Extra Ordinary Ideas

Searching for Silver Linings

Anyone who has flown regularly in the last several months knows that – while each airport has its own apparently unique and thoroughly inscrutable set of security procedures – 18 months of practice has allowed most airports to knock the worst kinks out of their respective systems. While annoyingly invasive, security personnel have at least mastered crowd control, and it is once again possible to comfortably show up for a domestic flight a mere hour in advance.

Best of all, my college backpack no longer attracts special attention. This trusty brown canvas bag with leather trim used to sound mental alarm bells in every airport I passed through. It didn’t matter what I was wearing; something about that sack just screamed “contains marijuana or other prohibited hippy substance.” No sooner would I put it through the metal detector than a security officer grab it and run a small white drug detector cloth over it. I swear some airport security training manual contains a large picture of my backpack.

But since September 11th, the book has been rewritten on security priorities. I may have to take my boots off, but at least my backpack is no longer the victim of profiling. Not that my problems have completely disappeared. A young Turk of a security officer spent 20 minutes practically ripping out the lining of my bright red rollaboard last month. The moral? Avoid bright colored luggage. Hippies are out. Colorful characters are in.