Originally Posted by
Sink r8
I noticed there are temporary tools, and tool places. Take, for example, the pit of dispair, the ATL crew lounge. You take a perfectly normal pilot, say a pilot that would acknowledge another pilot anywhere else in the world, and put them down there for, oh, five minutes... TOOL.
You can experience this by walking in quickly, before you yourself turn into a complete TOOL, and send out a little "hey, how you doing" to one of the tools walking around around like he has a broom up his [bleep!]. If they glare at you, full of indignation, you know they've been there long enough.
If they try desperately to avoid eye contact, like a sad depressed Goth teenager, or a feral cat, then you know you're in the DTW crew lounge.
If everyone is more tanned, and more friendly than you, and all they want to do is make eye contact with you, but ever so briefly, and then they immediately forget what they were doing, because someone else comes along, you're in LA.
If they do all of the above within the span of a microsecond, and then they want to hear more about that feral cat, then you're in a Flight Attendant lounge.
All true, but as for ATL, I would emphasize that is only the domestic lounge under A concourse. I never realized how gloomy and depressing the place was until I starting flying international a few years ago.
Typical international lounge conversation:
"Hey Jim, how's it going?"
"Headed off to Dublin. Where you headed?"
"Cool. Enjoy a Guinness or two for me. I headed to Buenos Aires."
"That's cool too. Have a great steak with some Malbec, and don't get too friendly with those hookers!"
Typical domestic lounge conversation (if there is one at all):
(Pilot on telephone, loudly): "Hey I thought that real estate deal was done last week!"
(Other pilot on other phone): "The S&P is down 2%? Sell it all."
(Third pilot to friend): "Hey let me tell you about my boat...and let me tell you about my kid who aced the SAT...and let me tell you about my business...ah heck, let me just tell you about me."
(Ten minutes later): "Oh, I forgot, anything going on in your life?"