Last Friday, I was sitting at the San Diego airport, trying to figure out if my flight was going to be on time.

Of course, Continental thinks it will:

Being suspicious, I notice that there’s no plane at the gate.

Where is it?

Aha, looks like we’re waiting for flight 1726. Where’s that? I’ll check FlightAware:

Arriving 3:21. A bit later than the display at the gate is showing, and a total of 39 minutes late. And indeed, we took off almost exactly 39 minutes late.

Thanks to Joe Farrell for this idea.