Anecdote: My colleague, Jeff, I found out yesterday, was on the very last flight out of Detroit a few days ago, when the power went out. He got through security two minutes before the power died, and he only managed to get on board his flight because a door to the tarmac had been left open when the electricity died, and the captain had the passengers board the old-fashioned way (not directly from the gate, but up some stairs). As he said, “If I’d stopped to wizz or get a paper, I would’ve been there another day and a half.” He’s counting his blessings.
Aside: I decided to look up “tarmac” — it is an odd word — and I found out that it’s a shortened form of tarmacadam:
Main Entry: tar·mac·ad·am
Pronunciation: ‘tär-m&-’ka-d&m
Function: noun
Date: 1882
1 : a pavement constructed by spraying or pouring a tar binder over layers of crushed stone and then rolling
2 : a material of tar and aggregates mixed in a plant and shaped on the roadway