Okay, let's start from the very beginning, a very good place to start....

Flew on an airplane for the first time since 9/11. I did notice some differences in everything, but it wasn't nearly as major as I thought it would be. I half expected a strip-search and security interview involving an FBI psychological profiler holding up rorschach tests. None of that happened. I did notice that some people did get taken out of the line and had their luggage searched. One lady had a bunch of things tied up in boxes and the security guard made her take a knife and open up every single one of the boxes. I know racial profiling is bad (bad!) and all, but I really don't see an 80-pound twentysomething Asian woman as a huge security risk. Nor the late thirties female Business executive whose bags were also looked through.

They did ask me the usual questions at the counter, you know the "did your suitecase ever leave your sight?" questions. I always thought those questions were really dumb. Have they ever actually caught someone with those questions? Like has any terrorist slipped up ("yes, someone else packed my suitcase, errr, I mean no.....") and a major disaster averted? And even if someone slipped up, would the person at the counter even notice? They must ask that question a million times a day and everyone says the same thing, so I'm sure they're so used to the same answer that they wouldn't even notice if you said something like "you know, I did put in my suitcase some package that some Middle-Eastern dude in a "I Heart Osama" t-shirt gave me, but I didn't think much of it at the time." And what would happen if you did say something like that? Would red-alarms go off everywhere and Special Ops agents quickly repel down from the ceiling like in a James Bond flick?

Few quick things about the flight-

-Some lady did one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. She talked on the cell phone from the moment she stepped into the airport all the way up to the security gate. She even talked while in line at the security gate. In fact, the only reason why she got off was because she got dinged as she went through the x-ray and had to the phone done so she could get zapped by the magic wand. Now, I'm not sure she needed to zapped by the magic wand, but if I was a security guard and saw someone on a cell phone for that long of a time, I think I'd stop them too and make them have to get zapped. If I was in any sort of bad mood, I think I'd even recommend a strip-search. It's the principal of the matter.

-There was a Middle-Eastern looking guy in front of me was going through the security gate who was wearing a baseball cap with a very large American flag on the front of it. Wonder how intentional that hat was....

-I wonder if you could still do an O.J. through the airport. No, not the murdering your wife and getting away with it thing, but the running through the airport at a very fast pace, hopping over all sorts of furniture and luggage on a way to make a flight thing. Somehow, I think that if you did that now, you'd get chased down by the beer bellied, 50 year old National Guardsmen who are everywhere in an attempt to make you feel safer that due to the presence of the 50 year old beer bellied National Guardsman.

-Jet Blue flat out rocks. Fly it whenever you can. Whoever runs United should fly it too to find out why everyone in the world hates them.