Recent airport sightings

Some silly things spotted in various airports during my recent trip:

World’s tiniest baggage carousel (Vieques, Puerto Rico). Yes, I know I already posted this in the Clichés In Action post… but: I wish I could rent this thing out for children’s birthday parties. I like how the modest tiny wall partition in the middle allows the carousel to maintain a veneer of ‘technological magic’ while some guy secretly stands behind it and loads bags on.

Ghoulishly lifelike Carl Yastrzemski display (Boston, MA). I swear, after Chicago, Boston has to be the most goonily sports-obsessed city in the entire lower 48. You already have to drive through Ted Freakin’ Williams Tunnel just to get to the airport… and now a life-sized Yaz? My friend pointed out that when he flies to Boston, he can always spot his gate from a great distance just by the proliferation of sports hats visible in the waiting area.

Reassuring ‘Focus Safety’ sign (Vieques, Puerto Rico). There’s a lot to like here:

  1. The likelihood that the copy originally read ‘Focus On Safety’, before someone incrementally decided to turn the ‘On’ part into eyeballs.
  2. The fact that the Cape Air signature hawk has been placed inside the eyeball. This is kinda cool, but also creates the weirdly dissonant implication that  Cape Air is the cause of the danger that the poster is urging you to be vigilant against.
  3. Come to think of it, is the poster exhorting you the customer to exercise vigilance? Or is it reassuring you that the airline itself is always focusing on safety?
  4. Given that the entire Cape Air operation consists of about 4 people and 2 tiny airplanes- each of which is the size of a large van- they’d probably be better off not drawing your attention to the safety issue at all. Take it from someone with first hand experience: the less you think about your safety while flying Cape Air, the happier your experience is likely to be.

10 thoughts on “Recent airport sightings”

  1. The Yaz doesn’t even look happy about smashin’ out of the park. I’m from Northern Maine, a big Red Sox fanzone, and Yaz owned a farm near us at one time…but this ZombieYaz wouldn’t play even in Aroostook County.

  2. The Small Carousel reminds me of one time when I flew into the St. Etienne airport in France. After we all left the plane we walked across the tarmac to the customs (no bus or mobile walkway). There was no carousel just a trailer with our bags from the plane outside the door we just entered from and I walked over and picked up my bag. Then I went a few meters inside to customs. It was just one person who after all the passengers moved past him. He picked up his brief case with the passport stamp and headed off where I do not know.
    I have never got off a plane and cleared customs so quickly.
    David
    http://www.TheWonderTechnique.com

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