[ILUG-SOCIAL] Re: Social Digest, Vol 24, Issue 2

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bernard-Joseph Roche (bjroche at gmail.com):

> Hmmmm......ever arrived at SF International from London? Huge queues.
> I have to say though the state dept officials were quite friendly.

Oh, I did that run many times:  My father was a captain for Pan American
World Airways, and I got around quite a bit.

SFO's international terminal was the very oldest and least-efficient
part of the facility until about a year ago, when a new terminal was
opened.  One can hope that its immigration and customs stations have
been updated:  For a very long time, USA airport treatment of arriving
visitors struck me as quite Kafka-esque and slow compared to, say, that
of the Irish Republic and the UK.

> Had a bit of fun trying to explain to the guy that my dad and I have
> the same name.

Ah, I get that story from my wife's family, too (nee "Maloy"), where
almost all the male children, by tradition, were named John, and the
girls got named Mary.  

My wife's parents, being mavericks, wanted to give their daughter an
Irish name that not only wasn't Mary, but wasn't even a saint's name,
either.  There aren't many candidates, e.g. Morrigan didn't seem quite
right. ;->  So, Deirdre it was.

> All in all, over the last 5 trips, they were very nice. Nicer than
> London. Want a scary experience, try the exit from China!

Or Romania, under Ceaucescu.  Bucharest International was crammed with
kids fresh off the farm toting AK47s, and you really weren't certain
when they casually pointed those in your direction that they even knew
how to operate the safety.