You've probably heard of "flyover country," defined as the parts of America that people from the coasts fly over on the way to the other coast.* But I've discovered a new bogus sociological category: Layover Country. These are the places that your plane lays over on the way from somewhere to somewhere else. It includes rapidly growing Sunbelt cities such as Houston, Phoenix, and Atlanta, as well as non-coastal oldstyle cities such as Chicago and, um, Newark. Great sociological hay can no doubt be made of Pittsburgh's slipping off the edge of Layover Country with the recent troubles of USAir. The possibilities are endless!
Note to David Brooks' agent: I get 50% of the royalties on this one.
*According to word spy, it's pejorative, but most of the most prominent uses seem to be from non-coasters attacking the attitudes of alleged East Coast elites--including Word Spy's own example citation. Maybe the Interweb only picks up defiant uses of the phrase, while those East Coast elites use it pejoratively in their secret East Coast elite hideouts where we can't hear them.
Posted by Matt Weiner at November 13, 2004 12:31 PM