Heymatt:

Airline passengers are packed together in tight quarters breathing recycled air. Do the airlines make sure to serve food that is less likely to cause gas so passengers aren't fumigating each other during the flight? Is this why I've never been served chili on a plane flight?

-- Some Dude in the Sticks

Ya took the wrong flights, dude. If you'd lived in Houston instead of the sticks, you might have taken Southwest flights that boasted "regional" menus and served some sort of burrito with a side of beans and rice. It doesn't seem to be around any more, but not likely because of dangerous in-flight flatulence. Beans are friendly food in the Southwest, but they just look cheap if you're from Chicago. And when your competitors have their sirloin tips in Madera sauce menus designed by famous chefs, well beans just don't, um, cut it, as it were. Physiologically, it takes several hours, perhaps half a day, to work up a good gut full of gas after eating beans. Maybe if you're flying to Hawaii it would be an issue. But on a typical flight, you'll just gas out the people who meet you at the gate, not your seat mate.