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Love the snow globe, but don't hand carry it on an airplane
While perusing the list of things not allowed as carry ons on airplanes, snow globes caught my eye. These are those items I usually associate with Christmas. Remember the one in "It's a Wonderful Life" -- the Jimmy Stewart classic holiday movie? The snow globe represented the main character's idlylic town--all cozy and snowy in winter. Even if you had that snow globe-- calling it an antique--a movie classic piece of memorabilia, TSA wouldn't blink an eye before snatching it up and selling it on Ebay. (See Catherine's and Neil's posts.)
Okay, I remember a snow globe at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life," but maybe I'm making this up, and I just think I saw it. But, there was also a snow globe in "Citizen Kane" that crashed to the ground and broke at the end of the movie when the main character dies, right as he whispered, "Rosebud." Either one, doesn't matter. You can't take it on the plane.
See, the water in the snow globe might not be water at all--and heaven knows what those white flakes or glitter that swirl about when you shake the globes might be made of. Plastic, sure. How about EXPLOSIVE plastic? Just kidding, I have no idea.
I'm actually not faulting TSA for putting snow globes on the list. I never would have thought of their possible use as a terrorist weapon. Seems mean to me. Clever, sure, but definitely mean. Snow globes are magic. They are where you hold a world in your hand that you can alter by turning it upside down or shaking it. They are like the best memories of childhood--like pudding. You can take pudding on the plane, but just 3 ounces or less.
So if you happen to be traveling for the holidays and pick up a snow globe in some gift shop, just remember, wrap it in a towel or something, and pack it in the middle of your checked suitcase--otherwise, maybe you can buy it back on Ebay like Neil suggests.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Stories, Airlines, Airports
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 13)
Tandy Braid Nov 19th 2007 10:50AM
Soon TSA will have us all riding in the plane buck-naked...Could prove to be an interesting flight!!
Kent Nov 19th 2007 10:50AM
I figure that al-Qaida is like the Mafia. If they want me dead, they will find a way, and the government can only do so much to protect me.
rob Nov 19th 2007 11:11AM
Ya break that and u can slice someones throat with it... my goodness do any of you have any clue...
Richard Nov 19th 2007 12:27PM
I think the other name for "The Departmenmt of Homeland Security" should be "Big Brother." How STUPID are we Americans not to see where our Government and politicans are leading us. Ever think that just maybe, just maybe 911 was orschestrated by our oun governent. George Orwell's 1984 was just dated a few years too early. The real terrorists is our own Government!!!
robert Nov 19th 2007 12:27PM
hey I know lets all just stay home and nobody fly until next year
John F.C. Taylor Nov 19th 2007 12:27PM
Flying naked still wouldn't solve anything. They'd still want to do body cavity searches to see if you were trying to smuggle anything on board. Then there'd have to be a different way of seating passengers too. You'd have to board by Beautiful, mediocre or really ugly. Then who would be the one to decide that? Also, would they factor in things like bad breath, dandruff and body odor? Exploding snow globes. Just one more thing for the paranoid to obcess about.
Willie Nov 19th 2007 12:26PM
Psssst - Don't tell anyone but I carry ball-point pens with sharpened points.
Byron Spain Nov 19th 2007 12:26PM
If no passengers were permitted on a plane, i.e. a cargo plane, hijackers could easily hide in a large box, take over the plane and repeat 9-11. Also, the cleaning crews, food service delivery people and ground crews have unsupervised access to passenger planes and can easily hide a bomb on board. The entire aviation security operation is little but a passenger pacifier, not a real security program.
LisaLAli Nov 19th 2007 12:26PM
I thought in our USA freedom is what its about.freedom to choose.. what we wear what job we do what to eat ,pray ,believe just dont bring that Lemon baller on the plane or they'll sellit on e bay LOLPeace and get real
Chris Nov 19th 2007 12:25PM
Wow.
When I fly home for Christmas, I'll remember not to buy any snowglobes. I do appreciate the extra measures being taken to ensure the safety of those of us traveling this season, but come on! Like I'd use a snowglobe to blow up the plane. Maybe its a diabolical snowman inside, one that will pull out a gun and start shooting people.
john Nov 19th 2007 12:25PM
The TSA is a joke. I fly a lot and there is no consistency. I just passed through security with a jar full of shea butter that looks very much like you know what in the solid state. I also passed with a bottle of water inside my carryon that wasn't detected. But if you show them a tube of toothpaste, they take it. I've now been 'trained' to ignor them and just say, 'oh, I forgot we are still doing that'. I asked a flight attendant about the 10 inch (pointed) scissors she was using to cut open plastic bags in the rear of the plane. She didn't seem to understand why. The real reason for all this nonsense is a subtle conspiracy to make the American people think we are at risk....when our biggest risk is posed by the idiots we've elected. Including Democrats who have done nothing. We need to support anyone who has the guts to tell the truth....I don't expect we'll have that option. JW
parishilton90210 Nov 19th 2007 12:25PM
these people have sick minds. i mean, how many kids are in danger now by having a small collection of snow globes in their rooms... gosh, what is the world coming to now...
billkincaid Nov 19th 2007 12:24PM
The only thing that surprises me about this is: what took them so long? There are many flammable and explosive liquids which could be carried aboard a plane in a snow globe. For example, nitroglycerin. If there's anything funny about a pint of nitroglycerin aboard a plane, let me know 'cause I'm missing it. A good sized globe-full could easily destroy a plane.
TSA is a reactive, slow-moving agency that shows us when the government is your only hope, you're in poor shape. Private industry - the airlines - couldn't really care less about your security, instead waiting for the gutless government to tell them what to do.
Still highly vulnerable: air freight, totally uninspected; batteries in laptops which could be fake and instead contain explosives; the contents of the quart sized plastic bags; and a long list of other items. But the TSA will wait until something bad happens and then react.
I wish I didn't have to fly so much.
Shelley Nov 19th 2007 12:22PM
Yes, snow globes are at the bottom of the list (read the fine print) and I found that out this summer when my husband and I traveled to Arizona for business and I bought one for our 5 year old boy, who collects them (he saw it on Disney) and it was in a box, wrapped in plastic and between to pieces of Styrofoam in my carry-on -- well good grief, I did not thing a thing about it because it did not have that little opening on the bottom to drain; it was fully enclosed and going home for him. Well, going through security, I was accosted by TSA and told that I couldn't take it with me I would have to leave it with them(in a very demanding/ugly tone); so I asked the guy "are you going to give me the $10.00 I paid for the darn thing?" and he said "NO I AM NOT!" So I told him that he wasn't getting my son's snow globe. I ended up going back to check-in and getting a box from some nice people, who obviously did not work for TSA, and wrapping it in the box, putting my name and address on it and claiming it as baggage.
Now, I ask you, if I were a terrorist, which I clearly am not, and I was going to blow the plane up with a pretty little snow globe, and you wouldn’t let me have it in my carry on, don’t you think that I would be smart enough to have a detonator so I could set it off no matter where it was? THINK ABOUT IT – that was just stupid!
Not to mention, you want let me carry it past security, BUT I can get through security and go purchase one in the gift shop – now, again, if I were a terrorist, which I am not, don’t you think that I’d have the solution to the “explosive water in the globe” to make another one before I ever got on the plane – I mean there are bathrooms and corners that I could do that, if I were a terrorist.
Dumb A**es!
mia Nov 22nd 2007 11:03PM
Your maniulative way of thinking just goes to show you that we can never be too careful. You were already talking about how to make a bomb afetr you pass through security. Are you a terrorist? Imagine how they think. Get an education and be thankful that someone is looking out for you.
shane Nov 19th 2007 12:23PM
nexted they will have the women that carry there dildos and vibrators threw the airport security checkpoint go threw customs and say they might be smuggling illegall missles into another country lmao.
P. Nov 19th 2007 12:21PM
Typical incompetent idiocy.
Agnes Nov 19th 2007 12:31PM
Wow, the snow-globe industry just took a nose-dive. So are the airlines going to stop chunking our bags 10 feet at a time so the snow globes we packed won't empty out on our laundry in the suitcase? Broken snowglobes just do not have the same magic.
Bright1 Nov 19th 2007 12:35PM
Here's the best solution: When you check in to fly on an airline, ALL your luggage is checked. Then you go into a dressing room (accompanied by a same sex observer of course), strip off all your clothes, and they give you a footed, disposable coverall to wear. And when you get on the plane, every passenger is given a baseball bat. That way, everyone is armed exactly alike, no one has any contraband, and if anyone causes trouble, they can be beaten to death by the other passengers. Or I suppose we could return to common sense......naaaaahhhh, that'll never work!
alison tyler Nov 19th 2007 12:36PM
Hey John,
Flying naked. Body cavity checks. I think you have the start for a really good porn movie.
XXX,
Alison