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>I'd love to hear this more nuanced explanation. I suspect his fellow passenger's account would bear little resemblance to either the Washington Post's spin on
by Zuider 10y ago
>I'd love to hear this more nuanced explanation.
I suspect his fellow passenger's account would bear little resemblance to either the Washington Post's spin on events, or how Menzio himself chose to interpret the matter on his Facebook page.
Reading between the lines, it would appear that Guido Menzio was pointedly and gratuitously rude to his neighbor when she attempted to initiate friendly conversation. He responded to her questions with curt non-answers, and remained pointedly focused on his work. Overly talkative people can be severely annoying, but that did not justify Guido Menzio's overt rudeness to his neighbor. He could have saved a lot of trouble with a little diplomacy.
> I also don't understand how one mistakes calculus for the script of a foreign language.
From the Washington Post article, it appears that the woman complained to security that Guido Menzio was intensely doing math, so clearly she did not mistake a differential equation for 'terrorist writing'. It was not the math that unnerved her, but his behavior.
>You also comment else where about Menzio's picture, where he wears a "Yasser Arafat" scarf.
I was wrong about the "Yasser Arafat" scarf. The article doesn't suggest that he was wearing one at the time. Again, there is no indication that Menzio's appearance was the cause of the incident, but rather his behavior.
- roywiggins 10y agoIf every time an airplane returned to the gate when someone behaved rudely to a neighbor, it would never take off. Have you considered the possibility he has a fear of flying and was using mathematics to take his mind off it, and he was desperately trying to fend off her disrupting his productively distracting train of thought? There's all sorts of very good reasons not to talk to strangers.
- Zuider 10y agoNothing justifies Menzio's behavior, either on the plane or later on Facebook where he made outlandish claims and invoked Trump. He is completely obnoxious, and the author of his own misfortunes.
- mznen 10y agoYou've gradually outed yourself, I guess.
- Zuider 10y agoWhat does that even mean? There is a narrative here, which appears at first very compelling, especially to readers of HN: gentle intellectual persecuted by hysterical ignoramus... But the narrative gradually reveals holes and inconsistencies which makes it at best inconclusive, and in my considered opinion, strongly supports a radically different interpretation: Menzio behaved like a demented nut-job, terrified his fellow passenger, published a self-serving narrative on facebook which was picked up by the Washington Post and spun even further. Where is your skepticism?