…the term “rawdogging” had this meaning, in a travel sense:
A new travel phenomenon has swept TikTok in the form of ‘rawdogging,’ which means consuming no form of entertainment during a flight – except for the basic maps or data shown on the seatback screen.
Taking it to greater extremes, some will also claim to forgo food and drink for the duration of the journey.
Many videos show travelers with blank expressions as they stare into space, while overlaid captions brag about them completing the challenge.
However, a team of travel experts from the site Netflights have now warned that the practice can have many negative impacts.
And here I thought “rawdogging” on a flight meant some kind of unprotected sexual congress with a flight attendant. Shows what I know.
Anyway, while I can sort of see the experts’ [coff coff] point, I don’t buy into their argument wholeheartedly. I quite like to sit and gaze into space with a “blank expression”; in my day, that was called “quiet contemplation”, and on short-haul flights I do it all the time, not needing constant stimulation to be happy, or at least passably happy. Transoceanic flights are a different animal, however, but a decent couple of “disposable” books — ones that can be tossed without regret after completion — usually fit the bill admirably. And I loathe airline movies because they’ve mostly been bowdlerized Because Of Teh Kiddies.
Also forget forgoing food and drink on a long flight; that’s just plain stupidity, spelling as it does hunger and dehydration. This is why God invented biltong, my children; and dehydration in the pressurized cabin is no frigging joke, especially if you are at risk of a gout attack (ask me how I know this).
Speaking of biltong: I see that our supply thereof has fallen to a dangerously low level, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the kitchen. I may be feeling poorly, but sometimes ya just gotta.
If they really want to raw-dog, they should ride in the back of a 1970s station wagon for 1200 miles with nothing to do but listen to their parent’s music and look for out-of-state license plates.
an old acquaintance who was a railroad fan, decided to take the train from Boston to either Washington or Florida. He thought that he would relive the glory days and adventure of train travel. He was seated next to a woman who brought her own food which consisted of a big bag of fried chicken. She proceeded to get half of the fried chicken into her and the rest of it on her and my acquaintance. The first thing he did when he got off of the train was to turn in his return trip ticket for a refund.
I fly rarely but in-flight entertainment is usually a bust with dreadful films and music so I break out a good e-book and that’s me set. Internet access is heaven.
Jeez, Louise. Leave it to our “moderns” to prettify sitting like a mook for a couple of hours in an airline seat. Read a frickin’ book and stretch that constipated mind. My airline anti-rawdogging fave was a flight from Dallas to Hamburg, filled with Germans returning from a Mexican holiday, each with carry-ons bulging with cheap tequila. Which they proceeded to share all around party-wise for the entire flight. Proving that a sufficient amount of tequila can render even the cheapest airline snacks tasty.
It has only been for the last hundred-or-so years that mankind has been able to experience the view of the world below them. To me it’s the absolute best show you can ever have. I like the inflight moving map, and will eat the inflight meal or snack if provided (as well as a non-alcoholic bevvy), but that’s it.
If I’m in the centre section or if most of the flight will be in darkness then I’ll just use my noise-cancelling earbuds to play some music, but I have zero interest in inflight entertainment, beyond perhaps briefly connecting to WiFi.