Al Qaeda Peanuts
Saw United 93 at the Islington Vue last night. What an amazing film. Even my girlfriend liked it, and she usually only likes romnoncoms about some combination of weddings/Jennifer Aniston/haircuts/gayness/shoes. I was on the edge of my seat throughout, more tense than Craig Charles when his chauffer got out to buy him some porn, as the horrific events unfolded on the screen in front of me - not just the demented violence of the hijackers, but also the confusion and ineffectiveness of the military response. In all likelihood, those brave passengers prevented the White House from being scythed down like the Twin Towers.
But about 40 minutes into the film, a man of Middle Eastern appearance, wearing thin rimmed round glasses that made him look like the lead terrorist in the movie, walked in and sat in the row behind me. Soon after he opened a packet of peanuts (was this a reference to the preferred snack of the airline passenger?) and started eating them loudly, crinkling the packet.
During the quiet moments - for example, when the on-screen passengers were tearfully gasping out last desperate goodbyes and 'I love you's to the pizza delivery boys and donut shop staff they would never see again - this crinkling really got QUITE FUCKING ANNOYING. So much so that the man seated in front of the Middle Eastern nutmuncher complained.
This triggered a barrage of abuse as vehement and fervid as any exhortation by a Kalshnikov waving fundamentalist on CNN. Except it was in a fey English accent and concerned snacks, instead of being in Arabic and concerning death to infidels. "It's a cinema! You're allowed to eat peanuts in the cinema!". The peanut eater clearly wanted confrontation so that he could whine like a Big Brother contestant and ruin the film for everyone.
Which got me thinking: have Al Qaeda given up on breaking down Western civilisation by doing the odd big bomb? Have they instead replaced it with a 'death by a thousand cuts' strategy of causing loads of incidents of minor irritation that will build up and fray the fabric of society until the Muslim brotherhood can take over?
With this in mind, we didn't let the terrorist win. We were all soon absorbed in the film again. And if he'd got out a packet of Kettle Chips, I was ready to shout "LET'S ROLL!" and rush him.
But about 40 minutes into the film, a man of Middle Eastern appearance, wearing thin rimmed round glasses that made him look like the lead terrorist in the movie, walked in and sat in the row behind me. Soon after he opened a packet of peanuts (was this a reference to the preferred snack of the airline passenger?) and started eating them loudly, crinkling the packet.
During the quiet moments - for example, when the on-screen passengers were tearfully gasping out last desperate goodbyes and 'I love you's to the pizza delivery boys and donut shop staff they would never see again - this crinkling really got QUITE FUCKING ANNOYING. So much so that the man seated in front of the Middle Eastern nutmuncher complained.
This triggered a barrage of abuse as vehement and fervid as any exhortation by a Kalshnikov waving fundamentalist on CNN. Except it was in a fey English accent and concerned snacks, instead of being in Arabic and concerning death to infidels. "It's a cinema! You're allowed to eat peanuts in the cinema!". The peanut eater clearly wanted confrontation so that he could whine like a Big Brother contestant and ruin the film for everyone.
Which got me thinking: have Al Qaeda given up on breaking down Western civilisation by doing the odd big bomb? Have they instead replaced it with a 'death by a thousand cuts' strategy of causing loads of incidents of minor irritation that will build up and fray the fabric of society until the Muslim brotherhood can take over?
With this in mind, we didn't let the terrorist win. We were all soon absorbed in the film again. And if he'd got out a packet of Kettle Chips, I was ready to shout "LET'S ROLL!" and rush him.
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