Airports
Tuesday, 19 June 2007 | 126 readers so far
One of my least favorite places to waste an hour. While I enjoy people watching, I do not enjoy being herded. Thus, passage through a modern U.S. airport in 2007 is a painful proposition from my perspective. I am sitting in an airport typing this and listening to banal TSA announcements.
I briefly considered changing careers so I wouldn’t have to travel for work anymore, and I certainly avoid flying for personal reasons whenever possible. It is not the traveling itself I abhor, it is the suspension of common sense we are all forced to endure while passing through the banal lines of bureaucrats.
They are the same at every airport I pass through. Bored, disinterested, impatient and often loud. Atlanta Jackson Hartsfield Airport (or whatever they call it these days) has the loudest TSA employees I’ve encountered. Dallas Fort Worth gets the honor of having the most impatient TSA representatives. Boston has the most disinterested group of polyster wearing petty bureaucrats shuffling around managing the ant farm.
1 June 19th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Kitanis says:
Waste a hour? Most of the time I end up in Airport, whether its a arrival or for me to depart.. I am in there for at least two hours.
But I agree with you Trevor..
2 June 19th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Gringo_Malo says:
Remember the scene in the movie Airplane where a dozen security guards converge on a little old lady with a walker while a bunch of Middle Eastern dudes with AKs and RPGs saunter through the metal detector? The film was amazingly prophetic.
3 June 19th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Trevor says:
Kitanis,
I have learned to be efficient in my meanders through fake security land. At my home airport, it usually takes me less than an hour from the parking lot to the seat I am assigned.
4 June 19th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
Liberty Dog says:
The most irritating part for me is always having to take my shoes off. Amazingly, no matter what pair of shoes I am wearing, they fit the “profile” and must be checked.
Of course, I think the real reason is that I fly in and out of the country so often.
5 June 20th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Trevor says:
Maybe that was Richard Reid’s goal all along - to get us all barefooted in airports. Maybe he has a foot fetish. I wonder how that’s working out for him about now?
6 June 20th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Dan O. says:
I’m so glad I stopped taking jobs that require travel many years ago.
I traveled commercial air quite a bit when I was in the military for both official and personal reasons (back in the ’80’s).
Other than lost luggage twice that I recall (found both times after taking the scenic route) and once missing a connecting flight due to lateness of originating flight, It was generally a breeze back then.
I certainly doubt I’d have the patience for what you’ve described recently.
7 June 27th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
SK says:
I returned home last week and went through DFW. We must have gotten lucky, because the folks there were very helpful everywhere but at our gate!