Yesterday, I was at O'Hare. Well past the document check point, a TSA guy attending the space between the "prep tables" for my line and the one adjacent was calling out "Have your boarding pass in your hand", over and over. I dutifully dug it out and juggled it as I readied my shoes, computer, baggie, etc. As I stepped through the metal detector and attempted to show my boarding pass to the attendant, he said, "We don't need that here." Lounging against a podium five feet away was another TSA agent who appeared to be a supervisor of some sort. We could ALL hear the guy STILL calling out to everyone to "have your boarding pass in your hand."

My bro-in-law came through LAX the week before where AS HE STEPPED THROUGH the metal detector, his boarding pass was demanded. No announcement had been made ahead of time. Everyone in his "lane" had to scramble among the bags to retrieve their boarding passes. I had been through LAX for the same flight in May without having to do this, and indeed, the O'Hare thing yesterday was the only time in the 10 flights I have taken since May where a boarding pass at the metal detector SEEMED to be required.

And shoes: SFO - shoes must be in a separate bin. Louisville - "no need to use up so many bins, just put your baggie with your shoes." My gel inserts went through yesterday, but then those shoes were packed inside my carry-on.

After 9 flights with my Kindle reader passing through inside my bag, the O'Hare checkpoint was not satisfied -- they sent my bag through 2 more times, first pulling out my headphones, then the reader ("there appears to be a hard drive somewhere...").

It's these inconsistencies that expose the arbitrary and personal nature of the whole ridiculous enterprise.

On the other hand (referring to the "airlines putting up with this"), the nexus of charging for checked bags and the baggie-enforced weight limit of liquids and gels would seem to be saving the airlines a bundle in fuel costs.

A dozen years ago I overheard someone telling about his vacation to a resort (probably a Club Med). When asked by his companion where this place was, he said he didn't know, but it took ten hours to get there. (He probably hadn't taken the time change into consideration, either.)

I thought, Wow! it's as if he had boarded elevator, the doors closed, and some time later the doors opened and voila! a different climate! And a cocktail!

To echo someone else's mention of Disney World: I visited Epcot Center soon after it opened. I suppose it's still the same - a collection of 2/3-sized ersatz "villages" and "foreign landmarks" surrounding a large pond. Often overheard there: variations on the riff, "I'm tired of Canada, let's go on over to France!" I got the impression that many people were relieved to have visited the "Eiffel Tower" and bought Swiss chocolates without having to forgo American plumbing or encounter a "foreigner."

But at least they spent time and money to see something "not American...," although even that's arguable!

"The integration of aviation and geography...

Ahhhh, I'm savoring that phrase.

Thanks, Patrick, from a fellow pilot, for minting a felicitous description of the barely expressible, slow-burn joy of aerial navigation."

And thank YOU for "slow-burn joy of aerial navigation."

I'm just a window-gazer, but I'm also a map/geography freak, and on a clear day, well -- slow burn joy abounds!

These days I teach high school. It would be soooo much easier to teach US History if students already knew geography. To their chagrin, my Advanced Placement kids are required to learn major rivers, boundaries, and mountain ranges; they must be able to place these things on outline maps. I've had to teach them about climates in the US (no, you can't grow cotton or sugar in northern climes - hence no plantations, hence no large populations of enslaved workers).

Placement of industries, cities, agribiz, internal migrations, settlement patterns - all owe much to geography.

Plus, there's that slow-burn joy of "aerial navigation" of a map, even if "aerial" is just eyeballs to desktop.

I hope the person who said "if you can't lift it into the overhead yourself, you need to check it" will consider that some of us just can't do it anymore!

My bag is not that heavy or large, it's just that I'm short and getting old.

I'm five feet tall (can stand upright in front of an inside seat); I USED to be able to lift my bag over my head into the bin. But now that I'm over 60, sometimes it's difficult, so I look for help when I get to my row. Asking for someone "with good upper-body strength" nearly always brings a smile and help.

So far, only one person has been rude- not just declining to help, but also making some sort of nasty remark. It was probably one of those people who had just gone out if his way to hold up the security line.

Why doesn't anyone call her on the fact that SHE has a career? She's just another Phyllis Schafley-type - Schafley whose message, delivered publicly with great media attention, was "women, shut up!"