Hey, anyone see the Sept 22 Onboard Updates Super Deluxe Tidying Edition?  The publication provides information covering the new tidying responsibilities effective September 29th, 2003.

Two of their items were confusing pour moi:

Melvin says:  "Taken at first glance, this description sounds reasonable to me.  With onboard areas like magazine storage cubicles, closets, galleys, or, say, the doghouse aft of 2L, I wouldn't be so questioning about that tidying description.

However, when dealing with an area of the plane prone to every conceivable biological creation known to mankind, the phrase 'maintain a neat and organized appearance throughout the flight' belongs in the things-that-make-you-go-hmmm or can-you-elaborate-a-bit-further category."

Of course, they do mention at the bottom of the last page of the newsletter that:

"At flight attendant discretion, plastic gloves, provisioned in the universal ships stores kits, may be used for lavatory tidying duties throughout the flight, and for cabin tidying after the last customer has deplaned."

Our flight attendant Union (AFA) provided an explanation of our tidying duties in their recent E-lines:

There seems to be some confusion about tidying flights. It should first be clear that the scope of tidying has not changed; and Flight Attendants are not required to clean the aircraft in any way. Although the September 22, 2003 Onboard Update makes it appear that our tidying responsibilities have significantly changed, in fact the only real change is that we may be required to set trash bags on the jetway and occasionally retrieve service items such as a bag of ice from the jetway. Our Contractual tidying requirements are defined in our Flight Attendant Operations Manual on page 3.150.5. and 3.150.6. of the October 2003 revision.

Tidying will probably be a debated back-and-forth issue for months to come.  In the meantime, here's the second interesting brainteaser I noticed in the Onboard Updates newsletter:

 Huh?

Maybe it's just me.  I've got to get out of here as my eyes look like roadmaps again from reading all this stuff.  Have a nice weekend and I'll see you next week.  :-)