Plane experiences

I'm now in northern California - the flight was largely uneventful except for two things. First, after the plane reached cruising altitude the stewardesses came around with the drink cart (no, that wasn't one of the two big events). I put down my book (The Two Towers - finally decided to re-read the LoTR) and folded down my tray table. Plastered all over my little tray table was a full color ad for a car! What the heck? Did I really pay more than a hundred dollars for the privilege of eating my two bags of salted peanuts while staring at a car ad? What's next, ads on the emergency exit door handles? "Sponsor" messages during the safety video? In any case, it seemed vaguely wrong. On second thought, though, maybe the car ad paid for the extra bag of peanuts ... that did seem like quite a luxury.

On a lighter note, after we pulled up to the gate and the first class folks started getting off the plane, a stewardess came on the intercom and said in a serious voice, "Passengers at the back of the plane: we will be deplaning." Well, I guess that's better than not being allowed to get off the plane, but did we really need to be told that? And what about those of us in the middle of the plane ... were we not allowed to leave? The statement was never clarified, but I suspect she meant to say "we will be deplaning from the rear of the aircraft as well" since they had stairs at that exit, but it was pretty funny as it was.