Andrew:

Having working in a professional capacity in Memphis for ten years, here are some of my suppositions regarding your question of Chinese and Japanese signs at the Memphis Airport.

First Memphis and China. Tennessee business interests have long benefitted from the relationships of former Tennessee politicians and China. Former Tennessee senators James Baker and Jim Sasser were each the Ambassador to China. Baker's law firm, Baker Donelson, based in Memphis, Nashville, and Washington D.C. (and other places) was an early beneficiary of corporate transactional business with China. Over the years, they have steered Chinese business back to Memphis. With Chinese business comes Chinese executivies.

Jim Sasser and FedEx were instrumental in bringing pandas to Memphis, which requires long term negotiations and utilizing political capital. Obviously FedEx has strong ties to China.

Memphis and Japan. Memphis used to be the site of good size Japanese electronics facilties, most notably Sharp Electronics, which still has a facility in Memphis. The Japanese signs were probably put in to cater to the various Japanese executives who would come through Memphis.

Don't underestimate the efforts of a city to accomodate foreign executives who bring jobs and money.

How high does the price of jet fuel have to rise before the amount of distribution goes down?

As we slide down the far side of Hubbert's Peak

till we come to a final stop at the bottom of Hubbert's Pit, we will find out. James Kunstler

of Clusterfuck Nation Chronicles once said:

"Globalization is yesterday's tomorrow." True?

False? Only time will tell.

The renovation guess regarding the multi-lingual signs at MEM is incorrect. The signs have been in multiple languages for at least 15 years. The smaller signs are limited to English, Japanese and Chinese, but larger signs include Spanish, French, Korean, etc. Memphis has welcomed the world for a long time. Cotton and hardwood exports brought the world to Memphis before FedEx existed.

The airport signs were probably intended to make business travelers feel welcome. We do have a number of foreign tourists during Elvis' birthday week and Elvis death week, though. Ever seen a Japanese Elvis impersonator? I have!

Tennessee has a number Japanese businesses operating in the state. Brother and Sharp have been in Memphis for many years. Nissan, Hino and other Japanese companies have found the mid-south to be a good location for some U.S. operations.

The Memphis area (or other transportation & logistics hubs) might be good to study when looking closer at globalization. Arkansas supplies many parts of the world with rice and soybeans. Through Arkansas-based WalMart, some parts of the world supply much of our country with all the cheap stuff our hearts could possibly desire.

We're not just all about Elvis down here by the river, but we welcome impersonators of all nationalities!

I live in the New York metropolitan area (which is what you say when you don't want anyone to know that you live in New Jersey) and around here, everything written tends to be in English and Spanish, and often in French (I assume because Quebec is a relatively short trip north). Virtually all ATMs offer Spanish as an alternative, and in this particular area, you can find a bunch which offer Polish (very entertaining).

The thing which mystifies me is when items offer translations of very obvious cognates. For example, "No" is exactly the same in English and Spanish. When the ATM asks me if I want a receipt, is it really necessary that it read, "Yes/Si, No/No"? Is there anyone left on Earth who can't read the word "yes" in English? I can read it in Spanish, after all, and I'm hardly Mr. Bilingual.

I can excuse it in an ATM, since it's probably easier to program it to present multiple languages without adding in exceptions for words like "no." But I see it on packaging, too. Now, maybe you need to print translations for phrases like "red beans" because "habichuelas rosadas" doesn't look anything like it. But phrases like "electrical parts" ("piezas eléctricas")? "Instructions" ("Instrucciones")?

It's just wacky. I don't care if the labels are in Spanish, English, or French. But if I can work out the foreign version, then leave it! It'll help me become more bilingual. Or leave it in English. Everyone else will be able to figure it out.

On the other hand, I have this tag from a toy my son got at a birthday party, and it's entirely in Japanese, except where it reads "MADE IN CHINA."

So my wife flew home from Europe on Sunday, on a KLM/Northwest flight to Newark. She walked out of customs without her suitcases, which the airline temporarily lost in Amsterdam.

The next day the suitcases turned up in Newark, and Northwest promptly FedExed them to us. One bag arrived the following morning, Tuesday. The other suitcase? Hmm... It's now Wednesday morning, and FedEx is searching for a large grey suitcase in their lost-and-found.

Amazing, one suitcase, lost twice in two days on the same transatlantic trip, by two airline companies with hubs in Memphis. Ain't globalization wonderful?

Living in Montgomery, the only real choices for flying are Delta's horribly expensive MTG->ATL, ATL->X or NWA's usually much cheaper MTG->MEM, MEM->X. I've been wondering about the Asian language thing for a while now (Japanese but no Spanish or French?), and there's really no information I could find about it online. Thanks for addressing it!

Not only does the BBQ smell good, it is good. At least for airport food. My second favorite airport meal behind Mo Better Chicken in Atlanta.

Since when is Memphis the "Deep South"? It's known as the mid-South there. Southerners like myself roll our eyes whenever non-Southerners marvel at the fact that we don't walk around barefoot and that we do have indoor plumbing.

I moved away from Memphis three years ago, but just after I left the Memphis Zoo was opening a Panda exhibit, with, of course, a Panda from China. I don't know if that is the reason, but it does seem reasonable.

Globalization is also a possibility