I've gotten the SPOT routine from a few screeners before. I'm actually a bit surprised that on days I'm running late for my flight, haven't had enough sleep, and have run into long lines, that they didn't feel my responses characteristic of a terrorist.

The most obvious is when a TSO approaches you as you're getting your belongings from the belt and ask, "Where are you traveling today?" or something equally inane; I have to bite back really hard not to respond, "To the land of mind your own darn business!"

However, the better applications of SPOT ("better" being a relative term) are made in the pretext of polite conversation, such as a TSO seeing a bird field guide in my bag and asking if I expect to see anything good on my trip or if I know any good local spots to visit, or commenting that they've read books by the same author as the book I'm carrying and liked this or that, etc., or asking if the XM radio I'm carrying is "worth it" as they're considering buying one, etc. Heck, these may even be genuine conversations out of the TSO's interest, but they get much more honest answers from me than they otherwise would, and would seem more effective at conducting "behavioral profiling" than canned questionnaires.