Notes on travel from Memphis to Ukraine

Well, I am finally here - here being Ukraine, that is, but in Kyiv (Kiev), and not in Poltava, my final destination for now - and towards which I am headed via train tomorrow. But it has been a long trip getting here thus far, not necessarily strange, but worth noting for at least a few things. And so here are some travel items I have made note of:
1. Security at airports - even in the U.S. - Is far from standardized. I had to go through security at three different locations on my intial flight from Memphis to Venice, Italy: Memphis, Chicago O'Hare, and London Heathrow. Each one had slight variations that were based on nothing I could determine. I won't go into details, but this seems entirely odd to me - shouldn't all these airports have the same or at least similar procedures?
2. While on the subject of airports, here are two sour notes in my travel; first, Chicago O'Hare: once past the security check (after a long line) there are NO RESTAURANTS, SHOPS, BARS, OR ATMS. All you get while facing perhaps a several hours-long wait are a couple of Duty Free stands and shops plus one magazine/chochki store and a stand where you could buy outrageously overpriced bottled water, soda, and very dry-looking sandwiches. This is criminal, in my view. However there were were plenty of business and first class private lounges that I couldn't enter but imagined all the free-flowing booze and free hot food buffets within ...
3. My next sour note, London Heathrow. I haven't been there in a few years, but apparently they have made some "upgrades" that are unbelievably ugly and utterly user-unfriendly. As you enter the main international terminal (5) after the quarter-hour transit ride from the plane (this after 8 + hours in the plane), you are dumped off at the very bottom of a series of escalators that take you through a labrynth of metallic corridors until you get to the security area at the top. Here you are greeted by an enormous line where apparently EVERY incoming flight is funneled through and impatient security personnel brusquely require you to enter - INDIVIDUALLY - to be screened. This obviously takes even more time and backing up of the line, so as this staging area reminiscent of a cattle-branding roundup fills with jammed-in people - all wearing heavy winter clothing, mind you - the temperature rises to a balmy 90+ degrees (remember that this area is at the very TOP of the terminal - and heat rises ...). By the time I was told to go through I was sweating considerably, causing added questioning as to "why" I was sweating ( "BECAUSE IT'S ---- ING HOT, YOU IDIOTS!" - thought but not said aloud for fear of deep cavity searches or other such "fun" airport prospects). Having gone through this hell, you descend back down to the gates (why is this a good idea, again??) and can then bask in the artificial lights of dozens of really cheesy ceilingless stores - all arrayed as if in a huge metallic mall. Yes, metallic, because Heathrow Terminal 5 is essentially a monstrous airplane hangar that they converted into a metal mall/terminal. TRULY horrid, architecturally. Needless to say, I could not wait to get out of there. Which I did, after sitting around the general seating area until a half-hour before my next boarding time - at which time the gate I was departing from was finally announced.
4. Arrival in Italia; note on Venezia Marco Polo airport: FANTASTIC!! But more on this later...