On the Tickets of the 1980s | 2009-12-14 00:00
These days airplane tickets can be printed at home. They are basically just a barcode and, post-2001, they really only care about your driver's license. They used to be different. They were on heavy cardstock. They were thermal-printed. They had custom blanks that sort of whispered, "Hey, we're Delta Airlines. We aren't the USAF, but we're close, and all our pilots used to work there anyway." There were really slips of paper that you could hold in your hand and have a really deep feeling: yeah. In exchange for this, someone will launch me to California seven miles in the air and at 500 kts... and they'll drop by at 37,000 feet to serve cocktails. The 707 may have been as close as we ever got to the future -- after that, all Boeing has ever done is to try making it cheaper.
I am: Chris Kern
You may know me from such places as Concord or Brown CS, where I went to school, NYC, where I live, or Google, where I work.
chris@jormungand.net
617-840-9982