A little incident I witnessed on TV last night is a painful example of how deeply the public's knowledge of the rail industry has diminished.
Some close friends and I were watching Jeopardy and the final question attempted to identify "a roadside service adapted from the Pullman Company" (I'm not quoting verbatim but a link between Pullman and food service was definitely implied.)
On-board passenger amenities have, admittedly, never been among my principal interests as a railfan, but in all my exposure, I don't remember any references to Pullman actually operating food service. Nonetheless, I decided to guess "diner" as the answer, which turned out to be "correct", according to the show's criteria.
Still, the people researching this matter for the show obviously didn't do much of an inquiry here, and it's another indicator of how "pop culture" tends to ignore the actual origins of many of our institutions, and of the continued dimunition of traditional rail passenger service in the public view.
Some close friends and I were watching Jeopardy and the final question attempted to identify "a roadside service adapted from the Pullman Company" (I'm not quoting verbatim but a link between Pullman and food service was definitely implied.)
On-board passenger amenities have, admittedly, never been among my principal interests as a railfan, but in all my exposure, I don't remember any references to Pullman actually operating food service. Nonetheless, I decided to guess "diner" as the answer, which turned out to be "correct", according to the show's criteria.
Still, the people researching this matter for the show obviously didn't do much of an inquiry here, and it's another indicator of how "pop culture" tends to ignore the actual origins of many of our institutions, and of the continued dimunition of traditional rail passenger service in the public view.
What a revoltin' development this is! (William Bendix)
