8/11 Back in Newburgh. As I took my seat on the AMS – JFK flight, I saw the guy next to me pour vodka from a bottle purchased in the airport (in the clear bag with the red tape on it) into a plastic water bottle. I have seen highly unpleasant things happen with people who got drunk on flights, and sitting next to someone seemed a very bad outlook for the next eight hours. 

Quick check with AI. It recommended I’d tell the cabin crew secretly while we were still at the gate. I did, and I didn’t feel good about it. They walked past our seats a couple of times, seemed to shuffle some people sitting close by, maybe an air marshal involved, and that was it.

The guy turned out to be okay, even friendly, even such that we talked more than a few standard phrases. He was suffering from debilitating pain from a slipped disc, spent a lot of time standing near the restrooms, and probably – although he didn’t say that – the vodka was an insurance against how his pain might have developed on the flight. Or maybe just a functioning alcoholic; the vodka didn’t seem to affect him in any noticeable way.