Steven Slater's JetBlue Freak-Out
One moment, he was just another flight attendant, prepping his passengers for arrival. The next, he was a national celebrity, an unlikely champion of the recession. Steven Slater's story is now legend: the JetBlue attendant became fed up with rude passengers, cursed out the plane via intercom, then grabbed a beer and deployed the plane's emergency chute. What followed were national headlines, talk-show appearances, reality-TV-show offers and even a deal to be a rapping spokesman (his hip-hop advertisements quickly went viral on the Web). While Slater continues to milk every second of his 15 minutes, he seems to have hit a nerve with overworked Americans who, in the middle of a severe recession, are tired of working more hours for less money. In Slater's emergency exit, they see a man with the guts to finally say, "Enough is enough."