James Lee Stanley

Sitting in the airport in Los Angeles, after an hour and ten minutes to go through security, gives you plenty of time to think.    You now must arrive at the airport at least 90 minutes before your flight at a minimum.   I always arrive two hours early.  That way there is no stress for me.   No matter how long it takes for baggage check, security, etc, I have time.  

I even have time to spend ten dollars on an egg sandwich and an orange juice.

The reasons that they charge you so much for nothing at the airport  are twofold: 

First, you are a captive customer.  You cannot go any place else.  So they do it because they can.  

Secondly, the folks that build the airport for the city, and the city itself, charge so very much for the right to have a concession stand at the airport that they must raise their prices some on a variety of things.

American Airlines charged me $25 for my checked bag.   They raised it from $20.    The reason that they started charging us for bags was because fuel costs quadrupled, thanks to the appointed Bush regime and the fact that they put this country completely into the corporate pocket.  Not to mention the fact that it was that party that was directly responsible for the falling dollar.   But that’s another story.   Sorry for that outburst.

We may need another revolution to put the country back to what the founding fathers considered a democracy.  Whoops, sorry again.

In the meantime,  let’s get back to the airport.   My recommendations are to definitely give yourself enough time to go through unforeseen traffic james; all the bureaucratic “going through the motions” security; and any other surprises a bored deity may create for you.

And don’t carry anything that is going to cause you delays at security.   But sometimes we forget.

Two decades ago, my father gave me a beautiful Buck knife in a leather case.   I’ve carried it ever since.   It is a knife with a locking blade.   Absolutely not permitted on a flight, so I always put it inside one of my shoes in my suitcase.

That’s another idea you should employ by the way.   They go through your bags now and you can’t lock them, so anything valuable that you put in the suitcase is at risk.

When they check through the bags, they have to do it fast, so put things inside your shoes that you don’t want to tempt the inspectors.

In any event, I forgot to put the knife in my shoe in my suitcase and it was still in my guitar case.   When I got to security, they went crazy and of course, wanted me to surrender this $50 knife to them.  I refused.   They said I could not go through security with the knife.

I turned around and went back down to the ticket counter and requested that they hold the knife for me until I returned the following Monday.   The said that they couldn’t do that.   “What if EVERYONE wanted to do that?”   The lamest of the power platitudes.

Okay, I said.  Do you have a lost and found?   You do?   Great!   I lost this knife.  I think I’ll find it next Monday when I return.    She laughed and took the knife.   I picked it  up the following Monday.

Keep your wits about you and don’t get angry.   Get smart.