People are disgusting

A column in the Wall Street Journal talks about what people really leave in their airline seat pockets when they get off the plane. As it says, "you'll never look at, or reach into, an airline seat-back pocket the same after reading this." "Increasingly, passengers are certain that the airlines are not on their side and actually don't care anything about them," said Irwin Sarason, a University of Washington psychologist in Seattle who has studied passenger behavior. "In that kind of environment, it isn't too surprising that people will not exercise the restraints they normally would." "The detritus problem is exacerbated by the fact that most airplanes are only lightly cleaned between each flight. Airlines say planes get a more thorough cleaning overnight and a "deep cleaning" scheduled about every 30 days. In many cases, seat-back pockets aren't thoroughly checked until overnight cleaning crews work over a cabin."

Rico says he will leave it to you whether you want to read about all the nasty things that end up there, but let's just say that magazines, newspapers, books, iPods, and empty air-sickness bags are not all the airlines find when they do (infrequently, it seems, which is part of the problem) get around to cleaning out the aircraft....