It had been a fun morning. The heater had broken in the TRACON radar room. It was 20 degrees outside, not much better inside, and the hot chocolate I was drinking was losing its steam—literally. On top of that, busy last-minute holiday traffic had been giving our morning skeleton crew a kick in the teeth.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/proficiency/atc-routing-realities