Richard Garrison had to agree: The image on the X-ray screen did look like a bomb. Not a sophisticated bomb, mind you, but the sort of classic, round, light-the-fuse-and-run bomb that Acme supplied to Wile E. Coyote.
Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight
Richard was at Dulles Airport in Virginia, returning from overseas and connecting to a flight to Nebraska. He explained to the startled security officer that it was a souvenir of his trip to Africa: an empty ostrich egg.
“The shell was about 1/4-of-an-inch thick and solid calcium, hard enough to resist the jaws of jackals and hyenas,” wrote Richard, who lives in Arlington. “After this marvel of nature was examined, I was allowed to go on my way, with the egg. I suspect that the experience might have contributed to a conversation along the lines of, ‘You won’t believe what I found in a bag today.’？”
Advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
You won’t believe what you’ll find in today’s column: more magnetometer moments!
A harmonica strikes a discordant note in the airport security line
When visiting his father in Florida, Bowie’s Craig Henderson toured a sugar cane farm, where he was introduced to the pleasure of chewing on the raw cane.
“I wanted to bring some home to people I thought would like it, so my methodical father cut the stalks into exactly equal lengths of about eight inches and packed them tightly together in Ziploc bags,” wrote Craig.
No surprise that airport security asked to examine Craig’s bag, which looked like it contained a bundle of dynamite.
In 1977, Peter Brunner’s parents moved to California. At the time, if was hard for his mother to come by her favorite brand of spaghetti: Buitoni. So Peter bought 10 boxes of the pasta and gift-wrapped them.
Story continues below advertisement
“When I got to Dulles Airport and my luggage went through the scanner, I was pulled aside and asked about the wrapped package,” wrote Peter, who lives in Columbia.
Advertisement
You guessed it: It looked like dynamite.
Peter unwrapped the package, displayed the nonlethal pasta and was allowed through.
Susan Meisner of Alexandria says her mother-in-law’s real-cream fudge is a “guaranteed showstopper.” It’s also a security-line stopper.
“Apparently a solid block of fudge resembles another not-so-benign substance,” Susan wrote. She was briefly stopped by security at the Denver airport when returning from a trip.
Susan now cuts the fudge into pieces and puts it into checked baggage.
Story continues below advertisement
On one of her trips, Arna Cohen of Bowie came across a specialty food store that devoted an entire aisle to that most acquired of tastes: black licorice.
Wrote Arna: “Score! My husband and I love black licorice — though he likes the horrible salty stuff. I loaded up on a wide variety and happily packed it in my carry-on.”
Advertisement
Later, in the airport security line, an agent poked around and pulled out the bag of licorice.
“It’s licorice,” Arna said. “My husband and I are fans.”
“Evidently,” came the reply.
Wrote Arna: “He replaced it in my bag and sent me on my way. All I can imagine is that it looked like plastic explosives or something on the X-ray.”
David Summers’s son, Dan, got spoiled when the family lived in Sweden. Every birthday was celebrated with a “princesst？rta,” a confection of whipped cream and raspberry jam encased in a chartreuse marzipan helmet.
Story continues below advertisement
“After we left Sweden, his birthdays were always tinged with melancholy, because we never could find marzipan of the proper vivid shade,” wrote David, who lives in Arlington. “Dan was well into his 30s when I made a trip to Sweden and picked up a roll of princesst？rta marzipan, available in every grocery store.”
Advertisement
And it was that sugary roll of almond paste that got David questioned before boarding his connecting flight in Copenhagen.
“I was taken aside, asked about the contents of my bag, then asked to open it as the staff all took a step back,” he wrote. “Smiles and laughter followed when I produced the marzipan, made in Denmark. It wasn’t a plastic explosive after all, and Dan celebrated his birthday with the cake of his dreams that year.”
Story continues below advertisement
Joe Furgal’s mother’s hometown is Monroe, Wis. When he visits, he’s sure to return with that town’s signature product.
“Since this made-in-America product is not easy to find in the DMV area, I bring back several packages every time I visit,” wrote Joe, who lives in Arlington.
It always raises suspicion, whether lighting up the X-ray when stuffed inside his carry-on or packed into his checked luggage.
Advertisement
“If I put it in my suitcase, I find a note saying that my suitcase was opened by TSA,” Joe wrote. “I now pack it separately in a plastic bag and pull it out of my carry-on and send it through the X-ray by itself.”
That product? Limburger cheese.
Lest you think only “foreign” food raises suspicion, Margaret O’Brien of Minneapolis was stopped in Amsterdam while traveling to the German family hosting her daughter on a high school exchange.
Story continues below advertisement
“I had a small carry-on that I filled with one box of each flavor of Girl Scout cookies to share,” Margaret wrote. “The guard in the Schiphol airport thought she was seeing boxes of ammunition in the scanner image and there was a lot of excitement.”
Hey, I always get excited about Samoas, myself.
Tomorrow: More magnetometer moments.
Twitter: @johnkelly
For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.