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Yesterday on the shuttle from the rental-car drop-off to the
airport terminal, I came across an unusual technical-communication
glitch. Nearing the terminal, the bus driver hit a button to
play a recording telling what the next stop is. That was nice--
the recording is in clearly spoken English, something that many
of the bus drivers don't speak. But the recording said to refer
to "the list above" to see which airlines were at the East
terminal. Um, "above" what?
Predictably, lots of passengers started scrambling around to see
what the recording was talking about. I thought maybe there was
a sign up high outside, so I looked out the window. The speaker
was in front, so some people looked above the speaker. It turned
out that the list of airlines was on a placard up above the
windows on the inside of the bus, where advertisements usually are.
This confusion probably happens on every single trip.
