Via boingboing.net: Security attempts to confiscate book

Blog entry of a person who nearly had a book taken by security before boarding a ferry. How do you get from "Terrorist flies plane into building" to "Weird book threatens safety of ferry"?

Ahh Books! & catalogs:

Reminds me of a funny story (I think it was funny, you think what you want.) that happened back when I was 18 years old.

We had a teen bar in Oauzakee county called Marty Zivko's. One weekend I went up there alone (Was coming back alone too, darn it!) and was so broke I could only afford 2 of those watered down "beers".

Nursed the hell out of those 2 bottles to make them last till closing which means most of what was in them probably evaporated faster than I drank them.

At closing time, I jumped in my Renault R8 (It was top rated in Consumers Reports back then.) and started home. I hit the highway and started passing everything in site because I thought the speed limit was 65 (This was 40 years ago folks.) Everybody I passed kept looking at me weird and I couldn't figure it out as I was not driving crazy. A little ways down the road a red light is flashing and I happen to see the speed limit sign which said 40 miles per hour in that stretch (Washington county in Wisconsin must have made a ton of money off guys like me who thought the highway speed is 65 mph going through their turf.), and I knew my butt was burned.

There is much more to this story, but let's get to the jail part after I had spent the night in a third floor lockup with a couple of psychopathic brothers, a major swindler, and about 7 other guys like me. After breakfast (Black coffee with no sugar and a large piece of bread with butter (Remember, this is Wisconsin 40 years ago when you could get hung on the nearest lightpole after having been dragged behind a car for 20 miles if you tried to serve margarine.) slaugthered on it.), they asked us if we wanted to buy anything with the money they had taken from us when they jailed us, and if we had any reading material in our cars (Which had been impounded and were parked behind the jail house.) that we wanted them to bring us to bide the time.

Well, I was pretty pissed off for being jailed for a traffic offense, so I decided to ask for a catalog that I happened to have in the rear window nook that the Renaults had. I told the officer exactly where to find the catalog and to please bring it to me.

The book was 'THE THOMPSON SUBMACHINEGUN CATALOG". To this day, I remember the look on that guys face and I still chuckle about it. By the bye, they claimed they couldn't find the book although it was exactly where I said it would be when I had my bail paid and left until the court date.

Most of the time, I don't like to be the "you-know-what", but sometimes it is just so damn much fun. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

what gets me is the person doing the screening was so high on their own power they decided the book was "not appropriate" and should be confiscated.

NOT that the book was dangerous or anything but not appropriate..where do they get off with this crap?

btw today in new york on the news they reported that quite a few airport screeners were arrested and fired for being caught stealing finally.

Personally, I think the guy just wanted to read it himself. Using position for personal gain is SOOOO American...

Rena

I'm with you on that one Rena. I used to work the door at a dance club in a bad neighborhood when I was in college. I was the wand guy and I worked with two other guys that just stood there and looked tough (cause Im no Sylvester Stalone). We were supposed to give back whatever we confiscated at the end of the night (assuming it wasnt somthing like a gun, in which case we called the cops) but often, unfortunatly that would not happen if the manager had gotten his eye on it and it struck his fancy. Boy were those little gangster kids angry when they couldnt get their pocket knives or straight razors or mace or whatever it was back at the end of the night. At least we had disarmed them before the club manager robbed them. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> The point is that power corrupts... no doubt about that.

Hey! Where do I get some of that power???

<img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Rena

right over here just step behind this curtain...muwahahaa

Bounty, you are evil <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

There is an upside to owning a Renault R8, if you were able to keep it running you were either rich or you became a good mechanic. Of course most people that i know that turn wrenches for a living call Renaults, Oh No's. If said properly it rymes with Renault, and is spoken along the lines of OH NO get that thing out of my shop.

RayW:

I was not good at mechanics back then, but the only consistent problem I had was post ignition that was not cured even after the engine was "decarbonized".

I did lose reverse once, but as light as that car was, backing up manually was a breeze.

I remember it was the first car in the United States to have disc brakes on all four wheels, folding front seats that made a continuos flat area because they folded level with the back seats, a 4-way flasher, a crank for starting the engine by hand, a wet sleeve engine for easy rebuilding, and a huge trunk in front that you had to put something heavy into so that it would track in a crosswind.

They made an R10 for the American market after the R8 and then dumped a real headache on us with the "Le Car".

Ahh, sweet memories.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />