The world is small . . . when you work at a big agency.

Today I was about to get off a plane and the guy next to me piped up -- as people often do right after landing, when it's safe to talk because you're not going to get stuck in a conversation that's boring, irritating, or fine except for the lack of socially graceful exit strategies. He saw my be-logoed bag and said, "You work for Agency E?" It turned out he worked there for 4 years, in the New York office.

Then on the jetway I was behind another guy, who was really slow and kind of blocking my way with his bags and such. When we got into the gate he turned around and said, "I used to work for Agency E too, here in Chicago."

BTW I was unimpressed with the "no liquids" thing. There are a lot of signs up but not a lot of enforcement. I could have bought a bottle of water (or anything else) at the gate and brought it on the plane, without anyone at the gate even *asking* passengers if they had liquids. I mean c'mon, at least lay the guilt trip on us!

I got a blackberry last night. Today I noticed that 100% of first-class passengers were operating either a phone or a blackberry when I got on and trooped back to the cattle lot. 

¶ 9:58 PM