THE STINK PARADE is how my friend Mark refers to the processed feel of long haul travel. In airports, we always crack jokes about it. Everyone comes off a plane looking disheveled. Everyone could use a shower. Passengers shuffle in a dazed lockstep to the next terminal or the immigration queue.
Fashion columnists often pine for the golden era of air travel, when passengers wore suits and not sweatpants. Me, I couldn’t care less what people wear in transit. What gets me steamed is bad behavior, like the righteous travelers who think social cues are waived in the limbo of air travel, or the impatient travelers who snap at flight staff and demand convenience. Even the clueless travelers, so dazed and weary, they forget those small acts of courtesy.
Below are some ideas for more conscientious and less jerky airport behavior because, no matter where we’re going, we’re all in the stink parade together.