What started this thread off was Lucky Green's observation of the beerkegs getting through the security checkpoints at the Oakland Airport. Just yesterday I flew from Seattle's Sea-Tac Airport to Oakland, on Southwest Airlines. My partner and I were (we thought) checking in just in time to be in the second boarding group. (Explanation of Southwest's lo-tech allocation of seat choice elided). An unacompanied woman was the next person ahead of us in the line. She presented the gate agent with *four* tickets and *four* IDs. "Where are these other people?" the agent asked. "They're parking the car," said the traveler. The agent gave her all four boarding passes; and my companion and I were bumped to the third boarding group. The woman in front of us was white and middle-class-looking, traveling with what appeared to be her family. One wonders what would have happened were she a swarthy man wearing robes and a burnoose. Or if she were just wearing shabby clothes. -- Alan Bostick | To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height mailto:abostick@netcom.com | of elegance. news:alt.grelb | Jean Genet http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~abostick