Airport StoriesBack when I was a moody teenager I took a cheap flight that involved changing planes and having to go through security again. My bags were pre-checked so, when I set off the metal detector, I honestly said to the security guy that I had no idea what had set it off.
Until, that is, he searched me and found the metal knife and fork stamped "KLM" I'd nicked off the previous flight.
Tell us your best airport stories.
(
chthonic, Fri 3 Mar 2006, 10:09)
« Go Back
Fun with medical researchTwo stories: (This was long ago. I wouldn't try it after Sept 11, 2001 even with a letter from the pope, who probably wouldn't approve of the work anyway.)
On our honeymoon, wife picks up some blood samples from a collaborator's lab. "Pack them in dry ice for the flight home", she says. The tech who packed it must have thought "dry ice" means "towel off some frozen water", because the box was dripping when we got off the plane. Water, thank god, not blood. I hold it behind my back as we go through customs. We have no documentation for this stuff, but we have declared a teapot we bought, and customs must have figured that's what was in the box.
A decade later, we fly to Italy for a visit with wife's former colleague, and bring some DNA for her to play with. She's faxed a bunch of documents to us so we have it all explained in Italian. "Oh and can you bring me a bag of those nice corn chips from Consett? We don't have them here in Italy yet." Fly in to Florence and the DNA passes with the briefest of glances at the paperwork and the dismissive wave of a hand. But the corn chips! Four Italian guys in uniform looking the bag over carefully and discussing the contents in great detail. I spy our friend through the glass wall and she seems to be having a fit of giggles. No rubber glove treatment, and they let us keep the chips.
(, Fri 3 Mar 2006, 18:15, Reply)
« Go Back