I know this is a really old thread, but I have some great items to add that have stopped me, and even kept me from boarding once.
(For the record because of my name and its arabic spelling I always have a TSA love note in my bag, and now that I'm married my wife gets them too. I keep them in there to save their paper of putting a new one each time.
And I was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin so I'm as true blue American as it gets. So go figure that one, but whatever, they're just doing what they're told and as long as a male patdown dude isn't grabbing my ..., I'm alright with them checking my cargo pants that seem to always set off the walk through detector.)
- Clear braided usb cables. Yes, I kid you not that in Bangalore India the lady with the machine gun looked at me and said that you can't take that on the plane. That or the two external hard drives in Aluminum enclosures that the cables connected to. I had to re-pack everything and the flight was held up from departing because of me. True story.
- Deep Woods Off aerosol. Yep, had these removed from my checked bag--just when I needed them in at my destination to keep the mosquitos away. The solution to this is to buy the non-aerosol version.
- Lots of cables coiled together. I had the TSA inspector tell me that because all these cables were bundled together it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. Solution to this is that I just throw each cable into a plastic grocery bag and then toss them in the bag more randomly. Seems to help quite a bit.
My next trip will be interesting. I need bug spray, car wax, and clorox wipes at my destination country...