Thursday, September 1, 2011

Something Else Not Allowed on Planes


It is time for a funny story or a ridiculous one, depending on your point of view.

I have friends who went off for a conference in California a few weeks ago. Like all conferences, it was fun and inspiring and chock full of good ideas to take home. As part of the conference, the attendees were given little souvenir gigaws, some of which illustrated concepts that were discussed. One of the souvenirs was a little wood baseball bat, similar to the ones you can get at the ball park. Similar to these I found at the Bargain Factory in Grandview the other day. Now, some folks had to leave early before all the events were concluded. They packed up all their personals, including their souvenir bats and headed off to the airport.

I bet you know where this is going.

Word began filtering back to the conference site: pack your little bats
in your checked bag, or send them home by post or carrier. Because they seemed to be not allowed on the plane. When I heard this tale, I just burst out laughing. There is no end to the TSA and the stories it generates. Now, I suppose that the little bats could be used as weapons or to conceal a weapon, but it seemed a bit foolish to ban them. The x-ray machine would penetrate the wood, and the explosives detector would sense flammables assuming the TSA was using them correctly. Unless you are a ninja, they are really too small to do much harm in and of themselves.

In the ten years since 9/11, what is one of the things that has changed the most? Traveling by air.

5 comments:

Bob G. said...

T.O.:
I wouldn't call it "traveling" as much these days...considering that most types of TRAVEL (should)invoke a sense of anticipation and even a smattering of enjoyment.

Let's call it "personal aerial surveillance and sequestered human cargo moving" instead, OK?

:)

BTW,there is a "substance" that mimics wood and is partially made from wood that's not fun to play with, if you get my drift.
(but I never said that, and was never here)

(guess you ahve to ship the souvenirs SEPARATELY)

Some in the gov't LOVE to over-react (and get paid too much to do so), and while I understand the REASON, the REASONING (itself) behind ALL that they feel they have to do often eludes me.

No fun to fly any longer, unfortuantely.

Now, about those "black boxes" they're supposed to have in newer cars...

Very good post.

Stay safe out there.

Hyperblogal said...

And, on the other end of the spectrum, there was a display case at KCI that had things in it that one is not allowed to carry on an airplane... one of those was a CHAINSAW....

Bob G. said...

HYperblogal:
You have GOT to be kidding me...!?!

I mean that's ususally the FIRST thing I like to place in the carry-on overhead...LOL!

I have GOT to visit that airport someday soon.

Amazing!

chuck said...

Really?

A Chainsaw?

A joke, right?

The Observer said...

I need to travel more...

Hyperblogal was that a demo of things people try to take on the plane?

Bwahahahahahahahahaha!h

Thanks for looking in and have a great Labor Day.

The Observer