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DALLAS—I've been on 16 planes since September, from Ohio to Oregon, and my carry-on luggage has been searched nearly every time I've walked through the metal detector. There were the nail clippers at JFK, a shiny knife pendant at LAX, and a silver lock dangling from the ring of a leather collar in Chicago. In Columbus, after my personal belongings took their trip down the conveyor belt, a security guard asked me to step out of line for a bag check. Since all three of the aforementioned items were safely packed in my checked suitcase, I wondered what could have possibly triggered suspicion. He led me to a long table off to the side, where the bags of two other passengers were being checked. He rooted around in my backpack until he found what had alerted the person at the X ray machine: my portable and innocuous-looking vibrator. Known to many as the "pocket rocket," this little buzzer is barely bigger than a lipstick and wouldn't intimidate even preppie Charlotte from Sex and the City. "What's this?" he asked.
"It's a vibrator," I said. Sure, I could have gone the easy route, claiming my right to carry a personal shoulder massager on board, but what about the next girl who's got a glow-in-the-dark cock, circumcised head and all? I wanted the security folks to get hip to how some of us relax on a long flight. <http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0221/taormino.php>
===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 AIM: KDean75206 Buffalo Activist Network http://www.buffaloactivist.net http://www.yaysoft.com
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