After 9/11, Americans were made very afraid of planes.
"She was always afraid of planes," said her brother, Hervio Mendoza, 37. "This year it was worse".
She's a fairly successful illustrator, beginning to be sought after by New York publishers, but she sees herself as a coward, afraid of planes, high bridges, muggings, robberies, rapes.
Did she think I was going to walk? "Who's afraid of cars?" Planes, however, are another story.
In reality, I'm very afraid of the planes.
Does it make sense for a pilot afraid of landing a plane in the rain justify a lawsuit after being faced with an unexpected downpour?
For their part, Americans were afraid of hostile European planes flying over their homeland, perhaps to drop bombs rather than passengers.
Still, I have my secret fantasy that somehow the F.A.A. and the politicians and the airlines will suddenly understand that children should not have to be afraid of the sound of a plane.
She shaved down her famous "30-minute meals" to a 60-second snack and a seven-minute meal and recommended making a salad with packaged arugula or baby spinach: cooks who brave killer bees and jump out of planes aren't afraid of a little E. coli bacteria scare.
And for those afraid of inevitable voice-calling on planes, rest assured -- it can be regulated.
