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Thanks TQ, somehow you said it better than I did.

On the way out of Panama we saw the works piled in a huge plastic container. My family was quite amused at what we saw..... a hammer, baseball bat, screw driver, tool kit, matches, a license plate, scissors, AIR HORN(! lol) you name it. Yes, it's everywhere and that is the whole point me thinks.

LaurieMar some pictures coming your way in a couple days! Thanks again for your advice. Claudio says hello and I will email you details.

You're right ladies, no woman should have her tweezers confiscated! lol

Very cool - will look forward to it! I love Panama!

I forgot to say that I will gladly put up with any inconsistencies the TSA may throw my way in favor of getting to travel! LOL.

And if ayone tells you there is no inconsistency with the screening at Goldson, sell them that oceanfront land in San Marcos that E claims to have. I wish I had a Belikin for every lighter they have confiscated (always because I forgot to stuff it in a backpack or camera bag) and TWO Belikins for every one I've gotten through (inside the same bags)!

It hadn't really occurred to me until I read this that each time I travel, I have a "dealers" license plate in my computer bag.

We live 250 miles from SLC , 350 from Denver and 450 from Phoenix or Vegas, so each time I travel, there's a drive to the airport and a vehicle to leave until I return.

In every case, it costs less to take a vehicle to the auto auction and run it through the sale, with a $25 no sale fee than it does to use airport parking for 2 weeks, plus there's always an airport shuttle each way and a truck with jumper cables available when I get back in the middle of winter!

In 6 years, I have never once been asked about carrying a license plate…. Until the next time I suppose!

When I was in Spain with LaurieMar, at the Madrid airport on the way to Barcelona, they told me that I had a nailfile in my big carryon purse and I'd have to hand it over. I couldn't find one in there, so they let me go. The next time I passed through that same airport, they again told me I had a nailfile in my carryon purse. I still couldn't find it but they were quite insistent the second time and wouldn't let me go until I located it. I scrounged and scrounged through that bag. I found all kinds of things more deadly but no, there was nothing for it but that I fork over the offending nailfile.

I was most confused, but did finally manage to pull out my blunt-end ceramic nailfile, bought specifically because it was ceramic and wouldn't be confiscated. Well, of course, they took it, despite my protestations that they shouldn't need to take it. Oh well, let's get on with the trip, right? And so I did.

When I got back to my home in Canada and was unpacking and putting things away, I came across the true offender, tucked in a fold in a pocket. It was a indeed a metal nailfile, but just one of those little duffers about 2-3 inches long from handle end to metal tip. That nailfile had been to the Caribbean numerous times and probably even Southeast Asia, once or twice before it ever made it to Spain.

Sure would have come in handy a few times, had I ever realized that I'd had it with me.

&nbsp All,
somewhere down the line, this thread changed into a rant about the TSA. I recommend printing out this page from the TSA website. Carry the printout with you as you go through security, then when the knucklehead at the x-ray machine trys to take your nail file you can show them that the TSA specifically allows them. Often, the folks who are doing the screening have no real idea what is allowed or disallowed.

&nbsp I'd like to join the rant and offer some insight. One of my cronies at Chase Field had a day job as a high mucky-muck at Sky Harbor's TSA office. He was second in command for one of the busiest airports in the USA. I've asked him about this stuff and he's always been honest with me. For example, nobody's ever going to hijack an airplane by holding a boxcutter to a stewardess' throat, ever again. The pilots simply won't open the cockpit door. It's not going to happen. She's expendable and she knows it. Is somebody going to hijack a plane with a nail clipper? No, it's just not possible.

&nbsp Orville has since moved on to be the top man at another big airport, I think it was Atlanta. Before he left we talked about security in general and the TSA in particular. Here's the concepts that I came away with: Security can't become static or it becomes too easy to breach. If the policies of a security operation don't change, opponents have an easier time planning to overcome those policies. Now, many of the TSA's random changes are simply poor training. For example, some of the rank and file still want to take your corkscrew, even though you are specifically allowed to have one in your carry on. On the other hand, some of the stratigic changes are there to keep the TSA policies fluid. Some of those changes make no sense, but they're changed just to keep things changing.

&nbsp The TSA is secutity theater, by and large. Orville was candid about this. The organization does have a function making air travel safer, but it also exists to provide the illusion that the government has things under control. In reality, terrorists can down aircraft under tight security. Wasn't an El Al jet downed a few years back? The Israelis are highly experienced in counterterrorism, and the lost a jet in the post-911 timeframe. Are the USA's counterterrorism efforts in the same league? Probably not, but we tend to feel safer when the TSA hassles us.

&nbsp When the TSA hassles me, I know it's phony. But I try to take it in stride. After all, a little security theater isn't too high a price to pay to take a trip by air. I'll trade a few minutes spent with a pimply-faced kid in a TSA uniform to save a few hours driving time, any day. It sucks, but not as much as the alternatives.

&nbsp &nbsp Dan

[end rant]

&nbsp

nicely stated, dan. it is a necessary evil we need to endure to get where we want to go.

ss - truth IS funnier than fiction. bf (unbeknown to him)carried a small pocket knife in his backpack thru PHL and DFW airport's TSA, all throughout bz before it was taken at goldson. he was bummed when they took it; he thought he'd lost it some time ago.

personally, having to be at the airport 2 hours before my flight is a bigger PITA...

As the TSA says: 3, 3 and 1.

Overall, as long as I safely make it to my destination on a somewhat timely basis, I am a happy girl.

Happy Travels - its all good! Sometimes, pretty funny too. (Except for that other time I got really mad at the TSA for taking my olives and sauce from Spain!) Stooopid me, I inadvertently packed in my carry on, thinking of the good ole days when you could.

yeah, that olive thing still gets to me too!