Flying

Did you know that Nashville is the Athens of the South? So the jaunty voice on the Nashville airport loudspeaker just announced. I wonder if there's an acropolis? And where is the Athens of the North?

Flying always makes me question if we really won the Cold War. I look around the waiting area: Long lines of grumpy but subjugated people carrying heavy loads. All nodding abjectly when told patent lies. Standing shoeless before stone-faced, power-hungry uniformed thugs. And then crammed with strangers into a small airless container and denied food for hours at a time. Somewhere Khrushchev is smiling.