I sat for maybe twenty seconds. I thought about what to do. I thought — and I want to be honest about this — about staying out of it. Because I did not want to be the guy who makes a scene on a plane. Because I did not want to get kicked off in San Diego. Because I had a seven-year-old at home I was going to see that night, and a career, and a normal life, and being the guy who stands up on a flight and confronts another passenger is not a thing most of us want to be. But I also saw my mother's

hands around a paperback in 1998. And I saw the book shaking in this woman's hands in 14D. And I stood up. I did not confront the man directly. I did something I had, in my head, rehearsed for a moment that had never come before that plane. I turned toward the back of the plane. I put my hand on the back of my own seat. I raised my voice — not yelling, but loud enough that every row from 14 to 28 could hear me. And I said, "Hey everyone. The man in seat 14E just leaned over to the woman in 14D and said" — and I quoted him — "'You're disgusting, you shouldn't be flying.' I just want you all to know that's what he said to her."