regarding seling the diet milkshakes...
did it occur to any of you that he was using the product himself and somehow got a very low blood sugar causing this odd behavior? an aviation medical examiner from Chicago suggested that low blood sugar could cause this sort of behavior.
the captain showed up late to work...perhaps having missed a meal, replaced it with the diet shake and didn't know how it would affect him. some products have an energy boost chemical and might also cause a problem
the actual marketing of the shake doesn't matter. I went on a medically supervised fast and for the first three days I did not allow myself to fly. After my body had become use to the new levels I felt fine and flew.
as to the person mentioning signing a dispatch release....in the new order taking the airplane from the gate is the same thing as signing something.
back in the old days you would actually face to face with another airline employee who would sort of check you out in a casual way.