One other thing I remembered. As recently as the 1970s, airport food was the worst in the world. I remember old dried-out hamburgers and hot dogs sitting under heat lamps, big scum-coated buckets of chili con carne. They were terrible, and they cost two or three times the going rate outside the airport. It was horrible, but here's the thing: We didn't have to spend so much time in airports. Most of the time we dashed through, sometimes straight from the car to the plane, with barely a stop to show someone our ticket.

So now that we're trapped for far more time in airports, they've brought the rest of the world (ie. malls) inside. In some places, like this Einstein Bros. Bagels in Houston, they even have Wi-fi.