I spent last week near the border of one of those SSS countries (Supposedly Super Scary). Passed through airport security a few times last week there and every time it was professional and polite and frankly quite 'easy'.

Edited to add: I know that Germany isn't known for the warmth of officials, but when I showed my passport today both the official and I seemed to be a little out of it. He initially made an error, I smiled and corrected him, and he joked back with me.

Perhaps I am just having a really good run on airport security and immigration in the last few weeks, but travelling to these 'bad' countries has been a pleasure.

I think the question is supposed to be: "Do you have anything that looks like a weapon?" - meaning on the scanner, rather than "do you have anything like a weapon?".

Back in the 80's, when they first started scanning hand luggage at the gate (!) I had in my briefcase a telescoping umbrella, and a Sony Walkman with an external battery pack. I am something of an early adopter and the tape player was a new thing. With the battery pack, wires, and telescoping umbrella with its metal rods, the screener opened my briefcase just knowing it was going to explode. I took care after that to tell them what all was in there.

[Bold is mine.]

Is there any good answer to that question except "No"?

But you know how when all else fails the government likes to charge people with telling a lie. "No" is too absolute. I think "Not that I know of" means No, but leaves wiggle room later when the TSO who thinks he found the Big Catch™ finds a Walkman and bag of peanut butter and cheese that looks like a b*mb on his x-ray. Or if you are that one in 5 billion where TheBadGuy managed to slip a package into your bag when you were not looking.

/paranoia.

The question is usually phrased, "Do you have anything that looks like a weapon?" and they ask it almost every time I fly. It's not really a stupid question - one time many years ago I got stopped because the toy Concorde in my bag looked like a gun to the X-ray machine.

wg