Sometimes, I get hysterical. It’s in my nature, really. Maybe it’s my red hair?

My mother loves to recall that I’ve always been this way. In fact, as a small child, instead of asking for something—say, a teddy bear or a doll off of a shelf—I would just scream at the top of my lungs and cry. When my mother would ask what in heaven’s name was my problem, I would tell her what I wanted only through the intermittent gaps in my heavy sobbing. My poor, poor mother. At any rate, my hysterics continued throughout my grade school, high school and well through law school. For the most part I’ve stopped terrorizing my mother. Now, instead, my wonderful husband gets to live through some of these antics. To his credit though, his head is usually somewhere in the clouds so he can tune me out quite well. Mathematicians—I wish I had that “tune out” ability—it would certainly come in handy.

Aside from my own frenzied fits, there are apparently lots of other people who share my very same penchant for same. Take for example the North Carolina landlord, Vanessa McCants, who was fed up with her tenants for not having paid her two months of rent. McCants was so hysterical that she painted the words “deadbeat tenants” on her house that she rents to a one Shanae Jackson. Apparently, the tenants didn’t mind not paying their rent but did however take objection to the painted note and called the police. The police showed some command of the law and refused to charge the landlord because spray painting your own house just is not a crime. Thank God there’s still some semblance of property rights floating around.

Nothing tops the hysterics of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater. Apparently he just lost control of all his faculties when he cursed out a passenger over the intercom, took a can of beer from the beverage cart and then exited the plane on the emergency slide! Perez Hilton reports that Steven Slater wasn’t arrested until later that evening when police came to his door while he and his boyfriend were practicing their horizontal tango. Slater is charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing and is being held on $2,500 bond. You know, I don’t really have a problem with all his antics, just so long as the plane was safely on the ground. Heck, I’d probably even jump down that slide with him! As a final note, I do know a certain someone who tends to test the patience of flight attendants—take for example ordering several different juices, a tea and a coffee—all at once! Just like my mother, those poor, poor flight attendants!