TSA and Thanksgiving

With all the ranting about TSA, most of it deserved, I thought ya'll might
want to hear something nice for Thanksgiving. It was a random act of
kindness in a city not known for such things.

I was sitting in the cockpit for an O'dark:30 morning departure. Boarding
was about half-way done. A gate agent appeared in the doorway and thrust a
knive in my face. Good thing she was holding the blade end. A TSA inspector
popped his head in next to hers. He seemed to take a peculiar gleefulness in
viewing my face going from half-asleep to full adrenalin in a microsecond.

The TSA person acknowledged that it was against all the rules but asked if
the passenger might be allowed to take aboard for a special occassion. He
then explained that the knife was a silver cake server for a 50th
anniversary. It had fancy engraving that wished the best to the old married
folks. It wasn't very sharp.

Harking back to my experiences from days of old, I came up with an equitable
solution. I agreed to accomodate the passenger's request by stowing the cake
server in the cockpit. All parties were agreeable and Thanksgiving cheers
went around to everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving to ya'll!

D. (for trouble-makers, this is purely a fictional story and anything
representing anything is purely coincidental, and everyone will deny it
anyway, so don't bother)