There's nothing like spending your birthday stuck on some plane doing business travel. I had the pleasure of sitting in front of two people who, by my account, have been everywhere, have done everything and have known everyone who's anyone in this world.  In fact, during their last five minutes together on the plane, they discussed their plans for trips they've (coincidentally enough) independently scheduled to the International Space Station.   It is such a small world.

Please indulge me as I share some snippets from their conversation which was held at that "hey everyone, give us your attention because we are so special" volume that tends to get annoying very quickly.

First off, some statistics.  I calculated that each of these folks has 79 brother in-laws who either have high paying influential or top secret jobs and/or connections to the most amazing and powerful people in the world.  My guess is that the "brother in-law" angle allowed each of them to tell their tall tale without feeling like they could be challenged by the other.  Ultimately, if the truth was being misrepresented here, it could be blamed on the same brother in-law. "Well, that's what he told me anyway".

The conversation between these two started off at a reasonable pace.   Some pleasantries were exchanged.  Then the heart of the conversation began to unfold.  From now on I'll refer to the female individual as "Amy" and the male individual as "Rick".

Amy: "Are you flying home or on business?"

Rick: "I'm flying home.  How about you?"

Amy: "No.  This is business for me.   I have a brother in-law who lives up this way.  He says he loves it here."

Rick: "Yes, I like it a lot.  Not like when I lived in the mountains.  That was beautiful but rough."

Amy: "I know what you mean.  I have a brother in-law who lives in the Rocky Mountains and he says sometimes the weather is unbelievably harsh. In fact, his friend, Oksana, you know, the skater, said Siberia was warm compared to where he lived.  Now that is cold!"

Rick: "Yes, it can be, especially where I was in the Himalayan mountain range.  It gets cold up at Mt. Everest.  But my brother in-law had it worse...he lived on top of the observation tower at Mount Washington.  He just slung himself in his sleeping bag on that big old tower up on top.  He was cold alot."

Amy: "I'll bet!  I had a brother in-law who used to go camping alot.  In fact, do you know those mountain dome tents?   He invented those.  He was just joking when he made the first one, but now he's rich!"

Rick: "I can believe it.  That sounds like the time I went with my brother in-law down to Washington D.C. and he saw the Washington monument for the first time.  He thought it looked like a giant salt shaker so he went home and made the very first one.  Shortly after that he invented the pepper shaker in the shape of the Capitol building."

Amy: "I have two sets of those at home!   Amazing.  You know, you can't use salt and pepper in space.  My brother in-law knows all of the Mercury 7 astronauts.  He used to plug their air hoses in before they'd take off for their space flights.  John Glenn told my brother in-law about the salt and pepper thing.  He is such a nice guy.  In fact, my brother in-law is training to go on that Space Shuttle flight with John Glenn in October.   John Glenn wanted a familiar face along."

Rick: "I think I read about that in the New York Times.  You know, I had a brother in-law who was visiting the Kennedy Space Center once.  I mean, he was just on a tour and he was joking around saying wouldn't it be funny if someone designed a reusable space vehicle that could shuttle astronauts to space and then return them back to earth by gliding back home.  Wouldn't it be funny if they called it the Space Shuttle?  Man, was he angry when they launched the first one and they never even thanked him..."

Amy: "...no!  You are kidding."

Rick: "It's the truth."

Amy: "I believe it.  That is just like our government to do something like that.  It's just like what Richard Nixon said to my brother in-law as they were..."