Newps wrote:

The aircraft called ground control when he was done with his runup and
said he was ready for the clearance. GC read him the clearance and then
gave the strip to the data man for the release. Every clearance was as
filed. Always. There's nothing to digest if you flight planned properly.

You've obviously never flown in the North East then. Unless you've
flown the exact route several times, know the traffic patterns currently
in use around NYC, and have a spate of good luck, you will usually get a
full route clearance. The preferred routes in the ugly green book are
not always the ones used either. Except for the relatively rare cleared
as filed, you'll have something to digest and a new flight plan to put
into the GPS before you are ready to depart. I always call for my
clearance before engine start, and almost always get the clearance then
as well. On routes that I fly frequently, I often do get the route I
filed, but even then they often give it as either a full or partial
route clearance.