We were hanging out in the AA lounge by gate 31 in Boston when I noticed a familiar face--Manny Ramirez. Manny was leaving the lounge (through a door marked "Private") as we got there, but I decided to find him and get an autograph for a friend. The bartender told me he was going to Miami, so I left the lounge to intercept him at Gate 26, which is through a different set of metal detectors. In other words, I had to exit security in my wing (for Gates 29 and higher) and head out to the AA Eagle gates (I believe 26-28) after security over there.

My portable DVD player was somehow confused with a laptop, so the TSA agent took it out to examine it separately. I was quite agitated, as I wanted a chance to catch Manny, so I was worried that I was going to get a full patdown and exam (Why are you so nervous? Why are you trying to come to this area of the airport--your gates are somewhere else?). Instead, the agent just laughed and said, "So, are you hear to see Manny Ramirez?" I asked him how he knew why I was there, and he said that he had ESP. We had a nice discussion about Manny, I went through and got an autograph.

First, does the TSA get notification ahead of time when a VIP is coming through?

Second, kudos to the TSA agent, who probably could have just decided to be a hard-a** and said, "You can't come in here. Your gate isn't here."

Mike