I have all these MacGyver-like thoughts to share with you regarding my airplane experience but I'm a little afraid I'll end up on some list someplace, and I still need to fly in two weeks to DC and Boston. Isn't it a little silly to be afraid of such things? But if people are being prevented from flying because of the books they're reading [via rebecca], I can't imagine what would happen if I were to tell you about how I realized that my carry-on bag contained a long metal rod, and that Air France had given me a real glass glass (accompanied by a useless plastic knife), and how I pictured I could break the glass, tape it to the end of a long metal pokey rod and make a bayonet on-board the aircraft. If I told you that, would they still let me fly?
Normally I don't concern myself with thoughts of how to make a weapon out of my personal belongings, but something about the arbitrary, and seeming short-sightedness, of the new security measures, led me to it. Tweezers were prohibited. Tweezers. What, is someone going to tweeze the flight attendant's eye brow until the pilot relinquishes control? But then they serve GLASS. And a sharp-as-hell fork. But a plastic knife. Apparently one of the victims of September 11 was common sense.
Note: I don't know what the solution to this is.
Speaking of security though, I have to say, kudos to Charles de Gaulle (the airport, though the man was great too) and Air France in Paris. I've never seen anything stricter, much tighter than SFO. Three passport checks, the final one half-way down the jet way. And random bag inspections on the jet way as well. And lots of people with machine guns patrolling the airport. I think I've seen enough machine guns.