3.28 The Book of Annoyance: Travel
Travel broadens the mind. Travel also creates awkward situations and causes people to do some very annoying things. Imposing your habits on other cultures, or sometimes, your wardrobe. Let’s say you’ve paid the money to fly all the way from the United States to France. At the foot of the Eifel Tower, is it really necessary to wear a cowboy hat, tee shirt with an American flag, Hawaiian shorts and crocs? This seems like a stereotypical hyperbole, but I was there and I saw this. Regional pride can be a positive thing, but maybe it’s best to keep it in the region you’re from. The ability to efficiently move around the world has become much easier, through technology and by making many modern conveniences available to travelers, especially on airplanes. But we get spoiled quite easily, don’t we? Remember not to long ago when everyone on the plane was forced to watch the same movie? Now, I scroll through the entire menu on my personal entertainment device and cluck my tongue at how there’s nothing that interests me. A menu, by the way, that includes drama, comedy, action, family, Canadian (Canadian? When was the last time we made a good movie, worthy enough for me to watch on an airplane?), numerous television shows, radio stations and music playlists covering almost every genre. And under each category, there are submenus containing many other titles.
And still there’s nothing to watch.
I realize there are many different types of travel, but since I just returned from a long plane trip, most of these grievances revolve around air travel. I understand that Louis CK covered this in his Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy bit on Conan O’Brien, but you have to admit, the observations below point out some pretty annoying stuff.