It has come to my attention that in one particular airport in Wisconsin, Mitchell airport apparently, was the first airport, may still be the only airport, to use in official signage the word “recombobulation”, and this is amazing, and I want everyone to know about it.

It’s after TSA, after security point, and it’s just a name for the benched area where you can put your shoes and belts back on and shove your larger electronic items back into your overpacked hand luggage. Because you have been discombobulated, you need to be recombobulated. This is where that happens. This word, which may have made it into an official dictionary by now, was named as the most creative new word of the year in 2009 by the American Dialect Society. Which, now I’ve discovered is a prize one can win, is destined to be the cornerstone of a new personal goal.

Anyway. They call it in their signage the “Recombobulation Area”, but I think we can all agree that is a typo, because they clearly meant to call it the “Recombobulation Station”, as that is obviously the better name. Because it rhymes.

I have no other information or point to make about this. I learned about it from a lecture series on word origins and the evolution of language I’m listening to, and it came up this morning because I was at therapy and realised that I should have booked in an extra session after a recent experience that left me discombobulated, because I had been in need of this room, this process, as my recombobulation station. Or one of my recombobulation stations.

We all need recombobulation stations. They look different for different people. But they exist for all of us.

It’s just nice to discovered there’s a name for them. I thought you should know.