One of my hobbies is rock-hounding and, while in Northern California this weekend, I picked up some specimens at a rock shop going out of business. I was curious what would TSA would do as, among my fellow rock hounds, the word is, "NOT ALLOWED -- THOSE COULD BE WEAPONS!"

I put them in my rollaboard, figuring I would check the bag if necessary. This was at OAK. Sure enough, the x-ray caught it and a TSO came over to inspect my bag. Interestingly, he only checked where the "anomaly" was, rather than tearing through everything. He asked if I had anything dangerous or fragile. I told him I had crystals, which were fragile. As he started to open the box and unwrap the specimens, I said, "I was hoping you'd unwrap them and look at them -- they're nice mineral specimens." He looked at them, said they were really nice and asked me what they were (calcite, marcasite and melakaria), told me his hobby was macrophotography, these would be great to photograph, let me re-wrap them and then sent me on my way.

In a world were bookmarks and miniature souvenir baseball bats are forbidden, I was truly surprised I was allowed to take them on board. Here's at least one occasion when common sense prevailed.