Every time you take a seat on a modern jet airliner, you run the risk of having the temporary neighbor from hell. Even your best friend can turn a two-hour plane flight into an agony equal to root canal. Yet once every seventeen flights, and there is no other valid data than my own to bear out those numbers, your luck comes up aces and you get a traveling companion with a knack for telling a good tale. Well my friend, here's twenty-four of them to read over the next few hours or perhaps the next few days as the moment avails itself to you. These are not your typical 'Johnny loves Linda, but Linda loves Sally, whose dad has been abusing her twin sister and using Sally's name when he does' type stories. Nope. These are tales to challenge what you often mistake as reality. Trees that talk, plates that argue, men on the moon and travelers trying to watch them, there's a sprinkling of magic over the foundation of realism. The stories are grouped together in groups of three with some obvious, well maybe not always obvious, connection. You can usually read three of them in between the stewardess announcements, the pilot apologizing for the turbulence, and the overweight gentleman in the window seat's constant need to run to the lavatory. Take your time, though, don't rush, save a few stories for the return flight.