Medical exam equipment, i.e., reflex hammers, pins, stethoscope, tuning fork, pinwheel. I think the poor little TSA dudes were just curious about what they saw on the xray.

A can of tuna. It said solid-pack on the label, but since it also said packed in water, the tso considered it a liquid.
(I think she forgot her lunch that day and the tuna sounded good to her.)

Competing for this: http://www.darwinawards.com/

Image of GPS dash mount on the X-ray. They thought it was a hand grenade, and wouldn't let anyone through the C/P until they unpacked the bag and looked at it.

A ~3" long commemorative key chain in the shape of slide rule. The screening went completely ballistic and was practically screaming at me (June 2006 at Dulles). She covered up her name tag so I couldn't report her and completely lost it when I called her by name anyway. I have no idea what she thought it was.

Place electronic items with attached cables in their own zip locks, likewise for loose cables & pack a little carefully, scattering items around the luggage so they are not on top of each other. This works for both checked and carry on bags. I find this turns a bag search into a back-up-on the belt at best.

You can put several smaller items into a larger zip lock (i.e. gallon size) -- if they do open your bag, a smaller item doesn't slide to the floor and get lost. If you still carry too much and they keep tearing things apart, an entire gallon bag can be removed from the bag and placed in it's own bin to make they x-ray image simpler.

If the zip locks wear out too often or are too tacky for your tastes, purchase some Eagle Creek or competing gear. The Eagle Creek is more opaque adding to privacy, and preventing anyone from going 'shopping.'

The bags help prolong the life of gear a little, as it's not rubbing against other items and cuts down on cable tangles.

I am completely unsurprised that a TSO would fail to recognize a slide rule.

Completely.

I wonder what they'd make of an actual K+E Log Log Duplex Deci-Trig going through the checkpoint - assuming they even noticed it on the X-ray in the carry-on, since it's nowhere near as obvious as a Glock .40 in the carry-on...

Almost always relates to my 4 oz. (113 gram I think) prescription dentifrice. Actually get the least guff from the TSA over it, being asked MAYBE 3 times out of 100 or so flights with it. On the other hand, I actually had it stolen by one of CATSA's Garda morons (currently under investigation by CATSA, hoping they will write me a check for the $35 they owe me). I had to present my passport along with my "note" (I carry my prescription for international travel, where they can actually ask for such things) in Australia. In Zurich and Brussles, I got no gruff and the Cantonspolitistin at ZRH actually said "this certainly isn't more than 100 ml anymore (it was about 1/2 full)."

At LHR, I actually had forgotten that I had a perhaps 150 ml container of an amazing dip I bought in Tuscany and the agent was nice and didn't pilfer it. Just let me carry it on. I guess he understands my love of Italian food

I would love to hear what those sound like.

And it is within your right to call his supervisor and sue them if they steal it from you.

Cream cheese in 1998, or 2008?

That's pretty funny.

I once saw a screener wanding a single sheet of paper.... On both sides

Sometimes you can see the average IQ of an entire population drop by a whole point in an instant

That's a rhetorical question, yes?

Just remembered something that happened a few years ago. I can't remember where.

Going through security... I'd forgotten an unopened bottle of water in my carryon from a flight the day before. My bad.

The screener caught it and told me they had to confiscate it. I said sure, my error.

He then said that I could choose which bin to toss it into... The trash bin to his left OR the donations bin to his right

Donations bin? Yes... Anything in the donations bin was given to local homeless.

Think this through for a second.

The water is too risky to take on a flight BUT BUT BUT it is **is** safe enough to give to homeless people to drink.

After all? Who would care if... ???

The logic of this still leaves me scratching my head

A table tripod that is a tube with legs that fold and slide into.

Last time I flew (6:00 AM out of ABQ Nov. 2007) it was 3 spice jars of NM ground chile (I had a bag of dried NM reds as well). Meanwhile, during the bag search, I put my hand in my pants pocket, and realized I had walked right through the WTMD with keys and change in my pocket. My GF was getting her usual pat-down, for flying while Chinese or flying while wearing an underwire bra, or something.....

Attempting to apply "logic" to anything the TSA does is an exercise in futility. Better to not even try.

I know that insisting on logic is a bad habit, but it's one I'm reluctant to break for fear of losing my grim grip on sanity

I've been getting secondaries for loose change of late. In my laptop bag. I guess I've got a years worth in there, which would be about 1kg of coins, which I guess shows up as a weird metal mass. Spring cleaning time!

I used to save pennies from my spare change. Perhaps I should bring the 4 or 5, 2 liter bottles through the TSA sometime for fun. The suckers are heavy, though.