Originally Posted by
QueenOfCoach
There are plenty of inexperienced travelers ("Kettles") who are experts in other fields of endeavor. They are not necessarily a bunch of idiots. I have an uncle who is an expert at Civil War history and who is independently wealthy from his stock market investments (but not from any inherited funds). Yet, he has not been on an airplane since 1996. He would be flummoxed by the TSA procedures. My uncle is a very smart man, very clever and expert in his own world. When it comes to air travel, however, he would be a true "Kettle".
Obviously different people have different notions of Kettle behavior, but I don't see it solely as inexperience. Even first-time flyers have at least some sense of how to be considerate in crowded, shared spaces like airports and airplanes (and TSA procedures can flummox the best of us). True Kettles, in my mind, inexplicably lack this. They're the equivalent of the shopper who parks his cart crosswise in the aisle at a busy supermarket, the escalator rider who stands in the middle with hands resting on both rails, the distracted driver weaving and doing 45 in the carpool lane.
Not realizing that your 3oz liquid bottles have to be in a 1qt resealable bag is forgivable for someone who's never dealt with the TSA; utter lack of common sense and courtesy to fellow travelers, on the other hand, is the hallmark of Kettledom. A nice dose of belligerence doesn't help either.