Friday, February 18, 2005

Have yad, will travel.....maybe not

Today I flew to Arizona to visit my parents and celebrate my mom's birthday. First tip--if you can, avoid traveling on the Friday of a holiday weekend--especially one that starts what Northern Californians call "Ski week." I had an e-ticket, so check in was fine, and I only had carry-on luggage, so no problem there......but the line to get through security snaked around the entire baggage claim area. At 7a I started to get nervous about making my 7:40a flight, but soon an America West employee came around calling for people who had 7:40 flights, and directed us to the head of the line.

So far, so good.

I know the drill--everything in the bins, including jackets and shoes. My big worry was my crochet hooks and sissors. I had done the research, and found that crochet hooks and knitting needles were allowed, as were blunt sissors, but you never know. Sure enough, no problems with those items. But the scanner saw something in my backpack. They asked to check it by hand. I couldn't figure out what I was carrying--my pens, pencils, flashlight?? Nothing made sense. Then--it hit me. "I know what it is," I told the man checking the bag, "I have a pointer in the bag." So I directed him to my small bag, where in a plastic bag, wrapped in my tallit, was my yad. While getting to it, he said, "Is it sharp?" "No," I answered, and while he seemed intrigued with the yad when he found it, he deemed it safe, and let me go on.

So to all of you travelling layners...beware, and point out your pointer to airport security, before they point at you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

AH, my Divah, but did you ever hear the mystery of "Yad Man", the mad murderer who is said to wander the woods of Camp Hess Kramer and plots to kill with a yad as his weapon of choice? Sounds like the plot of a bad mystery novel, or perhaps "CSI Crown Heights".