Sunday, August 03, 2003
TRAVELS WITH MR. P
Cell phones, cell phones, cell phones!
You'd think that the reason people travel is to get away from the drudgery of life - the chores, the responsibilities, all of your friends at home. What do you have to tell them when you get back if you've spent the entire time nattering away to them half way across the continent?
Airports are the worst. I can spend time anywhere, quietly, just watching people, observing. Not eavesdropping but absorbing snippets of random conversations, never writing down what I hear but keeping it stored somewhere in my subconscious. If I weary of it, I leave and go on my way. Solitude is always just around a corner.
In airports, however, there is nowhere to turn. You are in prison. You cannot leave, you cannot escape, you are thrown headlong into a swarm of antics. You are in a rip current of intertwined existences, at the mercy of traveling herds of swine.
The menu has prices for everything except beer. A "tall" of Sam Adams - $8.60. Is this the fresh catch of the day? Simmering in its own juices? A combo meal for just under the national deficit? Only at an airport can a Starbucks, at their regularly-priced swindle, seem moderate by comparison. The sandwich special includes a .99 cent bag of chips for just under a student loan payment.
Well, why not? You're at an airport. You're rich! There's all those minimum wage immingrant service workers to underpay. You can afford it. It makes sense. Airlines are closing up shop left and right, going under, fighting tooth and nail with each other for survival, prices falling faster than the worth of the company, but hey, while you're stuck here at the airport waiting for two or three hours to catch your connecting flight because you took the cheap fare, why not pay $5 for a Big Mac?
After all, if you couldn't afford it, you wouldn't be traveling, would you?
Meanwhile, cell phones, cell phones, cell phones. In future societies, man will have evolved to include the cell phone already connected to its hand, in ready wait, so that even in the womb you can check your email, snap photos, check the fantasy league, call Josie to make sure she is standing in the same place she was five minutes before when you called last.
I saw a kid writing a long letter. I wanted to kiss him.
Cell phones, cell phones, cell phones!
You'd think that the reason people travel is to get away from the drudgery of life - the chores, the responsibilities, all of your friends at home. What do you have to tell them when you get back if you've spent the entire time nattering away to them half way across the continent?
Airports are the worst. I can spend time anywhere, quietly, just watching people, observing. Not eavesdropping but absorbing snippets of random conversations, never writing down what I hear but keeping it stored somewhere in my subconscious. If I weary of it, I leave and go on my way. Solitude is always just around a corner.
In airports, however, there is nowhere to turn. You are in prison. You cannot leave, you cannot escape, you are thrown headlong into a swarm of antics. You are in a rip current of intertwined existences, at the mercy of traveling herds of swine.
The menu has prices for everything except beer. A "tall" of Sam Adams - $8.60. Is this the fresh catch of the day? Simmering in its own juices? A combo meal for just under the national deficit? Only at an airport can a Starbucks, at their regularly-priced swindle, seem moderate by comparison. The sandwich special includes a .99 cent bag of chips for just under a student loan payment.
Well, why not? You're at an airport. You're rich! There's all those minimum wage immingrant service workers to underpay. You can afford it. It makes sense. Airlines are closing up shop left and right, going under, fighting tooth and nail with each other for survival, prices falling faster than the worth of the company, but hey, while you're stuck here at the airport waiting for two or three hours to catch your connecting flight because you took the cheap fare, why not pay $5 for a Big Mac?
After all, if you couldn't afford it, you wouldn't be traveling, would you?
Meanwhile, cell phones, cell phones, cell phones. In future societies, man will have evolved to include the cell phone already connected to its hand, in ready wait, so that even in the womb you can check your email, snap photos, check the fantasy league, call Josie to make sure she is standing in the same place she was five minutes before when you called last.
I saw a kid writing a long letter. I wanted to kiss him.
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