At 11:21 AM 1/15/96 -0800, Simon Spero wrote:

When I was a student and had long hair, I used to always get questioned when going throught customs. After graduating, and having normal length hair, I had a lot less trouble.

This seems odd. Logically (okay, I know logic doesn't work with the government) any smuggler is going to try to be as innocuous as possible. He's cut his hair, and shave, and probably wear a tie, etc. Which means the government should pay more attention to.... Oh, never mind!

The strictest customs I've been through is at Lod (Tel Aviv); there the assumption is that everybody is going to try and bring in at least some sort of radio/fax machine to avoid the high taxes, so they check all baggage. They do have the best security team in general though, so it balances out.

Some comedian 15 years or so ago (David Brenner, maybe?) had a joke which went something like this: "The odds of there being a bomb on a commercial airliner is one in a million. The odds of there being TWO bombs on a commercial airliner are one in a _million_million_. Therefore, if you are taking an airplane flight and want to feel REALLY safe....Take a bomb!"