The Alexandrian Quartet

I thought of my old boss Oscar today. Somehow or other Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandrian Quartet" had become not only his favourite novel - or series of novels - but his template for how the world actually is. In a nutshell, it tells the story of a series of events from four different points of view. He never tired of comparing anything at all that might happen to something from The Alexandrian Quartet.

And today a friend sent me a notice of this incident in a Nebraska airport this week. Some woman skipped one of the airport "security" stations and went on to her airplane. He went on to comment that:

The rest of the story that wasn't on the news....She was ticketed and faces a $10,000 fine and possible jail time. The [person who was supposed to pass the "wand" over her at the security post] was fired for leaving her post. Her supervisor was fined and they start at $1000. At least four airlines have filed lawsuits against the woman for causing their flights to be delayed at a cost of approximately $10,000 each. Just the lawyer's fees for her are going to be thru the roof because she's too important to do as she was told and wait.

One incident, two points of view. My friend thought she was a very foolish woman for not doing as she was told and waiting. How inconsiderate; how unpatriotic. And I thought she was a very foolish woman for believing that we were still a free people. How deluded.