Georeactor Blog

When my old NYC-based team had meetings in DC, our travel could get delayed or rerouted by winter weather. One of these rebookings put me in Amtrak first-class for the first time. I arrived just a few minutes before departure and found my assigned seat next to a stranger. My coworker had the seat just behind me - we checked in, and the stranger asked if we wanted to sit together, and I said nah, I've been talking to this guy all week. I opened a book as we pulled out of the station.

My neighbor began making calls. At some point she was leaving a voice mail: "hello, this is Congresswoman __" and let this person know that they'd passed their interview. I didn't recognize the name, but wowww.
You hear about famous people on DC flights and trains, but it never happened to me. Had I said anything stupid earlier?

On first class Amtrak they give you a little menu. The Congresswoman ordered a plate and a drink, which she later placed on the floor while using her computer. Then somewhere she exited the train. At the next station, someone boarded and looked at me and this garbage accusingly. I picked it up and found a sink or something in the back of the car to dump the leftovers away. Frankly I was disgusted?

Anyway when I Googled her name, I noticed that she was a former Congresswoman. Now, I understand that titles like President are used forever, and through TV news and debates we accepted perpetuity of virtually any title (Secretary, Mayor, Ambassador). But this was on a voicemail! There are a few possibilities:

• the recipient met the Congresswoman during her interview, or at least knew about her, so mentioning it in a voicemail was rather exhausting
• the recipient gets a voicemail from a Congresswoman and doesn't know what's going on
• the Northeast Corridor is a patriarchal, dog-eat-dog society where you have to use a title forever or be a little bug

Makes you think