clevelandbrown, I think I saw your wife's jar of blueberry preserves in the display at CLE where they show off their confiscated boyscout knives, brass knuckles and other seized paraphanalia.

Faina - actually, it was a book by the other travel company whose name begins with an "F". You may also be onto a theory as to why it was a problem.

Going through the TSA people at Logan is extremely stressful Last tri I had my onboard travel liquids in a zip lock bag.. amd the ,/lajjr'JWPQ HAd nothing to do but hassle me.. a woman in her mid 70's opened up and inspected every SMALL container.. even to my consternation a new bottle of expensive makeup-clearly marked 3 ounces.. and he unscrewed the cap.. looked in and put it back in the ziplock bag where it spilled all over the bag.. Parrot Pop has a new knee and bad ankle and what they make him go through even with sandals is incredible.. he has a slip from his ortho surgeon, but they say that doesn't count....How much of a terrorist be at almost 80years old being wheeled through security in a wheel chair...

Naturally, with a LONG history of terror attacks and hijacking, that started already in the early 70s, and much experience in preventing terrorism, Israeli airline EL-AL security can teach the TSA a few "tricks".....

They are sometimes more interested in the PASSENGER, than in his luggage. But for that you need to learn a few things about psychology, pay attention to the passenger's reactions and body language, look at his eyes -- and use your brain.

Anybody boarding an EL-AL flight would agree that they do it differently. Yes, they treat different people differently. A Hebrew-speaking Israeli woman in her 50s would be treated differently than a Japanese man in his 20s. Naturally.

It's called EFFICIENCY.

So far (knock on wood!) it's been working fine... Several years ago they even prevented a couple attempts to blow up Israeli planes in mid-air, untill the bad guys realized they have very little chance with EL-AL...