Things are looking grim indeed, until a tiny, streamlined airplane arrives bearing an ambassador (Raymond Massey) from another part of the globe, where enlightened technocrats have come together to form a planetary government they poetically call Wings Over the World.
"The airplane arrived This is Flight 587, destination Santo Domingo The airplane arrives full with bursting suitcases It arrives full of hope Also full of joy To spend the Christmas season with my people And look and see if more can fit To take it to my mother I'm taking seven suitcases And this is not enough!
Many seem to be obsolete already ("clamshell mobile phone," "fax," "old personal computer"), while it's difficult to imagine how we lived without others for so long ("airplane departure," "airplane arriving," "book," and, at last, "reversed hand with middle finger extended").
For Super Bowl weekend, a record may well be set this year for the number of private airplanes arriving.
The airplanes arriving at La Guardia Airport pass so close overhead you'd swear you can see the treads on the landing gear.
A related system, the Traffic Management Adviser, figures out how to merge airplanes arriving from three or four different directions into a single line that is evenly spaced.
The sun appears and sets; clouds of many different shades and shapes push their shadows across the masses of architecture; airplanes arrive and depart; the lights of the city come on and then dim, as the sun returns.
Commercial shipping companies do not need to cross the course at all, although some have been told to adjust their speeds a few knots as they approach the congestion, like airplanes arriving at a busy airport.
Airplanes arriving at Logan Airport in Boston will face delays for the next several days, and possibly longer, because of a windstorm that knocked down the airport's main radar tower early Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Health workers are now meeting airplanes arriving in the United States from affected countries, and handing out cards that urge passengers to be on the lookout for SARS symptoms like cough and fever.
During World War II, airplanes arrived full of cargo, part of which was distributed to the natives.
