Houston #1

Three quick posts about a trip to Houston this weekend. Here's the first.

The TSA seems self-satirical, especially the 3-1-1 rule: no more than a 3 oz. container; all containers in one one-quart ziploc bag that is easily closeable; and only one bag per traveler. So we get to the airport and my spouse attempts to go through with a couple of containers, one that contains lotion and another that contains some sort of soap, both of which were in containers larger than three ounces ... but neither of which were even close to full.

"These aren't full."

"We go by the size printed on the container."

So out they went. I'm trying to figure out why they won't let obviously not full bottles of gel pass through. Initially I thought it could be because they thought all your terrorist friends may each bring their smaller allowed amounts and subsequently combine them into your mostly empty container. But, then, water bottles of nearly any size are allowed through the checkpoint, so long as they're empty. Can anyone enlighten me as to why an empty water bottle is somehow less threatening than a nearly empty container of lotion?

On the plus side, after tossing the bottles, they did let us and our one-gallon ziplocs through. So a nearly empty five ounce bottle is a no-no, but a nearly empty one-gallon ziploc is fine.

What's that tickling my taste buds? Oh, yes, freedom. Mmmmm ...