Slog - The Stranger's Blog

Line Out

The Music Blog

« Dark Room Tickets | More on the Ports »

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Coincidences at Sea-Tac

Posted by on February 23 at 18:08 PM

While waiting in line to board a flight bound for Chicago, I had the privilege of hearing the following exchange:

“Where you headed?” said passenger one.
“Chicago,” answered passenger two.
“Really?” said passenger one. “Me, too!” Genuinely astonished. What are the chances of meeting another person headed for Chicago, in a line full of people flying to Chicago? Crazy!

Passenger one reeked of liquor. (It was 9:30 a.m.) Passenger two was from Vancouver. They managed to hold a 20-minute conversation — you know, because they had so much in common. Here are the parts that stuck in my brain:

“Much better to fly into Midway. That puts you right downtown.” (Not true)

Passenger Two:”How many people are in Chicago?”
Passenger One: “9 million.” (correct answer: 2.8 million. 9 million would make it bigger than New York.)


CommentsRSS icon

9 million is not too far off, if you include the suburbs.

Just because you're flying into Chicago doesn't mean you're GOING to Chicago. I fly from Seattle to Chicago every other weekend, but when someone else in the Southwest A-line asks where I'm headed, the answer is "Danville." Us downstaters can get a little prickly when someone assumes our state consists entirely of Chicago. (Not to mention that someone flying to Midway could also be headed to Indiana or Wisconsin... or changing planes at Midway to go somewhere else entirely, as it's kind of a hub for SWA.)

Yeah, Chicago had 8.2 million people in the metro area as of the 2000 census. To merely count the 2.8 people within the Chicago city limits would be arbitrary and misleading in that it provides no basis for comparison. Much like saying that only 560,000 people live in Seattle. While that is the population of the city proper, the much more meaningful and helpful statistic is that 2.4 million live in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett metro area.

overhearing conversations like that is pretty much the only thing that makes flying tolerable these days. being drunk on a 9:30 am flight to chicago is really not a bad idea, when you think about it.

i can't believe they STILL make you take off your damn shoes.

Oh my GAWD - people are sooooo stoooopid. Hoo-boy ! This is PRICELESS!!!

I assume that both were carrying copies of The Weakly?

demographica makes me sad.

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 45 days old).