With all of the hidden security cameras now, I'd have been afraid it would draw suspicion. A colleague of mine found himself with a knife so he went to the gift shop, bought a souvenir praline, and mailed the knife to himself inside the same box.
...and every other fat a$$ on the plane. I haven't been pulled out of line in about 8 years. Right after 9/11, when they had the little table set up by the jetway I was checked every time, going and coming. I'll be flying out of Heathrow next Saturday. You'd better have your stuff together there because they don't have a sense of humor.
I fly at least twice a month and it's to the point now that some of the TSA dudes in the Baton Rouge airport recognize me. For some reason however, they are the only airport that ever checks and rechecks my stuff. I do IT work so my booksack is FULL of a variety of electronic gadgets and things that probably light up the Xray like crazy. I regularly get my hands swabbed, my laptop swabbed, my shoes swabbed...I've gotten the individual pat down only once but all of this has happened in BR, nowhere else. They spent about 10 minutes one day taking one thing out of my bag at a time looking for a roll of quarters that I keep in there for toll bridges. They got every single thing out of my bag and still ended up having to get me to show them where it was. I was in Indianapolis last week and that was the first airport I've gone through that has one of those nifty full body scanners. They look cool but I hope if they ever decide to use those exclusively, they install about 30 of them in each airport. They are dreadfully inefficient. I have pretty good luck with getting exit rows on all of the airlines except United and American. Mostly because United charges 15 bucks for them and American just enjoys seeing my giant self mashed into a tiny seat. Luckily last week I figured out where American hides the stupid switch to raise the armrest in the aisle seat so it was a little easier to stretch out a bit.
apparently casts are suspicious to the tsa. in okc this morning, was pulled aside and my cast tested for explosives. ok, i can understand that, so that didnt upset me. it was the full body pat down after even tho i didnt set off any detectors and they determined my cast wasnt a bomb that floored me. and given my skinny jeans are very "not baggy" (meaning it would have been impossible to hide any contraband in them!), there was nothing in my carry on that was suspicious, and i had been polite and cooperative the whole time, i couldnt understand why. y'all should feel safe knowing no petite blonde terrorists are gonna get past these guys.
its because of the underwear bomber. its insane how little of certain explosives is needed to blow a hole in the side of a plane. and no match needed.
