The latest search
Filed in: travel, Thu, Oct 7 2004 16:41 PT
I hate getting pulled aside on the jetway. It’s happened to me four times in recent memory: in Tokyo, Chicago, Boston, and now Toronto.
My attitude when this happens is increasingly piss-poor. I used to smile, or pretend to smile, as they rooted about through my bag and searched me for piercings. But I can’t help but feel targeted — victimized, even, in my own frequent-traveler way. As I’m sitting here, shoeless, having my gear gone through, somebody else is taking the overhead space that I got in line for like a good little prole.
Three or four minutes pass, and the what-ifs get the best of me. I start thinking: What would you rather have happen to you: a secondary search for no good reason, or a kick in the nuts? After the fourth occasion, I think I’m leaning toward taking the shot in the junk. It’s faster, and at least as useful a deterrent against terrorism. But maybe I’m just bitter.
What am I saying, maybe.
October 7th, 2004 at 16:47 UTC
Well if you will dress like some kind of drug dealer. With all your bling up in your ear!
October 7th, 2004 at 16:49 UTC
Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
October 8th, 2004 at 13:22 UTC
Next time, try to put something in your bag that will make the security agents laughing, it is your challenge!
October 14th, 2004 at 16:42 UTC
Just attended a meeting in Vancouver that I had completely forgotten about until the preceding day: I had to buy a ticket in a hurry, flights on my regular airline were sold out. Take off from San Francisco at 7:10am, return the same day at 8:00pm. With a last minute purchase, not being a regular passenger of that airline, with no luggage at all, and a round-trip in the same day, guess who got “randomly selected for a secondary search”, both on the way to Vancouver and on the way back?! Ah, the pleasures of watching your shoes and belt go through the X-ray scanner while you’re holding your pants to make sure they don’t drop to the floor, and then enjoying a 5-minute inspection of that laptop bag!