I had a great experience on my flight tonight. I was in the second-to-last row, and for most of my flight, I put on my noise-cancelling headphones, listened to a little Chuck Lives, and buried my head in geekreading. About 30 minutes from NYC, my rowmate asked me about the book I was reading, and we began a nice conversation — until I finally noticed the obnoxious guy behind us. My rowmate explained that he had been blathering on for the whole flight, each boast bigger than the last, and each statement more laced with sexual undertones than the last. By landing, there was a clan of us in the last four rows who were all rolling our eyes, gritting our teeth, and within inches of beating him about the head and neck with the in-flight magazine.

Which then led to quite a surprise on all our faces when he stood up, and we noticed a well-thumbed copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People in his back pocket.