November 29, 2024 • 48 mins
Which airport should you hang out at if you want to meet a mini-horse? Why is the art in the Denver Airport so evil? And are TSA agents more likely to search you if you're carrying an Almanac? Will and Mango investigate.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Guess what, mango, what's that will? So I know you
and I both fly a lot, and if there's one
thing I definitely know about you, it's that.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You love flying, right because I just have the best
travel luck in the world, right.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You know. I don't know if this is something we've
mentioned on the show, but it's actually pretty baffling to me,
like how bad your travel luck has been over the years.
Like there are times you'll be flying out of Chicago
or something and then I'll check in with you just
to see if you've made it home, and you'll say
something like I'm in Milwaukee. It's a long story, and
I don't know anybody that can pull that off in
(00:34):
the way that you do. Or there was even the
time we were flying out of Cleveland at the same time.
Both of us were there, we were on different sides
of the airport. Now, somehow my flight took off and
on the other side of the airport they told your
plane that the airport was closing down because of the wind,
I think.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Which is a true story, like that really happened. In fact,
sometimes when you are write me to see where I am,
I don't even want to respond. Yes, as long as
it's entertaining for others.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh, it definitely is entertaining. But you know, I was
thinking about the fact that you and I are most
often traveling solo and for work purposes. And you know,
it's funny how when you do something so frequently, it's
pretty easy just to go through the motions not really
think about what's going on around you. And you know,
part of that maybe because half the time, I know,
I'm flying at such a crazy early hour, and I'm
(01:24):
kind of half asleep when I'm there. But as you know,
last week, Georgia and I flew up to Toronto so
that I could officiate a wedding because apparently that's what
I do now, and it's been nice to hear from
some listeners. I guess you made the offer that I
could officiate other weddings, and so I'm trying to decide
whether I want to sign on to do this or not.
But you know, we had a bit more time than
(01:45):
usual in the Atlanta airport, so we spend a little
time walking around, and when you're not rushing to your
next flight, spending time in the country's busiest airport actually
makes for some pretty fantastic people watching and so you know,
we spent time looking out the window as those luggage
cars rushed around in between the terminals. We watched people
(02:06):
run off the trains to their next flights, and then
a couple of times we just sat down and watched
people flying by and try to make guesses on why
certain passengers were going to different locations.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, I mean it's a fun game to play. You know,
when I'm walking through airport terminals, I'll often see like
an airport employee come walking out of one of those
personnel only sections, and I always want to go behind
that door just to see what's back there.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Oh me too. I mean, it'd probably be disappointing if
you actually got to go there. But yeah, so many
times you see that happen, you're like, what is it?
What's happening is such a mystery. But you know, we
started talking about just how many people work at the
nation's biggest airports and how many people you interact with
before you even get on a plane. You've got the
people behind the check in desk to TSA, the people
(02:51):
working at the restaurants, to gate agents, customs. I mean,
so many people, and then all the people behind the
scenes controlling the schedules, handling bags and just generally keeping
the place running efficiently. I mean, we're talking thousands of
people in places like the Atlanta Airport, and that's what
God is thinking. You know, what are some of the
secrets behind how an airport operates? And what do we
(03:14):
not know? And of course what are some of the
strangest things TSA has pulled out of passenger bags in security.
So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
(03:44):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and on
the other side of the soundproof glass doing his best impersonation. Now,
you guys may not know this about Tristan, but he
does incredible impersonations. Oh so good. Well, today's is a
really special one. It's of the carpet from the Portland
International Airport. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now
(04:07):
I do need to clarify here. Tristan is not lying
on the floor with a rug over him. He does
that sometimes, but not today. He's not just doing that
to pretend to be a carpet. He actually is decked
out head to toe and clothing based on that old
carpet design from the Portland Airport. Really creative idea.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Which honestly, it doesn't sound that much less weird, right.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
No it doesn't. But this is just the kind of
stuff that Tristan does. He's that committed. But actually he
was telling me earlier what this is all about. So basically,
the Portland Airport, or PDX as you might call it,
they added this new carpet to its terminals back in
nineteen eighty seven. Now, because this was in the eighties,
the carpet had this kind of funky and geometric design
(04:51):
with this teal background and all these blue and purple
and red shapes repeating all over it. A very loud carpet. Anyway,
the carpet stuck around until I think two thousand and six,
and that's when PDX decided it was finally time to remodel. Now,
they started ripping up the carpet and people went ballistic,
(05:12):
and that is not an overstatement. I mean they were
grieving the loss of this carpet. They decided to take
to social media and just as a way to pay
tribute to the airport carpet, and they were calling for
it to be preserved. There was a Facebook page for
people to post pictures and stories of all the great
times that had standing on that carpet, and somebody made
(05:33):
a Twitter account and began posting from the carpet's point
of view. These are all things that actually happened. And
you know, some folks even memorialized the carpet by having
its design tattooed on their arms. And of course, it
wasn't long after that that the beloved carpet design started
appearing on all sorts of merchandise.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
And you know, just looking at Tristan, you can see
that they made PDX carpet t shirts, sweatpants, socks, shoes,
even a headband.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, I know. And Tristan was telling me about all this.
It got me curious about what other bizarre airport stories
and secrets are out there. And so that's what today's
show is all about. You know, we'll take a look
at how airports function, and along the way, we'll also
check out some of the odd ball amenities that different
airports offer, as well as some of the weirdest stuff
(06:21):
that people have tried to slip past security. So let's
get started. But where do you want to begin mango.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So actually, I don't want to get off the airport
carpet fact just yet, because one of the things I
didn't notice until Gabe pointed it out to me is
that most airports have linoleum or tile in the check
in areas and all through security, but then when you
get to the flight gates, the floor suddenly switches to carpet.
And there's actually a reason behind this, So airport designers
use this trick as a way to make holding areas
(06:47):
feel more relaxing. So not only does the soft carpet
help bring the feel of a living room into the airport,
it also helps muffle the noise from people's roller bags
and footsteps. But the biggest reason is that all this
works together to make past and just feel less stressed out.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah it makes sense, but I mean, carpets aren't the
only thing designers are thinking about when they design these
airport spaces. I mean, another handy tool they use to
make us feel comfortable is called wayfinding, or that process
designers use to make the airports easier to navigate or
as easy as possible. And one big part of this,
of course, is the signage. And there's so much careful
(07:24):
planning that goes into that not just where to place
the signs, but how they're designed, how they're laid out,
and for instance, the font on the signs needs to
be legible from a distance and easy for non native
language speakers to decipher. Now, amazingly, seventy five percent of
all airports in the world use just one of three
different typefaces, all of which are sanserah, meaning they don't
(07:47):
have the little tails on the letters. And because I
know you're curious, those three in demand fonts are Frutiger,
which was designed specifically for airports, Clearview, which is the
same one used on highway signs on the US, and
of course Helvetica. By the way, as a side note here,
I learned just this week that there actually is an
airline called Helvetic Airlines, which is a small airline out
(08:10):
of Switzerland where Helvetica typeface originated, and in a truly
weird turn of events, the airline does not use Helvetica
for its logo.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's super weird. So what do they use?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I don't know what it's called exactly, and it's kind
of this squat and italic font for some reason.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Huh. That almost feels scandalous to not use helvetica there.
But another way of wayfinding that I hadn't thought about
are all the works of art that are placed around
the airport for you. And these can be murals or
sculptures or sometimes even interactive exhibits. But whatever form it takes,
airport art is never there just to look pretty or
to help passengers relax. That's because designers are actually thinking
(08:49):
of them as landmarks, like a quick way to establish
a point of reference for passengers as they make their
way through what are otherwise these monotonous terminals. So if
you're ever doing some exploring at the airport and you
need to find your way back to your gate, just
look for the big bronze bear or whatever to help
point the way.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, since you bring up airport art, I do want
to tell you about maybe the strangest and creepiest examples
I came across. And by the way, if you want
to see these, it's pretty convenient because you just go
to one airport. It's the Denver International Airport.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
So that actually doesn't surprise me, because what's weird is
that there are all these conspiracy theories about that specific airport,
like the runways are all pinwheel shaped, and some people
claim they're meant to look like swastikas. Some people think
there's a secret underground city and the tunnels beneath the terminals.
You know, it is super weird, But I don't think
I've heard about the artwork. Can you run me through that?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Well, you're in for a treat with this, because some
of this stuff is just off the wall. So to
start on the road that leads to the terminal, there's
this enormous thirty two foot tall sculpture of a blue
mustang rearing up in anger. But it's not just the
size or the stance that makes this thing so scary.
And that's because at night, the horse's eyes actually glow
(10:02):
bright red. How strange is this? But if that isn't
enough to convince you the horse is pure evil, just
listen to this. Back in two thousand and six, when
the statue was still being sculpted, a nine thousand pounds
piece of stone broke free and tragically fell on the
sculpture as he was working. And you know, sadly he
died from this not too long after. So not only
(10:25):
is this giant blue mustang terrifying, to behold, it also
killed its creator, and that's why the locals call him Blucifer.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Wow. So I'm actually a little afraid to ask, but
I think you said the horse was just one example.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Well, the art inside the airport gets even weirder than Blucifer. So,
for instance, at baggage Claim, there are these two stone
gargles keeping watch over the luggage carousels, and together the
pair of forms a sculpture known as Notre Denver, which
is pretty cutesy, named for a couple of winged demons
that are pretty weird looking. But probably the most unsettling
(10:58):
piece of art in the whole place is mural. It's
right there inside the airport and it's called Children of
the World Dream of Peace. Now this title sounds haarmwarming,
and you think, oh, this must be a really nice thing,
But just listen to this description that I found from
Atlas Obscure. It says in the mural, a gargantuane figure
in flowing olive green military garb and a gas mask
(11:19):
wields an assault rifle in his left hand while stabbing
a dove with the cutlass in his right. A line
of shrouded despairing figures cowers in his wake. It's just
what you want to see before boarding an international flight.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
What is going on at this airport?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I do think somebody might have missed the memo about
how airport artists supposed to be soothing, because that's definitely
not soothing.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah. So here's something even scarier than demons and killer horses.
So you know, the plastic bins we use to unload
all our stuff on the way through security.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah. So, according to a recent study out of Finland,
those bins actually contain a whole host of respiratory viruses,
including germs known to cause both the common cold and
flew and in fact, researchers found that the bins contain
more germ samples than any other tested part of the airport,
which includes elevator buttons, flight check in machines, even toilet handles.
(12:12):
And while these findings were specific to the Helsinki Airport,
other studies have turned up similar results in a lot
of different airports. And unfortunately, those bins just don't get
cleaned that often.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You know. It's one of those things that most of
the time, my wife Georgia is very clean about the
things she does, but sometimes when we travel, she takes
a pillow and she puts it into one of those
bins when we're traveling, and it is the grossest thing
that anyone has ever done. I just can't handle it.
But it's you know, I actually love these facts that
confirm my suspicion that everything I come into contact with
(12:46):
is filthy. And so those are just great stats. I mean,
it's like when we talked about how the trade tables
on airplanes are also super gross, I mean grosser than anything.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So I vaguely remember this, but can you nudge my
memory a little?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Of course, I have the fact right here. I keep
them with me at all times, just in case anybody
needs to be reminded. But this was from a twenty
fifteen study from travel Math, and it showed that trade
tables on the back of cabin seats typically contain over
two thousand colony forming units per square inch. Now these
are also known as CFUs. Now, to put that in perspective,
(13:20):
the average household toilet average household toilet has only around
one hundred and seventy CFUs. Even the flush buttons for
airport toilets only have about two hundred and sixty CFUs.
So that's two thousand on these trade tables compared to
two hundred and sixty on a flush button on an
airport toilet.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
It is so weird that trade tables are that filthy.
So I actually remember this great scene in Rolldahl's book
Going Solo, it's his biography, where he's on this boat
and he's watching this woman eat an orange with a
knife and fork, and he's just kind of amazed by
how nimble she is with it, and he asks her
why she's using a knife and fork, and she goes
(13:59):
on this big about how dirty our hens are and
how she would never use her hens. And I think
that's why whenever I touched the tray table from now on,
it's going to be with a knife and fork. That's
a smart way.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Of approach it. All Right, Well, I feel like we
rushed onto the plane too quickly and need to come
back to the airport. So what do you say we
take a minute to talk about some of the deeply
weird things that people's stuff in those dirty bins you
were talking about. I mean, there are all kinds of
strange stories there about people smuggling everything from human remains
to ninja throwing stars and all of this in their
(14:33):
carry on bags. But the most interesting examples to me
are all the weird things that scientists stow. I mean,
it's so funny to read some of these. I actually
just listen to some of the stuff that TSA has
turned up in recent years. All right, A cooler full
of turtle embryos, sure, several bottles of monkey pee, the
shin bone of a giant groundsloth, fifty vials of freeze
(14:55):
dried milk from an Antarctic fur seal, and of course
a three D printed model of a dolphin vagina. I mean,
you can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's so weird. But I'm guessing the scientists must have
like legit reasons for carrying this stuff through, right, Like
does security just give him a pass? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I mean most of the time they do. And most
of these things don't really break the rules. They're just
odd and usually require some sort of explanation. For for instance,
when the antarctic researcher with all the seal milk was stopped,
he just had to explain what all these vials of
white powder really were.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, I mean, if you're taking a lot of white
powder on a plane, you're kind of asking to get stopped.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
But well, you know, once he had clued them in there,
there really wasn't that much of a problem. And in fact,
as the guy later explained, quote, some of the officers
just wanted to wave me on, but others wanted me
to stay and answer their questions like how do you
milk a first seal? And so he pointed out, that's
a nice way to engage in a discussion about science.
(15:52):
But he also almost missed his flight.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
So I actually love these types of interactions, Like I
was reading about this one time a few years ago
when this asked physicists flew to Fargo, North Dakota, and
he had his Nobel Physics Prize with him. So his
name is Brian Schmidt apparently won the prize back in
twenty eleven for code discovering dark energy. But anyway, he
was going to Fargo to visit his grandmom and she
asked him to bring along his Nobell and just in
(16:15):
case other listeners don't know, a Nobel prize kind of
looks like an Olympic medal, like it's made of gold,
weighs about half a pound.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
It's pretty big.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
So Schmidt has this giant medal in his bag, and
because it's made of gold, it actually absorbs all the
X rays and it just looked like a big black
mystery object to the monitors. So security asked him, like,
what's in it? And he tells him it's a gold medal.
And then they opened the bag and inspect it and
they're like, uh, who gave this to you? To where
Schmidt says, and he gives an honest answer, the King
(16:43):
of Sweden. Of course, the King.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Of Sweden, as you do you know, so did the
agent just let him through or what?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
No, they were totally suspicious. So then the officers had
all these follow ups, like they asked like, why did
the king give this to you? And so Schmidt has
continued to tell the truths. He says, because I helped
discover that the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.
And as he's saying this, you know, the officers are
looking more and more angry. He gets sense that they
were losing their patience. So he finally explained the whole
(17:12):
thing in detail, like the science, how he won this award,
that the king presented it to him, all that, and
even then they had one more question for him, which was,
why were you in Fargo?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I mean, I guess that's a pretty fair question under
the circumstances. But all right, well, now that we made
our way through security, what do you say we stretch
our legs a little bit and check out a few
of the more surprising amenities the airport seems to offer
these days. But before we get to that, let's take
a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius and
(17:53):
we're talking about airports, all right, Mango. So you and
I fly fairly often, as we said before, and I
know one thing we've both noticed is that airports offer
a much wider array of amenities than they used to.
You know, you see things like massage chairs, which honestly
is so weird to me to be walking through a
terminal and look over and see somebody just with their
eyes closed and a massage. I just don't feel like
(18:15):
that's a place I could relax. But you definitely see
lots of those. You see sleeping pods and day spas,
made to order sushi like This is a huge list
of luxuries that are involved in some of these airports,
and it seems to get longer every year, and so
I've assembled my own little list here, but I actually
want to hear from you first. So what are some
of the most unexpected services you've come across during your travels?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
So one of the things I really like is that
you see more and more playgrounds for kids in airports,
and it's been really nice to be able to like
let the kids run around on these little jungle gyms
and let them be loud and crazy for a bit
before you have to, like, you know, reel it all
in when you get on a plane. But as a
solo traveler, probably my favorite trend that's been gaining steam
states side is airport movie theaters. And this is something
(19:03):
I think started back in twenty fourteen, which is when
the airport in Minneapolis Saint Paul opened this free around
the clock screening room near Gate C eighteen.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Huh, I've been there, but I actually haven't noticed that before,
So catching a movie it sounds like a fun way
to kill pine before a flight, but you probably have
to get there pretty early to be able to watch
the whole thing, right.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So it's not actually a problem in this case. The
Minnesota screening room only shows short films and documentaries by
filmmakers from the Upper Midwest, so in addition to providing
some free entertainment, they're really a way to showcase this
local talent. And this approach isn't unique to the Minneapolis
airport either, So last spring, the airport in Portland opened
its first microcinema and concourse, see it's similar. Where ticketed
(19:44):
passengers have made it through security, they're free to grab
a spot in this seventeen seat theater and cast short
films by filmmakers from Portland. But maybe the most unique
airport theater is the one that opened last August at
Miami International. And unlike the others I mentioned, this one
doesn't show a recent films shot by local artists. Instead,
the airport actually uses this bank of old flight monitors
(20:06):
to show all kinds of vintage footage they found in
and around the airport. So you might see like Miami
Family's home movies from the nineteen twenties on one reel,
or a reel of different celebrities who've arrived at the
airport between the fifties and eighties. Plus there are all
these quirky vintage promotional films for Florida sprinkled in. It
is pretty great, and it just seems like a really
(20:28):
cool project and a fun way to see all the
changes the airport and the surrounding community have gone through
over the years.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That does sound pretty neat. I feel like I need
to check that out the next time I'm in Miami.
But all right, Well, for my turn, I want to
talk about something I know you'll love, and that's the
menagerie of therapy animals that some airports now keep on
hand as really a way to help calm frazzle passengers.
So let's get the boring ones out of the way.
I guess I should mention that there are more than
(20:53):
thirty airports around the US that now have therapy dogs,
as well as a few that also have cats and
even rabbits.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh, what's a therapy rabbit.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Well, it's a therapeutic rabbit. Actually, I have no idea.
I guess it's just calmer than your typical rabbit and
less skiddish. But way back to the idea of these
other animals. So there are plenty of common therapy animals
scattered in airports across the country, but there's only one
airport here with its own pot bellied pig, and that's
in San Francisco. Now, I've flown to San Francisco many times.
(21:25):
I know you have two. I have never seen that,
have you?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
No, I have not seen a potbellid pig there.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah. The pig's name is Leelu, and back in twenty
sixteen she joined the airport's wag Brigade, which, as you
could probably guess, as a group of specially trained therapy
animals that the airport keeps on staff. But Leelu doesn't
just sit there like a lump while you pet her,
like say a therapy rabbit might do. Leelu is actually
a highly skilled performer. So get this, she has not one,
(21:52):
not two, but ten different tricks in her repertoire, and
including one where she plays a miniature piano. But you know,
like any pig diva, she also brings a complete wardrobe
with her, and so her vast costume collection includes, among
other outfits, a sparkly pink too too, and of course
a pilot uniform with a hat.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Which sounds adorable, But you know, I kigs aren't your thing.
You might actually have better luck at the airport in
hebrin Kentucky. So folks that originally planned to use dogs
when they launched the therapy animal program in twenty sixteen,
but in the end they went with something much more
unique and also more local. So the airport got in
touch with a nearby nonprofit that happened to run a
(22:34):
miniature horse therapy program, and after a few visits, the
airport decided to ditch the dogs and just bring many
horses to the airport twice a month instead. And as
you can imagine, you know, the prospect of hurting multiple
horses through the security lines was pretty daunting, So the
horses are usually kept in the ticketing area during the visits,
and even if you aren't flying anywhere, you can still
(22:54):
swing by and pet some therapy horses.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
It's like a stable full of little Sebastian It's like
a fun airport to go to. But yeah, it's funny
this stuff happens in the US because I typically only
hear about these kinds of programs at foreign airports, like,
for instance, I read that the Shippell Airport in Amsterdam
has all kinds of jealousy inducing amenities. They've got a
fully stocked airport library, a museum showcasing art from the
(23:19):
Dutch masters, and probably coolest of all a team of
concierge robots. And don't even get me started on the
airport in Singapore.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
So I've actually been to the Singapore airport. It was
in the nineties, and even back then it was unreal,
like if you had a layover, Singapore would actually give you,
like I want to say, it was like a forty
five minute or an hour long tour of the country
and then bring you back to the airport and whisky
through security. It also had like amazing public showers and
these super clean stalls, and there was this garden with
(23:49):
birds in it.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, except that it's actually gardens plural, like the first
one was built in the nineteen eighties, I think. But
now there are whopping ten gardens that are spread across
the airport's four different terminals, and altogether they contain over
half a million plants from nearly three hundred different species.
It's pretty absurd, Like they have this dedicated cactus garden,
(24:12):
one with just sunflowers, another that's full of orchids. But
I think my favorite has to be this two story,
open air, thirty five hundred square foot butterfly garden in
Terminal three. And apparently there are more than a thousand
tropical butterflies that call this garden home at any given time.
And if you're not into butterflies, the garden is still
(24:32):
worth a visit because it also contains a twenty foot
tall waterfall.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Wow. I mean that was definitely not there when I
was there. But you know, we had a significant layover
when I was at the Singapore Airport, and I have
never been to another airport where I wouldn't have minded
it waiting for like a flight delay. You know, the
food was great, the place was great, it was well lit,
it was it was really gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, I'd love to visit there sometime. And apparently you're
not the only one who feels this way. Actually, according
to the World air Awards, which is apparently a thing.
In twenty eighteen, the Singapore Airport was voted the world's
best airport for the sixth year in a row. And
there's a pretty steep competition out there. So at this point,
I'm not sure what it would take to beat Singapore.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So I do think that they have one feature that
could knock them out of the top spot, and that
is rocking chairs.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Wait, I think you missed the part where I said
Singapore Airport has a twenty foot indoor waterfall. I'm pretty
sure that tops rocking chairs.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Well, I think some cities prefer there. Maybe he's a
little less showy, thank you very much, Or at least
that was my takeaway after learning that over fifty airports
around the US now have a fleet of rockers set
up in their terminals.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
You know, now that you mentioned that, it's something I've
noticed a lot lately, especially when I'm passing through airports
here in the South. I mean, it feels like Charlotte
has had them forever, But maybe that's part of what's
going on there. Like Southern folks just like the airport
to feel a little more like their front porch.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Maybe. Yeah, I mean, I think you're probably half right,
because it's not just Southerners who liked the rockers. You
can actually find them in airports as far west as
Seattle and San Diego. But you know, that front porch
field you mentioned is definitely a big part of the appeal.
In fact, the whole trend seems to have started thanks
to a temporary art exhibit called Porch Setting, And you're
absolutely right. It was featured at the airport in Charlotte,
(26:18):
North Carolina. And this was way back in nineteen ninety seven.
And so the way it worked was they had all
these giant photographs of different front porches with rock and
chairs on them, and then in front of the photos
they put actual rock and chairs, kind of like props
to make the exhibit a little more interactive. But when
the exhibit finished its run and the chairs were taken away,
people got super upset. You know. It was just like
(26:40):
with that carpet in Portland, Like passengers had grown so
fond of these airport rockers, and once the public outcry started,
the amenities manager not only brought the chairs back, he
also added even more of them.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I mean, it's fascinating to see what kinds of things
people get attached to, and at airports of all places.
But I'm curious, though, because what you just outline was
a pretty specific chain of events. I doubt all these
other airports had their own rocking chair exhibits or whatever,
but how did they wind up with them?
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Right? So, for the most part, it seems like people
who worked at one airport started noticing the chairs at
other airports while they were traveling, and then they just
decided to copy the idea. But here's the best part.
All those rockers spread across fifty some airports like they
all come from the same company. It's called Troutman Chairs,
and it's co owned by a husband and wife who
have basically become the go to supplier for airport rocking chairs.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Wait, seriously, like, what a bizarre market to Domino also
had they pulled this off?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, the company's based in North Carolina, which is where
the trend got started, so they were the ones who
built the chairs for that exhibit in ninety seven, and
then over the years, whenever one airport manager asked about
the rockers at a different airport, they're always pointed right
back to Troutman Chairs. But the other cool thing I
read is a theory on why these chairs were a
hit with passengers in the first place. And this is
(27:57):
the explanation that the amenities manager in North Carolina gave. Quote,
airports tend to be such a fast paced environment it
could be overwhelming for people who aren't seasoned travelers. The
rocker is a yin to that yang. You're controlling the rocker,
where a lot of the time in an airport you're
not controlling your environment. It's a nice pause button in
a hectic environment.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It definitely is, and you can see that when you
travel through Charlotte and you see all the people sitting there.
In fact, I can remember when we were traveling so
much in our mental f loss days, and our old
designer Winslow, and I would travel through that airport all
the time. We got so used to knowing what was
in every spot in that airport that we could use
code for the different terminals. And there was this barbecue
(28:40):
restaurant where we ate one time, and it was not
the best dish of barbecue, and it was very wet
for some reason. So whenever I would check in with
Winslow when he was traveling, sometimes he would just text
back wet barbecue, and I knew that meant he was
in Terminal E in the Charlotte Airport. But uh, but
back to the idea of these rocking chairs. I mean,
you know, he's absolutely right about airports being hectic, and
(29:02):
that's actually something I do think we should talk about
in a little bit more detail. But before we get
to that, let's take one more quick break.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You listen to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
the special kind of anxiety that people feel at airports. Okay, well,
so one thing I noticed while looking through our research
is that society actually used to have a much more
romantic view of airports than we do today. Like if
you look back at the mid twentieth century, when commercial
air travel was just you know, taking off, thank you Tristan,
(29:43):
people had a very rosy, optimistic view of flying. A
trip to the airport didn't fill you with dread because
airports were still seen as dynamic, forward looking places. But
that's definitely not what most of us see them as today.
So I'm curious, why do you think that happened?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Well, you know, I would think a big part of
this is the massive uptick and security that we've seen
since the nineteen seventies. And I think we covered this
a bit in our Golden Age of Hijacking episode. But
airport's first added metal detectors in the seventies, and this
was of course as a way to thwart hijackers, and
ever since then, we've watched the security process at airports
gradually grow more strict and more complicated. And while tighter
(30:22):
regulations are needed in some cases, I think part of
the fallout from them is that a lot of people
feel really stressed at the airport. And that's even before
you factor in other changes that have negatively impacted the
airport experience. Like you know how much dingier airlines are
compared to just twenty years or so ago. And there
used to be free meals on short flights for all classes,
(30:43):
and then it was restricted to long flights, and now
it's really only international if you're flying coach. You've also
got the baggage fees that have gone up, and seat
fees keep going up, and people are getting bumped from
flights left and right, and so this kind of stuff,
you know, people are now associated with flying. And you
can tell too, like last year, Americans gave airlines lower
(31:05):
marks on customer satisfaction surveys than the US Postal Service.
And not only that, airlines were in the bottom six
for the least like industries in America, and they were
right there with stuff like health insurance and TV and
internet providers. I mean, that's not great company.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Definitely not. But I do think you're right that tighter
security and hidden costs are kind of what robbed airports
of their luster. I was reading this article in Slate
about the current state of the aviation industry, and they said,
you can basically divide the perception of airports into three phases.
The first was when the airports were this icon of progress,
(31:42):
which is the period I mentioned earlier, probably from like
the fifties through the sixties. And the second phase would
maybe be the seventies through the mid nineties, and that's
when the airports felt what Slate put like another stale
waiting room of modern life.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
I mean, that's probably about how I feel about them.
So I guess maybe I'm stuck in in phase two
right now.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, and I'm guessing you're not alone. But for everyone else,
we're now in the third phase, where the airport has
become quote, the marble floored home of our national fear
fueled psychosis.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Wow. Wow, it is not pretty when you spell it
out like that, but I guess that's not too far
off from how a lot of people feel about it.
And what's interesting is how airports have responded to the
rising anxiety levels among their passengers, Like that's got to
be what's prompting all the over the top new amenities
and the herds of therapy animals, the art galleries, the
(32:31):
rocking chairs that we talked about. I mean, it's all
meant to help calm us down and sort of forget
that we're in a place where most of us would
rather not be.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah, that sounds right to me, And I think the
fact that airport retail is booming right now kind of
backs that up. So a lot of people use shopping
as a way to curb their anxiety or just brighten
their mood in general. You know, we call it retail therapy.
And in twenty sixteen, airport retail actually rows a full
four percent worldwide, and for the US in Canada, airport
(33:01):
retailing is set to rise from a ground four billion
dollars in twenty fifteen to just under ten billion dollars
by twenty twenty. That's going to micro Market Monitor, which
is a publication for the trade. But you know, that's
some seriously impressive sales growth, and i'd bet a lot
of it will be thanks to stressed out shopping. You know.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Those figures actually, I guess don't surprise me when you
think about because no matter how bad brick and mortar
stores start hurting, airport retailers really seem like they're going
to be just fine. Because if you think about it.
There are more people flying now each year than at
any time in history, so your local mall might not
be getting that much traffic, but airport retailers have this
(33:40):
steady stream at just about any hour of the day.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, it's a good point. And I was reading about
this one bit of airport manager lingo called dwell time.
It's basically the time between when a passenger makes it
through security and when they board their plane, so you know,
all the time during which you could be spending money,
and apparently the first six minutes of dwell time are
the most lucrative. It's actually called the golden hour because
(34:04):
it's supposedly when passengers are feeling their most self indulgent.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I mean that makes sense. You've just gone through security,
suffered the indignity of the pat downs. You're just looking
for any way to make yourself feel a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I guess yeah. Actually it reminds me. I was in
the quick X ray thing that they do where you
walk into that space and turn and raise your arms
and then walk through it, and this guy, I don't
know whether he was on a power trip or what,
but he started telling me while I was in there
to pull up my pants and it is not like
I wear low riding pants like, but I had taken
off my belt as you do to go through the
(34:38):
security thing, and my pants were resting on my hips
and he was like, I said, pull up your pants,
and he kept getting louder and louder about it in
this situation where you're supposed to keep your hands up
in the air and there's this cue forming behind me,
and it was so anxiety inducing and it is so weird.
It's also one of these situations where you can't talk
back right like, because you know if you do, it's
(35:01):
only going to escalate the problem. So I hiked my
pants up as high as I could waddled out of
this place, and of course what I do next. I
bought some candy and magazines, you know, just to get
out of that headspace.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
But I mean, I guess it's one of those things
where he knows that we're getting older, and he just
thought by this point, you're almost to that age where
your pants should be up to your belly button.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Right, Or maybe he's on the take from these stores
just like getting up bus sales. But you know, there
are plenty of other reasons to buy things too. People
forget to pack things for their trip, like headphones or whatever.
Maybe they forget to get someone a gift, and the
airport becomes their last chance to save face with a
mug or buy some candy.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
I have definitely been in that position a few times.
And you know, airport retailers are lucky to have this
captive audience. You know, their customers are psychologically primed to buy.
And it's even more true when you throw incentives like
the whole duty free thing that's added into the mix here.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, that reminds me. I was reading my airport in Dubai,
and not only is it one of the busiest in
the world, it's also home to the most lucrative duty
free shop of all time. By the way, I've actually
been to the Dubai airport, And speaking of luxuries, if
they know you're flying through with a kid and we
were on our way to India at the time, they
actually bring you a stroller to meet you at the gate,
(36:20):
so that like you can connect to your next plane
without having to wake up your kid. You can just
put them in the stroller and stroll them along. It
is really sort of very thoughtful and nothing I've experienced
in the States. But back to the duty free thing.
So their giant shop is just called Dubai duty Free,
which is a little basic, but the sheer size of
the place is actually staggering. The store boasts four hundred
(36:43):
and nine thousand square feet of retail space, and the
Pacific Standard says, if you want to picture it, it's
a full one and a half times the size of
Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, that helps me get a great picture of this thing.
But that is huge. But you also said it's the
most lucrative though, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
So the store's annual sales typically fall just shy of
two billion US dollars.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
From one store. I mean, so what are they selling
to generate this kind of money.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
It is the typical duty free stables, just at this
greater volume. So they sell tons of perfume and liquor.
It's three hundred million dollars in sales of that. Last year,
tobacco sells really well there. They sold two hundred million
dollars of that. They also sell other items like gold
is a big seller, and not just jewelry, but actually
like bars of twenty two carrot bricks, of gold. You know,
(37:32):
it's crazy. There's another big seller that I never would
have guessed. Tang.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
What is tang? Oh like the orange powder drink mix.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, so it's just like the astronauts supposedly loved. But
we're in the Pacific standard. The Dubai airport can sell
upwards of fourteen hundred metric tons of tang in a
single year. Isn't that insane? Like its just that much tang?
And I was wondering that. Apparently it's southey laborers who
like the stock up before going home after working in
(38:03):
the Persian Gulf. But you know, if you're thirsty for
something a little stronger than Tang, you can actually check
out the special first class only floor of the store,
and that's where you'll find a two hundred thousand dollars
bottle of whiskey. It's named the Royal Salute Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Oh what a well. I feel like I might just
stick with the Tang in this case, and the store
can't be selling too many of those bottles of whiskey though, right.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Oh, you mean Royal Salute Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Right, Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
It sounds like a dictator. Named it, but supposedly, like
having these high priced bottles around creates what's called a
halo effect, and it encourages these wealthy travelers to spend more,
which is, you know, just so typical of rich people.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Classic rich people. But I mean, you know, airports have
plenty of other ways of getting your money besides retail,
and one of them is that we just straight up
give it to them, or at least that's the end result.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
So how's that.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Well, we really do this though, by leaving money behind accidentally,
So every year, millions of travelers hastily empty their pockets
into those plastic bins at the security line, and then
we forget to collect that loose change once we've made
it through. And yeah, that could be just a few
pennies here or there, but all those coins actually do
add up. I was looking at this breakdown that CNBC
(39:21):
put out, and over the years, it's interesting to see
how much it's been growing. So back in twenty eleven,
it was just shy of half a million dollars that
was left behind by people, and then it jumped to
six hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in twenty fourteen,
kept increasing every year. In twenty sixteen, the TSA's take
was the biggest one reported yet. It was a whopping
(39:43):
eight hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars in abandoned coins
and other currency just left behind.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
So what happens to that money? Like it just becomes
TSA profit?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Uh? Pretty much. There was actually a law passed back
in two thousand and five by Congress that stays that
TSA free to keep the unclaimed cash it finds and
put it toward whichever security efforts it wants to. And personally,
my vote is for a dedicated bin cleaner so that
I never have to hear another study about how dirty
they are compared to a toilet. I can give behind
(40:14):
that all right, Well, Tristan is over there tapping his
PDX carpet wristwatch, which means it's time for today's fact off.
So you ready to do this? Mango always.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
So you know how. All these airports had various codes,
like pdx's Portland, LAX's La, et cetera. Apparently, the tiny
sand dune where the Wright brothers made their first flight
in Kiddie Hawk has been given a code as well,
and they were sweetly given the name f FA, which
stands for First Flight Airport.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Oh I like that. Well, for years, if you were
flying through Genoa's Christophero Colombo Airport, you'd have to leave
your pesto as security, at least if it was more
than one hundred milliliters of the stuff. And of course
it's made tons of tourists unhappy. So then they decided
to amend the rules and now you can fly with
five hundred grams of pesto and these are bigger jars,
(41:13):
but that's as long as you make a donation to
Flying Angels. Now, this is a charity that helps fund
air travel for sick children. So it's a sweet idea
and people seem to be happy again. But there is
one catch though. The airport waiver only applies to pesto
that is actually made in Genoa.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
So this is an airport related exactly. But do you
know that pilots on flights are served different meals and
they are not allowed to share. Apparently it's done as
a rule because of a fear of food poisoning.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Wow, which makes a lot of sense actually, Well, speaking
of planes, I realized this isn't something we'll probably ever
have to worry about. But if the oxygen mask drops down,
you're only going to get about fifteen to twenty minutes
of oxygen. There's a limited amount of course on there,
but the idea is that more than enough. The ideas
that's more than enough time to take you to a
(42:05):
lower altitude, which is when you won't really need them.
And actually, one other thing about those oxygen masks. What
you're getting isn't really oxygen. It's actually kind of this
cocktail of chemicals that when they're burned together, they release
oxygen because pure oxygen tanks would just be too heavy
and bulky to take up into the air.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
That's interesting. So if you're wondering why certain passengers get
pulled aside for a cavity check, there's actually a system
for it. So TSA agents assign you points for specific
suspicious behavior, and if you have too much of it,
you know, too many points, that's when it happens. But
here are some of the things they're looking for. Exaggerated
yawning or excessive throat clearing, covering your mouth when you're speaking,
(42:48):
showing up in disguise, which makes sense, carrying an almanac,
which makes less sense to me, widely open staring eyes
and whistling.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Whistling, I mean, whistling is like the classic thing people
do in movies when they're like, I'm not up to anything.
But is that really whistling? Is it really on the list?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah, it's when the individual approaches the screen process because
they're worried. It's a code or signal. But you know,
maybe it's also to teach annoying people to whistle less.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
So all right, Well, here's a strange one. In New York.
There's an airport dentist and I just learned about this.
He's actually at one of the airports that I frequent
but his name is doctor Robert Traeger, and much like
those airport stores, he's taking full advantage of this location.
So he's got to practice in Terminal B at Laguardi apparently,
where he both sees airport employees and frequent flyers along
(43:43):
with some emergency walk ins, and at JFKA. His office
is close by, outside of the main airport, so his
wife will actually show fer you to the main terminal,
but that's only if you're part of his smile high club.
And I'm wondering how often these people are going to
the dentist and then onto the airport to be part
of whatever this club is.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
But it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
The crazy thing is that doctor Tregger also does work
for the government while he's there, so the ions uses
him to look at wisdom, teeth and these other indicators
to determine whether people they're detaining are minors or whether
they may be lying about their age because you can
tell age through inspecting bones and also teeth.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
It's crazy that he's got this double life. Well, yeah,
here's a weird one. Do you know. The FAA has
a theme song and I was not aware of that,
And here a few of the lyrics. So we're planning
and building a way to make tomorrow even safer than today.
While flying grows, so do we And that's what it's
all about. We want to help you get back home
(44:45):
in a jumbo jet or flying alone. We make it
safe up in the sky so you'll relax when you fly.
So it's super cashy. Everyone knows the lyrics, they can
sing along. But it's actually got a great story. When
morale was down in the eighties, this guy named John Hanks,
he was the public affairs director at the time. He
decided to give the FA a little boost, and as
(45:08):
he put it, quote, it was designed to bring the
FAA employees closer together and the common purpose we had
in our mission of aviation safety. Oddly, it was a
huge success, so employees really bought into it. They thought
it was super fun. The FA administrator thought it was great,
and the FA Corral was performed at lots of events
around the country, including and this is from Atlas Obscura
(45:31):
at quote one of Nancy Reagan's Just Say No anti
drug rallies, following the headliner LaToya Jackson. You know, the
eighties were at this heady time where LaToya could be
followed by Corral. But you know the best part of
it is that the song costs nothing to taxpayers. It
was all done by Hanks and his friends in their
(45:51):
free time.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
You know, that's a good fact. But I think the
fact that you slip the words LaToya Jackson into a
fact off makes you just automatic winner. There's nothing I
can do to beat that. So congratulations, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
And we wanted to say thanks to some of our
listeners out there. It's actually been a lot of fun
to hear from you guys in recent months. Keeping track
of who is winning the fact off battle because we
actually haven't been keeping track and it was pretty funny.
We stumbled across a website that somebody had actually pointed
out to us, where one of our listeners is keeping
(46:26):
track of who is winning this fact off battle, and unfortunately,
it looks like Mango has been in the lead, and
of course just widen that lead again today. And I
think you've been in the lead all year. You took
a big lead last year and we've been pretty even
this year.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
But I Knowavda, I think his Husbanasi he created this
whole graph of it.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
It's pretty amazing, it's pretty terrific. But we love hearing
from you on this kind of thing and always love
seeing those types of things. But if there are any
facts that we forgot to include about airports, about flying,
anything related to the episode, we always love hearing from
You can reach out to us at part Time Genius
at HowStuffWorks dot com or hit us up on Facebook
or Twitter. We're from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks
(47:10):
so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't
be possible Without several brilliant people who do the important things,
(47:31):
we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Christa McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Gerry Roland does the exec producer thing.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Do we
forget Jason Jason, who
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Comp
Guess what, mango, what's that will? So I know you
and I both fly a lot, and if there's one
thing I definitely know about you, it's that.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You love flying, right because I just have the best
travel luck in the world, right.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You know. I don't know if this is something we've
mentioned on the show, but it's actually pretty baffling to me,
like how bad your travel luck has been over the years.
Like there are times you'll be flying out of Chicago
or something and then I'll check in with you just
to see if you've made it home, and you'll say
something like I'm in Milwaukee. It's a long story, and
I don't know anybody that can pull that off in
(00:34):
the way that you do. Or there was even the
time we were flying out of Cleveland at the same time.
Both of us were there, we were on different sides
of the airport. Now, somehow my flight took off and
on the other side of the airport they told your
plane that the airport was closing down because of the wind,
I think.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Which is a true story, like that really happened. In fact,
sometimes when you are write me to see where I am,
I don't even want to respond. Yes, as long as
it's entertaining for others.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh, it definitely is entertaining. But you know, I was
thinking about the fact that you and I are most
often traveling solo and for work purposes. And you know,
it's funny how when you do something so frequently, it's
pretty easy just to go through the motions not really
think about what's going on around you. And you know,
part of that maybe because half the time, I know,
I'm flying at such a crazy early hour, and I'm
(01:24):
kind of half asleep when I'm there. But as you know,
last week, Georgia and I flew up to Toronto so
that I could officiate a wedding because apparently that's what
I do now, and it's been nice to hear from
some listeners. I guess you made the offer that I
could officiate other weddings, and so I'm trying to decide
whether I want to sign on to do this or not.
But you know, we had a bit more time than
(01:45):
usual in the Atlanta airport, so we spend a little
time walking around, and when you're not rushing to your
next flight, spending time in the country's busiest airport actually
makes for some pretty fantastic people watching and so you know,
we spent time looking out the window as those luggage
cars rushed around in between the terminals. We watched people
(02:06):
run off the trains to their next flights, and then
a couple of times we just sat down and watched
people flying by and try to make guesses on why
certain passengers were going to different locations.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, I mean it's a fun game to play. You know,
when I'm walking through airport terminals, I'll often see like
an airport employee come walking out of one of those
personnel only sections, and I always want to go behind
that door just to see what's back there.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Oh me too. I mean, it'd probably be disappointing if
you actually got to go there. But yeah, so many
times you see that happen, you're like, what is it?
What's happening is such a mystery. But you know, we
started talking about just how many people work at the
nation's biggest airports and how many people you interact with
before you even get on a plane. You've got the
people behind the check in desk to TSA, the people
(02:51):
working at the restaurants, to gate agents, customs. I mean,
so many people, and then all the people behind the
scenes controlling the schedules, handling bags and just generally keeping
the place running efficiently. I mean, we're talking thousands of
people in places like the Atlanta Airport, and that's what
God is thinking. You know, what are some of the
secrets behind how an airport operates? And what do we
(03:14):
not know? And of course what are some of the
strangest things TSA has pulled out of passenger bags in security.
So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
(03:44):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm
joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and on
the other side of the soundproof glass doing his best impersonation. Now,
you guys may not know this about Tristan, but he
does incredible impersonations. Oh so good. Well, today's is a
really special one. It's of the carpet from the Portland
International Airport. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now
(04:07):
I do need to clarify here. Tristan is not lying
on the floor with a rug over him. He does
that sometimes, but not today. He's not just doing that
to pretend to be a carpet. He actually is decked
out head to toe and clothing based on that old
carpet design from the Portland Airport. Really creative idea.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Which honestly, it doesn't sound that much less weird, right.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
No it doesn't. But this is just the kind of
stuff that Tristan does. He's that committed. But actually he
was telling me earlier what this is all about. So basically,
the Portland Airport, or PDX as you might call it,
they added this new carpet to its terminals back in
nineteen eighty seven. Now, because this was in the eighties,
the carpet had this kind of funky and geometric design
(04:51):
with this teal background and all these blue and purple
and red shapes repeating all over it. A very loud carpet. Anyway,
the carpet stuck around until I think two thousand and six,
and that's when PDX decided it was finally time to remodel. Now,
they started ripping up the carpet and people went ballistic,
(05:12):
and that is not an overstatement. I mean they were
grieving the loss of this carpet. They decided to take
to social media and just as a way to pay
tribute to the airport carpet, and they were calling for
it to be preserved. There was a Facebook page for
people to post pictures and stories of all the great
times that had standing on that carpet, and somebody made
(05:33):
a Twitter account and began posting from the carpet's point
of view. These are all things that actually happened. And
you know, some folks even memorialized the carpet by having
its design tattooed on their arms. And of course, it
wasn't long after that that the beloved carpet design started
appearing on all sorts of merchandise.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
And you know, just looking at Tristan, you can see
that they made PDX carpet t shirts, sweatpants, socks, shoes,
even a headband.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, I know. And Tristan was telling me about all this.
It got me curious about what other bizarre airport stories
and secrets are out there. And so that's what today's
show is all about. You know, we'll take a look
at how airports function, and along the way, we'll also
check out some of the odd ball amenities that different
airports offer, as well as some of the weirdest stuff
(06:21):
that people have tried to slip past security. So let's
get started. But where do you want to begin mango.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So actually, I don't want to get off the airport
carpet fact just yet, because one of the things I
didn't notice until Gabe pointed it out to me is
that most airports have linoleum or tile in the check
in areas and all through security, but then when you
get to the flight gates, the floor suddenly switches to carpet.
And there's actually a reason behind this, So airport designers
use this trick as a way to make holding areas
(06:47):
feel more relaxing. So not only does the soft carpet
help bring the feel of a living room into the airport,
it also helps muffle the noise from people's roller bags
and footsteps. But the biggest reason is that all this
works together to make past and just feel less stressed out.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah it makes sense, but I mean, carpets aren't the
only thing designers are thinking about when they design these
airport spaces. I mean, another handy tool they use to
make us feel comfortable is called wayfinding, or that process
designers use to make the airports easier to navigate or
as easy as possible. And one big part of this,
of course, is the signage. And there's so much careful
(07:24):
planning that goes into that not just where to place
the signs, but how they're designed, how they're laid out,
and for instance, the font on the signs needs to
be legible from a distance and easy for non native
language speakers to decipher. Now, amazingly, seventy five percent of
all airports in the world use just one of three
different typefaces, all of which are sanserah, meaning they don't
(07:47):
have the little tails on the letters. And because I
know you're curious, those three in demand fonts are Frutiger,
which was designed specifically for airports, Clearview, which is the
same one used on highway signs on the US, and
of course Helvetica. By the way, as a side note here,
I learned just this week that there actually is an
airline called Helvetic Airlines, which is a small airline out
(08:10):
of Switzerland where Helvetica typeface originated, and in a truly
weird turn of events, the airline does not use Helvetica
for its logo.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That's super weird. So what do they use?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I don't know what it's called exactly, and it's kind
of this squat and italic font for some reason.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Huh. That almost feels scandalous to not use helvetica there.
But another way of wayfinding that I hadn't thought about
are all the works of art that are placed around
the airport for you. And these can be murals or
sculptures or sometimes even interactive exhibits. But whatever form it takes,
airport art is never there just to look pretty or
to help passengers relax. That's because designers are actually thinking
(08:49):
of them as landmarks, like a quick way to establish
a point of reference for passengers as they make their
way through what are otherwise these monotonous terminals. So if
you're ever doing some exploring at the airport and you
need to find your way back to your gate, just
look for the big bronze bear or whatever to help
point the way.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Well, since you bring up airport art, I do want
to tell you about maybe the strangest and creepiest examples
I came across. And by the way, if you want
to see these, it's pretty convenient because you just go
to one airport. It's the Denver International Airport.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
So that actually doesn't surprise me, because what's weird is
that there are all these conspiracy theories about that specific airport,
like the runways are all pinwheel shaped, and some people
claim they're meant to look like swastikas. Some people think
there's a secret underground city and the tunnels beneath the terminals.
You know, it is super weird, But I don't think
I've heard about the artwork. Can you run me through that?
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Well, you're in for a treat with this, because some
of this stuff is just off the wall. So to
start on the road that leads to the terminal, there's
this enormous thirty two foot tall sculpture of a blue
mustang rearing up in anger. But it's not just the
size or the stance that makes this thing so scary.
And that's because at night, the horse's eyes actually glow
(10:02):
bright red. How strange is this? But if that isn't
enough to convince you the horse is pure evil, just
listen to this. Back in two thousand and six, when
the statue was still being sculpted, a nine thousand pounds
piece of stone broke free and tragically fell on the
sculpture as he was working. And you know, sadly he
died from this not too long after. So not only
(10:25):
is this giant blue mustang terrifying, to behold, it also
killed its creator, and that's why the locals call him Blucifer.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Wow. So I'm actually a little afraid to ask, but
I think you said the horse was just one example.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Well, the art inside the airport gets even weirder than Blucifer. So,
for instance, at baggage Claim, there are these two stone
gargles keeping watch over the luggage carousels, and together the
pair of forms a sculpture known as Notre Denver, which
is pretty cutesy, named for a couple of winged demons
that are pretty weird looking. But probably the most unsettling
(10:58):
piece of art in the whole place is mural. It's
right there inside the airport and it's called Children of
the World Dream of Peace. Now this title sounds haarmwarming,
and you think, oh, this must be a really nice thing,
But just listen to this description that I found from
Atlas Obscure. It says in the mural, a gargantuane figure
in flowing olive green military garb and a gas mask
(11:19):
wields an assault rifle in his left hand while stabbing
a dove with the cutlass in his right. A line
of shrouded despairing figures cowers in his wake. It's just
what you want to see before boarding an international flight.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
What is going on at this airport?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I do think somebody might have missed the memo about
how airport artists supposed to be soothing, because that's definitely
not soothing.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah. So here's something even scarier than demons and killer horses.
So you know, the plastic bins we use to unload
all our stuff on the way through security.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Definitely.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah. So, according to a recent study out of Finland,
those bins actually contain a whole host of respiratory viruses,
including germs known to cause both the common cold and
flew and in fact, researchers found that the bins contain
more germ samples than any other tested part of the airport,
which includes elevator buttons, flight check in machines, even toilet handles.
(12:12):
And while these findings were specific to the Helsinki Airport,
other studies have turned up similar results in a lot
of different airports. And unfortunately, those bins just don't get
cleaned that often.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
You know. It's one of those things that most of
the time, my wife Georgia is very clean about the
things she does, but sometimes when we travel, she takes
a pillow and she puts it into one of those
bins when we're traveling, and it is the grossest thing
that anyone has ever done. I just can't handle it.
But it's you know, I actually love these facts that
confirm my suspicion that everything I come into contact with
(12:46):
is filthy. And so those are just great stats. I mean,
it's like when we talked about how the trade tables
on airplanes are also super gross, I mean grosser than anything.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So I vaguely remember this, but can you nudge my
memory a little?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Of course, I have the fact right here. I keep
them with me at all times, just in case anybody
needs to be reminded. But this was from a twenty
fifteen study from travel Math, and it showed that trade
tables on the back of cabin seats typically contain over
two thousand colony forming units per square inch. Now these
are also known as CFUs. Now, to put that in perspective,
(13:20):
the average household toilet average household toilet has only around
one hundred and seventy CFUs. Even the flush buttons for
airport toilets only have about two hundred and sixty CFUs.
So that's two thousand on these trade tables compared to
two hundred and sixty on a flush button on an
airport toilet.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
It is so weird that trade tables are that filthy.
So I actually remember this great scene in Rolldahl's book
Going Solo, it's his biography, where he's on this boat
and he's watching this woman eat an orange with a
knife and fork, and he's just kind of amazed by
how nimble she is with it, and he asks her
why she's using a knife and fork, and she goes
(13:59):
on this big about how dirty our hens are and
how she would never use her hens. And I think
that's why whenever I touched the tray table from now on,
it's going to be with a knife and fork. That's
a smart way.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Of approach it. All Right, Well, I feel like we
rushed onto the plane too quickly and need to come
back to the airport. So what do you say we
take a minute to talk about some of the deeply
weird things that people's stuff in those dirty bins you
were talking about. I mean, there are all kinds of
strange stories there about people smuggling everything from human remains
to ninja throwing stars and all of this in their
(14:33):
carry on bags. But the most interesting examples to me
are all the weird things that scientists stow. I mean,
it's so funny to read some of these. I actually
just listen to some of the stuff that TSA has
turned up in recent years. All right, A cooler full
of turtle embryos, sure, several bottles of monkey pee, the
shin bone of a giant groundsloth, fifty vials of freeze
(14:55):
dried milk from an Antarctic fur seal, and of course
a three D printed model of a dolphin vagina. I mean,
you can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
That's so weird. But I'm guessing the scientists must have
like legit reasons for carrying this stuff through, right, Like
does security just give him a pass? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I mean most of the time they do. And most
of these things don't really break the rules. They're just
odd and usually require some sort of explanation. For for instance,
when the antarctic researcher with all the seal milk was stopped,
he just had to explain what all these vials of
white powder really were.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, I mean, if you're taking a lot of white
powder on a plane, you're kind of asking to get stopped.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
But well, you know, once he had clued them in there,
there really wasn't that much of a problem. And in fact,
as the guy later explained, quote, some of the officers
just wanted to wave me on, but others wanted me
to stay and answer their questions like how do you
milk a first seal? And so he pointed out, that's
a nice way to engage in a discussion about science.
(15:52):
But he also almost missed his flight.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
So I actually love these types of interactions, Like I
was reading about this one time a few years ago
when this asked physicists flew to Fargo, North Dakota, and
he had his Nobel Physics Prize with him. So his
name is Brian Schmidt apparently won the prize back in
twenty eleven for code discovering dark energy. But anyway, he
was going to Fargo to visit his grandmom and she
asked him to bring along his Nobell and just in
(16:15):
case other listeners don't know, a Nobel prize kind of
looks like an Olympic medal, like it's made of gold,
weighs about half a pound.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
It's pretty big.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
So Schmidt has this giant medal in his bag, and
because it's made of gold, it actually absorbs all the
X rays and it just looked like a big black
mystery object to the monitors. So security asked him, like,
what's in it? And he tells him it's a gold medal.
And then they opened the bag and inspect it and
they're like, uh, who gave this to you? To where
Schmidt says, and he gives an honest answer, the King
(16:43):
of Sweden. Of course, the King.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Of Sweden, as you do you know, so did the
agent just let him through or what?
Speaker 2 (16:51):
No, they were totally suspicious. So then the officers had
all these follow ups, like they asked like, why did
the king give this to you? And so Schmidt has
continued to tell the truths. He says, because I helped
discover that the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.
And as he's saying this, you know, the officers are
looking more and more angry. He gets sense that they
were losing their patience. So he finally explained the whole
(17:12):
thing in detail, like the science, how he won this award,
that the king presented it to him, all that, and
even then they had one more question for him, which was,
why were you in Fargo?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I mean, I guess that's a pretty fair question under
the circumstances. But all right, well, now that we made
our way through security, what do you say we stretch
our legs a little bit and check out a few
of the more surprising amenities the airport seems to offer
these days. But before we get to that, let's take
a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius and
(17:53):
we're talking about airports, all right, Mango. So you and
I fly fairly often, as we said before, and I
know one thing we've both noticed is that airports offer
a much wider array of amenities than they used to.
You know, you see things like massage chairs, which honestly
is so weird to me to be walking through a
terminal and look over and see somebody just with their
eyes closed and a massage. I just don't feel like
(18:15):
that's a place I could relax. But you definitely see
lots of those. You see sleeping pods and day spas,
made to order sushi like This is a huge list
of luxuries that are involved in some of these airports,
and it seems to get longer every year, and so
I've assembled my own little list here, but I actually
want to hear from you first. So what are some
of the most unexpected services you've come across during your travels?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
So one of the things I really like is that
you see more and more playgrounds for kids in airports,
and it's been really nice to be able to like
let the kids run around on these little jungle gyms
and let them be loud and crazy for a bit
before you have to, like, you know, reel it all
in when you get on a plane. But as a
solo traveler, probably my favorite trend that's been gaining steam
states side is airport movie theaters. And this is something
(19:03):
I think started back in twenty fourteen, which is when
the airport in Minneapolis Saint Paul opened this free around
the clock screening room near Gate C eighteen.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Huh, I've been there, but I actually haven't noticed that before,
So catching a movie it sounds like a fun way
to kill pine before a flight, but you probably have
to get there pretty early to be able to watch
the whole thing, right.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So it's not actually a problem in this case. The
Minnesota screening room only shows short films and documentaries by
filmmakers from the Upper Midwest, so in addition to providing
some free entertainment, they're really a way to showcase this
local talent. And this approach isn't unique to the Minneapolis
airport either, So last spring, the airport in Portland opened
its first microcinema and concourse, see it's similar. Where ticketed
(19:44):
passengers have made it through security, they're free to grab
a spot in this seventeen seat theater and cast short
films by filmmakers from Portland. But maybe the most unique
airport theater is the one that opened last August at
Miami International. And unlike the others I mentioned, this one
doesn't show a recent films shot by local artists. Instead,
the airport actually uses this bank of old flight monitors
(20:06):
to show all kinds of vintage footage they found in
and around the airport. So you might see like Miami
Family's home movies from the nineteen twenties on one reel,
or a reel of different celebrities who've arrived at the
airport between the fifties and eighties. Plus there are all
these quirky vintage promotional films for Florida sprinkled in. It
is pretty great, and it just seems like a really
(20:28):
cool project and a fun way to see all the
changes the airport and the surrounding community have gone through
over the years.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That does sound pretty neat. I feel like I need
to check that out the next time I'm in Miami.
But all right, Well, for my turn, I want to
talk about something I know you'll love, and that's the
menagerie of therapy animals that some airports now keep on
hand as really a way to help calm frazzle passengers.
So let's get the boring ones out of the way.
I guess I should mention that there are more than
(20:53):
thirty airports around the US that now have therapy dogs,
as well as a few that also have cats and
even rabbits.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh, what's a therapy rabbit.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Well, it's a therapeutic rabbit. Actually, I have no idea.
I guess it's just calmer than your typical rabbit and
less skiddish. But way back to the idea of these
other animals. So there are plenty of common therapy animals
scattered in airports across the country, but there's only one
airport here with its own pot bellied pig, and that's
in San Francisco. Now, I've flown to San Francisco many times.
(21:25):
I know you have two. I have never seen that,
have you?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
No, I have not seen a potbellid pig there.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah. The pig's name is Leelu, and back in twenty
sixteen she joined the airport's wag Brigade, which, as you
could probably guess, as a group of specially trained therapy
animals that the airport keeps on staff. But Leelu doesn't
just sit there like a lump while you pet her,
like say a therapy rabbit might do. Leelu is actually
a highly skilled performer. So get this, she has not one,
(21:52):
not two, but ten different tricks in her repertoire, and
including one where she plays a miniature piano. But you know,
like any pig diva, she also brings a complete wardrobe
with her, and so her vast costume collection includes, among
other outfits, a sparkly pink too too, and of course
a pilot uniform with a hat.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Which sounds adorable, But you know, I kigs aren't your thing.
You might actually have better luck at the airport in
hebrin Kentucky. So folks that originally planned to use dogs
when they launched the therapy animal program in twenty sixteen,
but in the end they went with something much more
unique and also more local. So the airport got in
touch with a nearby nonprofit that happened to run a
(22:34):
miniature horse therapy program, and after a few visits, the
airport decided to ditch the dogs and just bring many
horses to the airport twice a month instead. And as
you can imagine, you know, the prospect of hurting multiple
horses through the security lines was pretty daunting, So the
horses are usually kept in the ticketing area during the visits,
and even if you aren't flying anywhere, you can still
(22:54):
swing by and pet some therapy horses.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
It's like a stable full of little Sebastian It's like
a fun airport to go to. But yeah, it's funny
this stuff happens in the US because I typically only
hear about these kinds of programs at foreign airports, like,
for instance, I read that the Shippell Airport in Amsterdam
has all kinds of jealousy inducing amenities. They've got a
fully stocked airport library, a museum showcasing art from the
(23:19):
Dutch masters, and probably coolest of all a team of
concierge robots. And don't even get me started on the
airport in Singapore.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
So I've actually been to the Singapore airport. It was
in the nineties, and even back then it was unreal,
like if you had a layover, Singapore would actually give you,
like I want to say, it was like a forty
five minute or an hour long tour of the country
and then bring you back to the airport and whisky
through security. It also had like amazing public showers and
these super clean stalls, and there was this garden with
(23:49):
birds in it.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, except that it's actually gardens plural, like the first
one was built in the nineteen eighties, I think. But
now there are whopping ten gardens that are spread across
the airport's four different terminals, and altogether they contain over
half a million plants from nearly three hundred different species.
It's pretty absurd, Like they have this dedicated cactus garden,
(24:12):
one with just sunflowers, another that's full of orchids. But
I think my favorite has to be this two story,
open air, thirty five hundred square foot butterfly garden in
Terminal three. And apparently there are more than a thousand
tropical butterflies that call this garden home at any given time.
And if you're not into butterflies, the garden is still
(24:32):
worth a visit because it also contains a twenty foot
tall waterfall.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Wow. I mean that was definitely not there when I
was there. But you know, we had a significant layover
when I was at the Singapore Airport, and I have
never been to another airport where I wouldn't have minded
it waiting for like a flight delay. You know, the
food was great, the place was great, it was well lit,
it was it was really gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, I'd love to visit there sometime. And apparently you're
not the only one who feels this way. Actually, according
to the World air Awards, which is apparently a thing.
In twenty eighteen, the Singapore Airport was voted the world's
best airport for the sixth year in a row. And
there's a pretty steep competition out there. So at this point,
I'm not sure what it would take to beat Singapore.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
So I do think that they have one feature that
could knock them out of the top spot, and that
is rocking chairs.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Wait, I think you missed the part where I said
Singapore Airport has a twenty foot indoor waterfall. I'm pretty
sure that tops rocking chairs.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Well, I think some cities prefer there. Maybe he's a
little less showy, thank you very much, Or at least
that was my takeaway after learning that over fifty airports
around the US now have a fleet of rockers set
up in their terminals.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
You know, now that you mentioned that, it's something I've
noticed a lot lately, especially when I'm passing through airports
here in the South. I mean, it feels like Charlotte
has had them forever, But maybe that's part of what's
going on there. Like Southern folks just like the airport
to feel a little more like their front porch.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Maybe. Yeah, I mean, I think you're probably half right,
because it's not just Southerners who liked the rockers. You
can actually find them in airports as far west as
Seattle and San Diego. But you know, that front porch
field you mentioned is definitely a big part of the appeal.
In fact, the whole trend seems to have started thanks
to a temporary art exhibit called Porch Setting, And you're
absolutely right. It was featured at the airport in Charlotte,
(26:18):
North Carolina. And this was way back in nineteen ninety seven.
And so the way it worked was they had all
these giant photographs of different front porches with rock and
chairs on them, and then in front of the photos
they put actual rock and chairs, kind of like props
to make the exhibit a little more interactive. But when
the exhibit finished its run and the chairs were taken away,
people got super upset. You know. It was just like
(26:40):
with that carpet in Portland, Like passengers had grown so
fond of these airport rockers, and once the public outcry started,
the amenities manager not only brought the chairs back, he
also added even more of them.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I mean, it's fascinating to see what kinds of things
people get attached to, and at airports of all places.
But I'm curious, though, because what you just outline was
a pretty specific chain of events. I doubt all these
other airports had their own rocking chair exhibits or whatever,
but how did they wind up with them?
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Right? So, for the most part, it seems like people
who worked at one airport started noticing the chairs at
other airports while they were traveling, and then they just
decided to copy the idea. But here's the best part.
All those rockers spread across fifty some airports like they
all come from the same company. It's called Troutman Chairs,
and it's co owned by a husband and wife who
have basically become the go to supplier for airport rocking chairs.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Wait, seriously, like, what a bizarre market to Domino also
had they pulled this off?
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Well, the company's based in North Carolina, which is where
the trend got started, so they were the ones who
built the chairs for that exhibit in ninety seven, and
then over the years, whenever one airport manager asked about
the rockers at a different airport, they're always pointed right
back to Troutman Chairs. But the other cool thing I
read is a theory on why these chairs were a
hit with passengers in the first place. And this is
(27:57):
the explanation that the amenities manager in North Carolina gave. Quote,
airports tend to be such a fast paced environment it
could be overwhelming for people who aren't seasoned travelers. The
rocker is a yin to that yang. You're controlling the rocker,
where a lot of the time in an airport you're
not controlling your environment. It's a nice pause button in
a hectic environment.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It definitely is, and you can see that when you
travel through Charlotte and you see all the people sitting there.
In fact, I can remember when we were traveling so
much in our mental f loss days, and our old
designer Winslow, and I would travel through that airport all
the time. We got so used to knowing what was
in every spot in that airport that we could use
code for the different terminals. And there was this barbecue
(28:40):
restaurant where we ate one time, and it was not
the best dish of barbecue, and it was very wet
for some reason. So whenever I would check in with
Winslow when he was traveling, sometimes he would just text
back wet barbecue, and I knew that meant he was
in Terminal E in the Charlotte Airport. But uh, but
back to the idea of these rocking chairs. I mean,
you know, he's absolutely right about airports being hectic, and
(29:02):
that's actually something I do think we should talk about
in a little bit more detail. But before we get
to that, let's take one more quick break.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
You listen to Part Time Genius, and we're talking about
the special kind of anxiety that people feel at airports. Okay, well,
so one thing I noticed while looking through our research
is that society actually used to have a much more
romantic view of airports than we do today. Like if
you look back at the mid twentieth century, when commercial
air travel was just you know, taking off, thank you Tristan,
(29:43):
people had a very rosy, optimistic view of flying. A
trip to the airport didn't fill you with dread because
airports were still seen as dynamic, forward looking places. But
that's definitely not what most of us see them as today.
So I'm curious, why do you think that happened?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Well, you know, I would think a big part of
this is the massive uptick and security that we've seen
since the nineteen seventies. And I think we covered this
a bit in our Golden Age of Hijacking episode. But
airport's first added metal detectors in the seventies, and this
was of course as a way to thwart hijackers, and
ever since then, we've watched the security process at airports
gradually grow more strict and more complicated. And while tighter
(30:22):
regulations are needed in some cases, I think part of
the fallout from them is that a lot of people
feel really stressed at the airport. And that's even before
you factor in other changes that have negatively impacted the
airport experience. Like you know how much dingier airlines are
compared to just twenty years or so ago. And there
used to be free meals on short flights for all classes,
(30:43):
and then it was restricted to long flights, and now
it's really only international if you're flying coach. You've also
got the baggage fees that have gone up, and seat
fees keep going up, and people are getting bumped from
flights left and right, and so this kind of stuff,
you know, people are now associated with flying. And you
can tell too, like last year, Americans gave airlines lower
(31:05):
marks on customer satisfaction surveys than the US Postal Service.
And not only that, airlines were in the bottom six
for the least like industries in America, and they were
right there with stuff like health insurance and TV and
internet providers. I mean, that's not great company.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Definitely not. But I do think you're right that tighter
security and hidden costs are kind of what robbed airports
of their luster. I was reading this article in Slate
about the current state of the aviation industry, and they said,
you can basically divide the perception of airports into three phases.
The first was when the airports were this icon of progress,
(31:42):
which is the period I mentioned earlier, probably from like
the fifties through the sixties. And the second phase would
maybe be the seventies through the mid nineties, and that's
when the airports felt what Slate put like another stale
waiting room of modern life.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
I mean, that's probably about how I feel about them.
So I guess maybe I'm stuck in in phase two
right now.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, and I'm guessing you're not alone. But for everyone else,
we're now in the third phase, where the airport has
become quote, the marble floored home of our national fear
fueled psychosis.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Wow. Wow, it is not pretty when you spell it
out like that, but I guess that's not too far
off from how a lot of people feel about it.
And what's interesting is how airports have responded to the
rising anxiety levels among their passengers, Like that's got to
be what's prompting all the over the top new amenities
and the herds of therapy animals, the art galleries, the
(32:31):
rocking chairs that we talked about. I mean, it's all
meant to help calm us down and sort of forget
that we're in a place where most of us would
rather not be.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah, that sounds right to me, And I think the
fact that airport retail is booming right now kind of
backs that up. So a lot of people use shopping
as a way to curb their anxiety or just brighten
their mood in general. You know, we call it retail therapy.
And in twenty sixteen, airport retail actually rows a full
four percent worldwide, and for the US in Canada, airport
(33:01):
retailing is set to rise from a ground four billion
dollars in twenty fifteen to just under ten billion dollars
by twenty twenty. That's going to micro Market Monitor, which
is a publication for the trade. But you know, that's
some seriously impressive sales growth, and i'd bet a lot
of it will be thanks to stressed out shopping. You know.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Those figures actually, I guess don't surprise me when you
think about because no matter how bad brick and mortar
stores start hurting, airport retailers really seem like they're going
to be just fine. Because if you think about it.
There are more people flying now each year than at
any time in history, so your local mall might not
be getting that much traffic, but airport retailers have this
(33:40):
steady stream at just about any hour of the day.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, it's a good point. And I was reading about
this one bit of airport manager lingo called dwell time.
It's basically the time between when a passenger makes it
through security and when they board their plane, so you know,
all the time during which you could be spending money,
and apparently the first six minutes of dwell time are
the most lucrative. It's actually called the golden hour because
(34:04):
it's supposedly when passengers are feeling their most self indulgent.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I mean that makes sense. You've just gone through security,
suffered the indignity of the pat downs. You're just looking
for any way to make yourself feel a little bit better.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I guess yeah. Actually it reminds me. I was in
the quick X ray thing that they do where you
walk into that space and turn and raise your arms
and then walk through it, and this guy, I don't
know whether he was on a power trip or what,
but he started telling me while I was in there
to pull up my pants and it is not like
I wear low riding pants like, but I had taken
off my belt as you do to go through the
(34:38):
security thing, and my pants were resting on my hips
and he was like, I said, pull up your pants,
and he kept getting louder and louder about it in
this situation where you're supposed to keep your hands up
in the air and there's this cue forming behind me,
and it was so anxiety inducing and it is so weird.
It's also one of these situations where you can't talk
back right like, because you know if you do, it's
(35:01):
only going to escalate the problem. So I hiked my
pants up as high as I could waddled out of
this place, and of course what I do next. I
bought some candy and magazines, you know, just to get
out of that headspace.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
But I mean, I guess it's one of those things
where he knows that we're getting older, and he just
thought by this point, you're almost to that age where
your pants should be up to your belly button.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Right, Or maybe he's on the take from these stores
just like getting up bus sales. But you know, there
are plenty of other reasons to buy things too. People
forget to pack things for their trip, like headphones or whatever.
Maybe they forget to get someone a gift, and the
airport becomes their last chance to save face with a
mug or buy some candy.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
I have definitely been in that position a few times.
And you know, airport retailers are lucky to have this
captive audience. You know, their customers are psychologically primed to buy.
And it's even more true when you throw incentives like
the whole duty free thing that's added into the mix here.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, that reminds me. I was reading my airport in Dubai,
and not only is it one of the busiest in
the world, it's also home to the most lucrative duty
free shop of all time. By the way, I've actually
been to the Dubai airport, And speaking of luxuries, if
they know you're flying through with a kid and we
were on our way to India at the time, they
actually bring you a stroller to meet you at the gate,
(36:20):
so that like you can connect to your next plane
without having to wake up your kid. You can just
put them in the stroller and stroll them along. It
is really sort of very thoughtful and nothing I've experienced
in the States. But back to the duty free thing.
So their giant shop is just called Dubai duty Free,
which is a little basic, but the sheer size of
the place is actually staggering. The store boasts four hundred
(36:43):
and nine thousand square feet of retail space, and the
Pacific Standard says, if you want to picture it, it's
a full one and a half times the size of
Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, that helps me get a great picture of this thing.
But that is huge. But you also said it's the
most lucrative though, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
So the store's annual sales typically fall just shy of
two billion US dollars.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
From one store. I mean, so what are they selling
to generate this kind of money.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
It is the typical duty free stables, just at this
greater volume. So they sell tons of perfume and liquor.
It's three hundred million dollars in sales of that. Last year,
tobacco sells really well there. They sold two hundred million
dollars of that. They also sell other items like gold
is a big seller, and not just jewelry, but actually
like bars of twenty two carrot bricks, of gold. You know,
(37:32):
it's crazy. There's another big seller that I never would
have guessed. Tang.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
What is tang? Oh like the orange powder drink mix.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, so it's just like the astronauts supposedly loved. But
we're in the Pacific standard. The Dubai airport can sell
upwards of fourteen hundred metric tons of tang in a
single year. Isn't that insane? Like its just that much tang?
And I was wondering that. Apparently it's southey laborers who
like the stock up before going home after working in
(38:03):
the Persian Gulf. But you know, if you're thirsty for
something a little stronger than Tang, you can actually check
out the special first class only floor of the store,
and that's where you'll find a two hundred thousand dollars
bottle of whiskey. It's named the Royal Salute Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Oh what a well. I feel like I might just
stick with the Tang in this case, and the store
can't be selling too many of those bottles of whiskey though, right.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Oh, you mean Royal Salute Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Right, Tribute to Honor.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
It sounds like a dictator. Named it, but supposedly, like
having these high priced bottles around creates what's called a
halo effect, and it encourages these wealthy travelers to spend more,
which is, you know, just so typical of rich people.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Classic rich people. But I mean, you know, airports have
plenty of other ways of getting your money besides retail,
and one of them is that we just straight up
give it to them, or at least that's the end result.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
So how's that.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Well, we really do this though, by leaving money behind accidentally,
So every year, millions of travelers hastily empty their pockets
into those plastic bins at the security line, and then
we forget to collect that loose change once we've made
it through. And yeah, that could be just a few
pennies here or there, but all those coins actually do
add up. I was looking at this breakdown that CNBC
(39:21):
put out, and over the years, it's interesting to see
how much it's been growing. So back in twenty eleven,
it was just shy of half a million dollars that
was left behind by people, and then it jumped to
six hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in twenty fourteen,
kept increasing every year. In twenty sixteen, the TSA's take
was the biggest one reported yet. It was a whopping
(39:43):
eight hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars in abandoned coins
and other currency just left behind.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
So what happens to that money? Like it just becomes
TSA profit?
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Uh? Pretty much. There was actually a law passed back
in two thousand and five by Congress that stays that
TSA free to keep the unclaimed cash it finds and
put it toward whichever security efforts it wants to. And personally,
my vote is for a dedicated bin cleaner so that
I never have to hear another study about how dirty
they are compared to a toilet. I can give behind
(40:14):
that all right, Well, Tristan is over there tapping his
PDX carpet wristwatch, which means it's time for today's fact off.
So you ready to do this? Mango always.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
So you know how. All these airports had various codes,
like pdx's Portland, LAX's La, et cetera. Apparently, the tiny
sand dune where the Wright brothers made their first flight
in Kiddie Hawk has been given a code as well,
and they were sweetly given the name f FA, which
stands for First Flight Airport.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Oh I like that. Well, for years, if you were
flying through Genoa's Christophero Colombo Airport, you'd have to leave
your pesto as security, at least if it was more
than one hundred milliliters of the stuff. And of course
it's made tons of tourists unhappy. So then they decided
to amend the rules and now you can fly with
five hundred grams of pesto and these are bigger jars,
(41:13):
but that's as long as you make a donation to
Flying Angels. Now, this is a charity that helps fund
air travel for sick children. So it's a sweet idea
and people seem to be happy again. But there is
one catch though. The airport waiver only applies to pesto
that is actually made in Genoa.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
So this is an airport related exactly. But do you
know that pilots on flights are served different meals and
they are not allowed to share. Apparently it's done as
a rule because of a fear of food poisoning.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Wow, which makes a lot of sense actually, Well, speaking
of planes, I realized this isn't something we'll probably ever
have to worry about. But if the oxygen mask drops down,
you're only going to get about fifteen to twenty minutes
of oxygen. There's a limited amount of course on there,
but the idea is that more than enough. The ideas
that's more than enough time to take you to a
(42:05):
lower altitude, which is when you won't really need them.
And actually, one other thing about those oxygen masks. What
you're getting isn't really oxygen. It's actually kind of this
cocktail of chemicals that when they're burned together, they release
oxygen because pure oxygen tanks would just be too heavy
and bulky to take up into the air.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
That's interesting. So if you're wondering why certain passengers get
pulled aside for a cavity check, there's actually a system
for it. So TSA agents assign you points for specific
suspicious behavior, and if you have too much of it,
you know, too many points, that's when it happens. But
here are some of the things they're looking for. Exaggerated
yawning or excessive throat clearing, covering your mouth when you're speaking,
(42:48):
showing up in disguise, which makes sense, carrying an almanac,
which makes less sense to me, widely open staring eyes
and whistling.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Whistling, I mean, whistling is like the classic thing people
do in movies when they're like, I'm not up to anything.
But is that really whistling? Is it really on the list?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah, it's when the individual approaches the screen process because
they're worried. It's a code or signal. But you know,
maybe it's also to teach annoying people to whistle less.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
So all right, Well, here's a strange one. In New York.
There's an airport dentist and I just learned about this.
He's actually at one of the airports that I frequent
but his name is doctor Robert Traeger, and much like
those airport stores, he's taking full advantage of this location.
So he's got to practice in Terminal B at Laguardi apparently,
where he both sees airport employees and frequent flyers along
(43:43):
with some emergency walk ins, and at JFKA. His office
is close by, outside of the main airport, so his
wife will actually show fer you to the main terminal,
but that's only if you're part of his smile high club.
And I'm wondering how often these people are going to
the dentist and then onto the airport to be part
of whatever this club is.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
But it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
The crazy thing is that doctor Tregger also does work
for the government while he's there, so the ions uses
him to look at wisdom, teeth and these other indicators
to determine whether people they're detaining are minors or whether
they may be lying about their age because you can
tell age through inspecting bones and also teeth.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
It's crazy that he's got this double life. Well, yeah,
here's a weird one. Do you know. The FAA has
a theme song and I was not aware of that,
And here a few of the lyrics. So we're planning
and building a way to make tomorrow even safer than today.
While flying grows, so do we And that's what it's
all about. We want to help you get back home
(44:45):
in a jumbo jet or flying alone. We make it
safe up in the sky so you'll relax when you fly.
So it's super cashy. Everyone knows the lyrics, they can
sing along. But it's actually got a great story. When
morale was down in the eighties, this guy named John Hanks,
he was the public affairs director at the time. He
decided to give the FA a little boost, and as
(45:08):
he put it, quote, it was designed to bring the
FAA employees closer together and the common purpose we had
in our mission of aviation safety. Oddly, it was a
huge success, so employees really bought into it. They thought
it was super fun. The FA administrator thought it was great,
and the FA Corral was performed at lots of events
around the country, including and this is from Atlas Obscura
(45:31):
at quote one of Nancy Reagan's Just Say No anti
drug rallies, following the headliner LaToya Jackson. You know, the
eighties were at this heady time where LaToya could be
followed by Corral. But you know the best part of
it is that the song costs nothing to taxpayers. It
was all done by Hanks and his friends in their
(45:51):
free time.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
You know, that's a good fact. But I think the
fact that you slip the words LaToya Jackson into a
fact off makes you just automatic winner. There's nothing I
can do to beat that. So congratulations, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
And we wanted to say thanks to some of our
listeners out there. It's actually been a lot of fun
to hear from you guys in recent months. Keeping track
of who is winning the fact off battle because we
actually haven't been keeping track and it was pretty funny.
We stumbled across a website that somebody had actually pointed
out to us, where one of our listeners is keeping
(46:26):
track of who is winning this fact off battle, and unfortunately,
it looks like Mango has been in the lead, and
of course just widen that lead again today. And I
think you've been in the lead all year. You took
a big lead last year and we've been pretty even
this year.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
But I Knowavda, I think his Husbanasi he created this
whole graph of it.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
It's pretty amazing, it's pretty terrific. But we love hearing
from you on this kind of thing and always love
seeing those types of things. But if there are any
facts that we forgot to include about airports, about flying,
anything related to the episode, we always love hearing from
You can reach out to us at part Time Genius
at HowStuffWorks dot com or hit us up on Facebook
or Twitter. We're from Gabe, Tristan, Mango and me. Thanks
(47:10):
so much for listening, Thanks again for listening. Part Time
Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't
be possible Without several brilliant people who do the important things,
(47:31):
we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Christa McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Gerry Roland does the exec producer thing.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Adams and Eves. Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Do we
forget Jason Jason, who
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Comp
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