The Cosmopolitan Blog

In December, to get to my holiday destination, I spent over 30 continuous hours in various airports, each way. Considering the relative short distance (and the fact that we’re in the 21^st century), this was a very depressing fact…. all that to save $600 on the price of the fare.

I left before the attempted terrorist attack of December 25, 2009 (yes, the guy with the explosives in his underpants), so needless to say, airports, on my return, had become even more hectic, especially flights to, from and transiting through the US. Today, I am on my 3^rd airport. It’s been 1 security check and body search after another. And considering that my carry-on includes a laptop, an SLR camera and a purse full of “stuff”, and that on myself, I have jewellery and knee-high boots, I’m a security attendant’s worst nightmare.

As I stood in line for an hour and a half at Philadelphia immigration, I was reminded of a scene from The Godfather II. In the flashbacks, when young Vito Corleone first arrives on the ship from Sicily to Ellis Island in 1901, the immigration hall looked pretty much the same, people lining up for hours, tired and cranky. In those days, they’d just asked you your name and then checked your hair for lice. These days, there are many, many more questions, and the lice-checking has been replaced by full-body pat downs.

But now, this latest terrorist has just upped the ante, hasn’t he? Read the rest of this entry »