Saturday 18th April 2009 – Looking Round Logan Field

I came to Boston by car, and I'm leaving by train.  Rather oddly, I'm staying at the airport.  It's the cheapest I could find, and it's actually very convenient.  I have to get the tube, sorry, 'subway', into town, but it's indoors all the way.  There are walkways everywhere, and free shuttle buses to the station. 

There is a considerable mount of automation, with its usual slightly sinister overtones.  Some of the walkways move, and a young lady always tells me at the end to watch my step.  I can get on and off the walkways without altering my gait, so she must be referring to some less obvious failing: but I can't figure out what it is.  She also tells me to attend to children, although I'm the only person in sight.  She remains calm, and repeats the message at the end of every walkway.

The automation becomes more sinister at the subway.  Here the voice is definitely shades of HAL, telling me the train is "approaching", then "arriving".  Reality does not quite coincide with this choice of vocabulary, so when he tells me the doors will open on the right side, I start to get nervous.  One of the trains I was on had a broken door, so only one of the pair opened.  I was standing in front of the other.  For a moment I thought of saying let me out, wondering if he would respond with I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave.

On the way back, as I stride onto the first walkway, I am greeted by no less a personage than Senator Kennedy.   I recognise his voice.  He tells me how wonderful Boston is.  Since he is a politician, I feel at liberty to tell him to watch his step.  He is a very senior politician, so he doesn't really need this advice, but he accepts it with good grace, and it makes me feel better.  Then it's HAL's cousin, telling me what to do with my parking ticket.  I tell him what to do with his.

You might think that all this banter with the disembodied computers would have people giving me a wide berth, but almost always, I'm the only person there. 

I bought myself a bagel at one of the terminal fast-food stands.  I hadn't quite finished it when I got to the hotel walkway, so I thought I would do a round trip on the walkways to the next terminal and back.  After all, wandering into a hotel eating a bagel is bad manners, and there was, as usual, nobody about on the walkways.  I had no sooner launched myself onto the walkway when, in the distance, at the far end of it, someone appeared out of nowhere and stopped the return walkway.  As I reached the end, he was striding away.  I shouted for him to start it up again till I got back to the hotel walkway, and he said I'm sorry I can't do that, Dave.

At this point, I notice that I'm half way between terminals C and E, where you might expect to find terminal D.  But there is no terminal D: the terminal directions refer only to A, B, C, and E.  I panic: does HAL have plans for me?  I drop the remains of the bagel and run for the hotel.