Random observation in an airport. Depending on timing, there's always a few people hanging around the Starbucks in any given airport terminal. The number of good places to eat has really jumped up, though. It's a good bet that there'll be something to find on the crawl to the next gate. But even with a good selection, there's always one or more other places with a line, no matter the time of day.

In the airport I'm hanging in today, it's the Whataburger. Every time I've passed them recently, they're the ones with a good line. It's different in other parts of the country, local variations in taste and so on. In the northeast, the deli counters are a good bet.

I don't know yet whether that falls into the category of "follow the locals". It's an airport, we're all just trying to cadge a last snack or whatever before getting on the next ride, so the rules are subtly different. Still, it is a good way to sort of gauge the way the river runs in any give part of the world.