of delay as the flight attendants had to intervene to restore sanity.

Of course, there were also a handful of people who tried to put boxes the size of mini-fridges into the overheads. Somehow it became the airline’s fault in their warped views. I am sure the flight attendants deal with this all the time, though.

One last oddity involved the individually wrapped cookie we received. The cookie was about an inch square (seriously). Why bother? Offering a cookie this small just seemed silly. It would be like getting just a sip of a beverage.

None of this bothered me because I had previously vowed not to get too bothered by any travel situations. Besides, I was glued to the TV screen in the headrest in front of me. I know it’s not a new thing, but I love it. Time flew by as I watched reruns of Match Game 1975, Catch 21 and Bingo Blitz. It is mindless entertainment at its cheesiest. My only complaint was that announcements always seemed to come at critical moments in the various games. I was left wondering if Joe from Topeka matched Richard Dawson in the Super Match.

— John Wroblewski, distribution specialist