Mentally challenged woman confuses economist for terrorist, delays flight

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Thursday night, a ditzy blonde sees her seatmate scribbling some differential equations, thinks he's a terrorist, and causes a 2+ hour delay while security checks out the story of the Ivy League professor from U of Penn:

A University of Pennsylvania economics professor who was scribbling math while waiting on a plane for his Philadelphia-to-Syracuse flight to take off on Thursday evening apparently triggered paranoia in a fellow passenger, causing a flight delay of more than two hours.

Guido Menzio - who has dark, curly hair and wears glasses, according to his Penn faculty web photo - was on the scheduled 7:20 p.m. American Airlines flight 3950 to Syracuse.

He said he was told that a fellow passenger thought he was a "terrorist." Menzio is Italian, and according to his web page, had won the Carlo Alberto Medal for Best Italian Economist Under 40 last year.
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http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160508_Passenger_thinks_Penn_prof_doing_math_is__quot_terrorist__quot__flight_delayed.html

And then the big reveal: The woman wasnt really sick at all! Instead this quick-thinking traveler had Seen Something, and so she had Said Something.

That Something shed seen had been her seatmates cryptic notes, scrawled in a script she didnt recognize. Maybe it was code, or some foreign lettering, possibly the details of a plot to destroy the dozens of innocent lives aboard American Airlines Flight 3950. She may have felt it her duty to alert the authorities just to be safe. The curly-haired man was, the agent informed him politely, suspected of terrorism.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/05/07/ivy-league-economist-interrogated-for-doing-math-on-american-airlines-flight/

Takeaway for all you eggheads: don't be scribbling differential equations on a flight from PHL to SYR, as your dumbass paranoid seatmate just might mistake you for a terrorist. Math is very scary for some dumb blondes.
 
UPNAWAY said:
Well if he is an Ivy League prof he probably does hate America.
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lol, making blanket assumptions about thousands of people who are many times over more intelligent and accomplished than yourself.  I'm guessing that most of them could articulate their feelings towards this country with greater depth and nuance than you could ever hope to muster.  Have you met many Ivy League professors?  When's the last time you even attended a university-level class?  Ever?
 
Or are you just feeling a little insecure because you're not sure if you yourself could tell the difference between differential calculus and written Arabic?
 
UPNAWAY said:
Well if he is an Ivy League prof he probably does hate America.
Click to expand...

image.jpeg

Up, up, and away...
 
Even if the woman (who may have set blondes back two decades) was too ignorant to know that Arabic is written right to left) she probably thought it was plans for a weapon of math destruction...
 
Dont call me Shirley said:
Even if the woman (who may have set blondes back two decades) was too ignorant to know that Arabic is written right to left) she probably thought it was plans for a weapon of math destruction...
Click to expand...
Iseewhatyoudidthere.
 
I think the blonde was just positioning herself for nomination to the GOP vice presidential slot.  While not yet the "presumptive nominee," I believe she's in the top 5.  Now all she needs to prevail is have that private interview with the Donald.
 
UPNAWAY said:
Well if he is an Ivy League prof he probably does hate America.
Click to expand...
 
LOL
+1
 
ChockJockey said:
 
lol, making blanket assumptions about thousands of people who are many times over more intelligent and accomplished than yourself.  I'm guessing that most of them could articulate their feelings towards this country with greater depth and nuance than you could ever hope to muster.  Have you met many Ivy League professors?  When's the last time you even attended a university-level class?  Ever?
 
Or are you just feeling a little insecure because you're not sure if you yourself could tell the difference between differential calculus and written Arabic?
Click to expand...
 
But the brilliant prof's assumption about Trump supporters was sure a sign of confidence
 
 
Dont call me Shirley said:
Even if the woman (who may have set blondes back two decades) was too ignorant to know that Arabic is written right to left) she probably thought it was plans for a weapon of math destruction...
Click to expand...
LOL
+1
 
 
MetalMover said:
Let's not forget the decision made to remove the professor along with the accuser. To top it off, the professor blamed Trump. I didn't realize he was president. I guess 9/11 had no effect on air travel.
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/05/07/ivy-league-economist-interrogated-for-doing-math-on-american-airlines-flight/
Click to expand...
 
I'm sure he has a mathematical formula to back up his assumption about Trump supporters
 
FrugalFlyerv2.0 said:
But the brilliant prof's assumption about Trump supporters was sure a sign of confidence
 
Click to expand...
 
A sure sign of confidence of what?
 
FrugalFlyerv2.0 said:
I'm sure he has a mathematical formula to back up his assumption about Trump supporters
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Ah yes, the real victims here - Trump supporters.  Except that your feeling slighted by what you consider this guy's opinion about "Trump supporters" kind of proves his point about them being overly-sensitive blowhards who want to see "political correctness" done away with so that they can put those guilty of ethnic-otherness and smug intellectualism in their place.  That's the very ethos he's talking about.  Of course you think he's a fool, but then again I'm guessing you've never been removed from a flight because some idiot thinks you somehow resemble a terrorist.
 
ChockJockey said:
Ah yes, the real victims here - Trump supporters.  Except that your feeling slighted by what you consider this guy's opinion about "Trump supporters" kind of proves his point about them being overly-sensitive blowhards who want to see "political correctness" done away with so that they can put those guilty of ethnic-otherness and smug intellectualism in their place.  That's the very ethos he's talking about.  Of course you think he's a fool, but then again I'm guessing you've never been removed from a flight because some idiot thinks you somehow resemble a terrorist.
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Unless that woman was decked out in Trump gear or attempted to make chit chat with him using the phrase 'make America great', isn't the math boy genius showing the same level of ignorance in claiming to know Trump supporters as she did in knowing he's a terrorist threat?
 
While I do have sympathy for his ordeal on this flight, yes, I absolutely do think he's a huge fool for automatically painting a group of people with the same brush (based likely on a sample size of n=1). 
 
FrugalFlyerv2.0 said:
Unless that woman was decked out in Trump gear or attempted to make chit chat with him using the phrase 'make America great', isn't the math boy genius showing the same level of ignorance in claiming to know Trump supporters as she did in knowing he's a terrorist threat?
 
While I do have sympathy for his ordeal on this flight, yes, I absolutely do think he's a huge fool for automatically painting a group of people with the same brush (based likely on a sample size of n=1). 
Click to expand...
 
And I think it's foolish to automatically assume that Ivy League professors hate America.
 
FrugalFlyerv2.0 said:
LOL
+1
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