I’m a pretty decent flyer. I am not particularly scared out of my mind about traveling thousands of miles above the ground in a metal tube piloted and built and maintained by fallible human beings at hundreds of miles per hour. Turbulence always makes me a bit nervous, of course, but I try to sleep through most flights.

Here are the five things I absolutely must have any time I find myself in an airplane:

  • denim jeans
  • headphones
  • backup USB battery pack
  • a detective novel
  • handkerchief