A personal favour from the TSA

Those nice people from the Transport Security Agency did me a favour when they inspected my bags before the Washington to Columbus flight. They found one of my birthday presents from my mother and unwrapped it for me. They did leave the book, Michael Palin's Himalaya and the ripped up wrapping paper in the bag though.

What was particularly interesting from my point of view is that they didn't unwrap the three other presents, one birthday and two Christmas (my mother likes to plan ahead), in the bag. Apparently it was only the book that the deemed posed a threat.

While I was browsing the TSA's website, I discovered this page containing a smattering of the written recognition TSA screeners and staff have received for a job well done. You can find a similar level of recognition for the previous five months if you look in the archive section. In the words of Eric Idle, "Say no more!"