.

"Let's be realistic....."

I think I am very realistic. The knife pictured has a difficult to grasp handle.

A pair of scissors, 4 inches from the fulcrum, or in other words 4 inches from the hinge pin to the pointed end, have large easy to grip handles, and a narrow blade that makes for an excellent shive.

I would suggest that it's TSA that needs to be realistic but TSA is to busy abusing crippled children to make sensible, realistic policies that actually address the almost nil chance of a terrorist attack against commercial aviation.

So you think I have to take my shoes off, but proudly proclaim you don´t have to. Got it.

I am no longer amused.

SIX people ahead of me at CDG were told numerous times NOT to take off their shoes by various screeners (and by me) in French, English, and German. My usual 0-3 minute wait was made much longer as they untied their shoes and gave us a lecture and then they cluttered up the exit to the screening area putting their shoes back on. It happens virtually every time I fly from my nice European airports and I am not amused.

And then I had FOUR people ahead of me this week in a Canadian airport who said that since they had to take their shoes off at FLL Canada should require shoe removal for domestic flights (they only require it for flights to the US) Again, big lace up shoes which caused a queue at security.

It's bad enough that these people jam up our security queues and refuse to listen to instructions, but even worse is the silly little lecture they give us on how we are unsafe.

:rolleyes:

And don't ask about the people behind me at ORY a few weeks ago muttering how unsafe we are because the screeners allowed food through security. My pain au chocolat is going to take down a plane some day.

But don't the shoe-removers make you feel just a wee bit safer? :D

BTW, your pain au chocolat could most certainly be a threat to my waistline if it fell into my hands.

Yeah, I've seen it in Australia, Asia and Europe too. Plus, I hate being mistaken for these people when I get sent back to remove my shoes after setting off the WTMD with my hip. :o

I know that the (silly) theory is "I know there's nothing dangerous in my shoes,but I want everyone else to remove their shoes, in case someone else has something dangerous. So I'll remove my (harmless) shoes as part of the drill."

But I'd bet $4700 ;) that some of those American tourists believe that it's the act of removing their own shoes that makes them safer in some undefined way. If they were the only passenger on the plane they would still insist on removing their shoes to have them scanned. :rolleyes:

You fly a lot more than I do, so I understand completely that it doesn't amuse you as it does me.

I only ever wear slip on shoes when I fly or when I have to pass through airport security (here we can go to the gate at domestic airports without a boarding pass, we don't have to be flying), all the same I am never asked to remove my shoes.

I would never take pain au chocolat through security, but that's just because it wouldn't last long enough without me consuming it - my typical 90 second to two minute wait to pass through security would be the end of it.

I only fly domestic in the USA. I am in such a habit of removing my shoes that I would be one of the naive people that would go through the US routine in a foreign airport. It would be out of habit and not due to any ridiculous notion that it improves security. Are there signs that say "Hey you, dumb American. Keep your shoes on." If there are, I will be OK.

I understand force of habit.

But would you continue to remove your shoes when at least one security staffer politely told you (in English) that you do not need to remove your shoes, and requested that you not do so? Would you continue to remove your shoes when you were advised that you are holding up the queue, and that you are not required to remove your shoes? Would you continue to remove your shoes when the woman behind you requests first in French, then in English if you don't react, that you not remove your shoes, as reinforcement of what you were just told?

And after all that, would you then give a speech in English to the screener and possibly the rest of the queue why things are so much safer in America, and how things are so bad elsewhere because not only do we not remove our shoes, but we don't subject travellers to scanners?

'Knowing' you somewhat from your post history, I suspect that when first advised that shoe removal was not necessary, you would stop doing so and proceed through the checkpoint.

ORY is particularly dangerous to airplane security. Not only are there multiple locations of Paul landside, there is at least two outlets of Ladurée landside, a La Maison du Chocolat landside, and an outlet of Baillardran landside. Be forewarned.

There should be in TSA and DfT offices.

And Pissant and Naphole should each have one attached to their foreheads with a heavy-duty staple gun. In their cases, I'm not sure the noun "American" applies.

I will gladly lend the staple gun or even operate same if asked!

Shoe removal is not required by every passenger in the UK; it is the exception, not the norm.

No, but it is still a form of harassment that DfT chooses to apply at UK airports. Civilized nations and their airports do not employ this form of harassment at all.

No, no, no, and no.

That said, I am hearing impaired, and I just might not understand. That is the reason I need the sign. Hearing impaired people read signs. Even signs in very small type put in the wrong locations. We have to. I can even muddle my way through Spanish signage if I can slow down a bit to decipher it. French and German is a problem.

It is one of my great difficulties with US CP's. The sign says one thing and the TSO is saying another. I follow the sign and I get yelled at.

I can not tell you the number of times I stop in the places I am working to read a sign, thinking it may be a safety notification or other important information, and end up learning about the picnic that was last week or reminding me, a contractor, that I need to choose my medical plan by a certain date. IMPORTANT! is not an appropriate title for a picnic notice.

I grew up with someone who is hearing impaired and I realise that is a challenge. But there IS signage, or video, at many airports, often in multiple languages. And thankfully not the American TSA standard of customer service; usually one is told nicely in several languages and hand gestures not to remove shoes. I've only seen one security person at CDG raise her voice and that was to a traveller who held up the queue taking a very long time to unlace his shoes and who then stopped and gave her the lecture in an angry voice about 'bad security', and frankly it was merited.

And believe me, I've experienced how TSA handles it when non-US travellers forget to remove their shoes. I've been belittled, yelled at, and treated very poorly on the few times I forgot to remove my shoes, and I've seen many people treated very badly indeed. I've also had conversations with people at the checkpoint in other languages about how the TSA treats people when they forget to remove their shoes, or don't know to do so.

While the shoe removers outside the US are an annoyance, they generally are treated much more pleasantly by security than how TSA treats the non-shoe removers.

That's why it's wise to avoid France entirely. I'm not sure if they invented fine pastries and pain au chocolat, but they sure as heck perfected them.

Waistlines and airplanes beware! That whole country is full of terror! :p