Slol--because trains suck less than airplanes? Trains, being archaic, are nice and comfy, and I feel good when I get off them; not so when I get stumble of the airplane, hoping for circulation to return. Multiply that by thousands, and I think you get a much pleasanter place.
Also, train stations aren't nearly as security-fenced, so the people there haven't just had to go through a lot of lines; and they tend to be in cities instead of fifteen minutes' drive away, so the food isn't as ridiculously overpriced.
It depends on the train station. I was delayed by torrential rain in an Italian train station about a month ago, and that sucked. Whereas being delayed in a primo airport like Newark-Liberty terminal C is fantastic. Usually, though, the generalization holds. I think part of it is, as Matt says, the absence of security. But it's also that in the US mosty of our train stations are cool, cyclopean buldings from the 1920s.
If Heidegger is to be believed, the train station is the perfect place to encounter the fundamental atunement of Dasein -- boredom (he changed his mind about anxiety being the most fundamental after Being and Time).
The airport clearly does not provide as much material for an existential analytic of Dasein.
The perfect place to encounter profound boredom, or a bit of unremarkable coincidence (I just wrote "coincidencidence") that culminates in your attaining the love of your life. Not many people know that Heidegger did script treatments for not a few vintage Hollywood love stories.
Douglas Adams: "It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, 'as pretty as an airport.' Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort."
I always thought that there was a terminal in SFO with these low windows (long and not very tall), criss-crossed by huge columns at a slant, all in dull-beige color, that was really beautiful at sunset. Like something out of a sci-fi film.
Weiner, you might want to visit a train station or a train in the British Isles, which would surely make you rethink your sweeping statement. I spend upwards of two hours a day on British trains, and I wouldn't wish them on Wolfson. I once even spotted a used syringe, complete with crusted blood, in the toilet of one train. I didn't mind so much, though, because the commode did actually flush, which is a rarity.
actually, if i say again that i'm not british, ogged will magically reappear, wipe the white stuff* from his lips and protest loudly that since i live in britain i'm british.
Snees: Marylebone is a great station. So is Kings Cross. (Paddington less so, I grant.) The whole Chilterns line from Marylebone through High Wycombe is pretty as a picture. Quit being such a whiner.
DFW has long sweeping hallways that might be interesting from an architectural standpoint if I didn't have to drag my luggage down them. It also sometimes seems as though I have to take a bus and two trains to make my connection.
Albuquerque has a very nice airport. It's no 30th Street Station, but definitely nicer than e.g. DFW (which is so fucking huge it's unbelievable -- I can't stand having to take a train to make a connection).
I have to take a bus and two trains to make my connection.
I feel that way about intercourse with your mom.
The only two redeeming features of Detroit's airport: (a) the "dancing waters" fountain; (b) the fact that I once saw a pimp (complete with bright yellow alligator skin shoes) while waiting at my gate.
slolenr, spend a month in my shoes, and you will whine at least as much as I do. the brighton line is hell, and that's what i must use each day. and when i'vetried to travel to newcastle or holyhead, i've found tattooed bleach-blonde bimbos who coud stand to lose a few dozen pounds (but yer, but no) occupying the seats I'd supposedly reserved. when i told them that, they merely laughed at me.
I don't want to say where you should stick your Chiltern line. But if you're not doing a London commuter journey, you know noffink.
There is one other redeeming feature of the Detroit airport: European-style bathroom stalls with doors that go all the way to the floor instead of leaving the traditional American 18-24" gap. I don't understand why Americans are so wedded to the gap when that just means they have to provide all kinds of hooks and shelves to let you find a place to put a purse and/or laptop bag so it can't be snatched out from under the stall when a longer door is the simpler solution. Do American consumers expect and want "the gap"? Or is it a cost of materials issue? Or is it a manifestation of the American "think of the children" obsession (so they won't get locked in?
Snees: experience of the Chilterns line was in fact from a London commute. So stick it in yer ear.
Seriously, I sympathize with you; exposure to the lesser side of the British public is nothing to sneer at, and on the Brighton side of things you're quite likely to see that lesser side in its full glory. Of such, remember, was the empire forged.
[snoopy dance]
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 1:49 PM
Dick. No one came to my talk, either.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 1:53 PM
Sorry to hear that. I would totally have come to your talk, if it had been in Lubbock.
I guess this proves you're not DJ Spooky.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 1:56 PM
Airports are a great place to catch up on your pulp fiction reading. Also, on your humanity hating.
Posted by baa | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 1:58 PM
It's also a good place to get a backache.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 2:09 PM
[redacted]
Posted by [redacted] | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 2:13 PM
humanity hating
Completely. Faith in humankind at lowest ebb in airports. Not so much train stations. Why not?
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 2:14 PM
Slol--because trains suck less than airplanes? Trains, being archaic, are nice and comfy, and I feel good when I get off them; not so when I get stumble of the airplane, hoping for circulation to return. Multiply that by thousands, and I think you get a much pleasanter place.
Also, train stations aren't nearly as security-fenced, so the people there haven't just had to go through a lot of lines; and they tend to be in cities instead of fifteen minutes' drive away, so the food isn't as ridiculously overpriced.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 2:28 PM
It depends on the train station. I was delayed by torrential rain in an Italian train station about a month ago, and that sucked. Whereas being delayed in a primo airport like Newark-Liberty terminal C is fantastic. Usually, though, the generalization holds. I think part of it is, as Matt says, the absence of security. But it's also that in the US mosty of our train stations are cool, cyclopean buldings from the 1920s.
Posted by baa | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 2:38 PM
Trains and train stations have fresh air.
Airports and airplanes are sealed boxes of recirculated air.
Ugh...
Posted by Michelle | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 2:54 PM
If Heidegger is to be believed, the train station is the perfect place to encounter the fundamental atunement of Dasein -- boredom (he changed his mind about anxiety being the most fundamental after Being and Time).
The airport clearly does not provide as much material for an existential analytic of Dasein.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 2:54 PM
I feel good when I get off … Multiply that by thousands, and I think you get a much pleasanter place.
Until the shame and guilt set in.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 3:14 PM
I can't seem to find my respect for the moral rights of the author (answers to "Gompers"). If you see it, please tell me.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 3:18 PM
The perfect place to encounter profound boredom, or a bit of unremarkable coincidence (I just wrote "coincidencidence") that culminates in your attaining the love of your life. Not many people know that Heidegger did script treatments for not a few vintage Hollywood love stories.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 3:20 PM
I thought the hierarchy went ports - railroad stations - airports.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 3:21 PM
Douglas Adams: "It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, 'as pretty as an airport.' Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort."
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 3:48 PM
'Tis true. You'll never see an airport that looks like Grand Central Station.
Union Station and the station in Philly ain't bad either.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 3:50 PM
I always thought that there was a terminal in SFO with these low windows (long and not very tall), criss-crossed by huge columns at a slant, all in dull-beige color, that was really beautiful at sunset. Like something out of a sci-fi film.
I'm serious.
Posted by foo | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 3:59 PM
Weiner, you might want to visit a train station or a train in the British Isles, which would surely make you rethink your sweeping statement. I spend upwards of two hours a day on British trains, and I wouldn't wish them on Wolfson. I once even spotted a used syringe, complete with crusted blood, in the toilet of one train. I didn't mind so much, though, because the commode did actually flush, which is a rarity.
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 4:48 PM
myes, my sweeping statement applies only to US trains and airplanes.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 4:53 PM
who is this myes you speak of? i know him not. it's snees, damn you, snees!
maybe make the sweeping statement sweep a bit less next time, then?
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 5:11 PM
Ah, this interesting British delusion that places outside the US count....
(Kidding, kidding, I know you're not really British.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 5:26 PM
actually, if i say again that i'm not british, ogged will magically reappear, wipe the white stuff* from his lips and protest loudly that since i live in britain i'm british.
*capiccino froth, naturally
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 5:36 PM
Snees: Marylebone is a great station. So is Kings Cross. (Paddington less so, I grant.) The whole Chilterns line from Marylebone through High Wycombe is pretty as a picture. Quit being such a whiner.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 8:51 PM
Detroit was the worst airport experience I've had.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 9:36 PM
DFW has long sweeping hallways that might be interesting from an architectural standpoint if I didn't have to drag my luggage down them. It also sometimes seems as though I have to take a bus and two trains to make my connection.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 9:52 PM
Albuquerque has a very nice airport. It's no 30th Street Station, but definitely nicer than e.g. DFW (which is so fucking huge it's unbelievable -- I can't stand having to take a train to make a connection).
Posted by teofilo | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 10:22 PM
I always finding reading to be difficult in airports.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 10-22-05 11:20 PM
I can't seem to find my respect for the moral rights of the author (answers to "Gompers"). If you see it, please tell me.
I don't see why you still keep one of those old things around. I got rid of mine years ago.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 11:59 AM
I always finding reading to be difficult in airports.
Especially with those ubiquitous blaring tv's showing not just CNN, but CNN that is, God help us, dumbed-down for airport broadcast.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 12:09 PM
I have to take a bus and two trains to make my connection.
I feel that way about intercourse with your mom.
The only two redeeming features of Detroit's airport: (a) the "dancing waters" fountain; (b) the fact that I once saw a pimp (complete with bright yellow alligator skin shoes) while waiting at my gate.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 1:19 PM
slolenr, spend a month in my shoes, and you will whine at least as much as I do. the brighton line is hell, and that's what i must use each day. and when i'vetried to travel to newcastle or holyhead, i've found tattooed bleach-blonde bimbos who coud stand to lose a few dozen pounds (but yer, but no) occupying the seats I'd supposedly reserved. when i told them that, they merely laughed at me.
I don't want to say where you should stick your Chiltern line. But if you're not doing a London commuter journey, you know noffink.
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 4:40 PM
There is one other redeeming feature of the Detroit airport: European-style bathroom stalls with doors that go all the way to the floor instead of leaving the traditional American 18-24" gap. I don't understand why Americans are so wedded to the gap when that just means they have to provide all kinds of hooks and shelves to let you find a place to put a purse and/or laptop bag so it can't be snatched out from under the stall when a longer door is the simpler solution. Do American consumers expect and want "the gap"? Or is it a cost of materials issue? Or is it a manifestation of the American "think of the children" obsession (so they won't get locked in?
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 4:43 PM
discourages sex. especially homosexual sex.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 5:12 PM
Ahhh...I should have guessed. Because the only thing Americans obsess about more than "the children" are "the gays".
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 5:18 PM
I always thought because it made the floors much easier to clean, especially in cases of gross abuse of the facilities (no pun intended).
Posted by pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 6:33 PM
"thought it was because it makes"
Posted by pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 6:33 PM
Snees: experience of the Chilterns line was in fact from a London commute. So stick it in yer ear.
Seriously, I sympathize with you; exposure to the lesser side of the British public is nothing to sneer at, and on the Brighton side of things you're quite likely to see that lesser side in its full glory. Of such, remember, was the empire forged.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10-23-05 9:37 PM