The Pros and the Cons

All the footage I'm seeing of people signaling to aircraft on TV reminds me of a story. There was a helicopter pilot flying around Seattle one day when the weather abruptly changed, as it frequently does there. Fog rolled in so thick he couldn't tell where he was. So he flew by an office building where he could see someone working in her office. He had a notepad and a Sharpie with him, so he wrote a sign that said "Where am I?" The office worker saw his sign and, in a dutifully helpful fashion, responded with her own sign which read "You are in a helicopter".

Immediately the helicopter pilot knew he was hovering near the Microsoft building. He knew this because, who else but a Microsoft employee is capable of giving an answer that is both completely correct and completely useless? That's like saying Louisiana has had some trouble with the weather lately.