In Praise of the Pocketknife, In Not-Praise of TSA
Over at Splice Today, Russ Smith goes to bat for the increasingly out-of-fashion pocketknife, whose demise has doubtless been helped along by post-9/11 security:
In truth, I've carried around a pocketknife since first acquiring one as a Cub Scout, and would no sooner leave the house without it than my watch or set of keys. Not long ago, at Reagan National in Washington, D.C., I'd stupidly forgotten to pack my knife in the checked baggage and it was confiscated during the security check, accompanied by a mild dressing down by the fellow in charge. (By the way, I've passed by the guards a number of times, knife undetected, ample enough evidence that the vigilance at airports is, charitably, spotty at best.)
BTW, if you had kinda-sorta-gotten used to the Transporation Security Administration, get set for this:
Starting in August, the TSA will ask all airlines to provide names, birth dates and genders.