Had a sorta amusing experience with the TSA today. Entering the security area, you gotta show your ID and boarding pass... so I hand mine over to this little grandma type lady. She's nice and friendly enough, but english is clearly a second language.
She looks at my pass and my ID, and starts chattering with the other lady there and showing her my stuff... pointing at something... I'm just standing there quizzically, wondering what the heck the problem could possibly be. I've been through this checkpoint about a hundred times in my life.
"Your ID says 'David' and your boarding pass says 'Dave'." She says.
I blink. "Yes, that's right."
"Its under a different name."
I blink again... "No... its the same thing. James... Jim. William, Bill... David, Dave... " I look at the other lady hoping for some support, and she says "Oh... that's OK. Dave is a nickname for David. That's OK."
But the poor little lady is flummoxed by it all, and waves me over to the Supervisor. I go to the supervisor and say "she's questioning whether Dave and David are the same thing..." and show him my stuff. His eyes roll back in his head.
"Oh, jeez... " he says, and escorts me back up the line and passes me through, has a little conference with the lady. All returns to normal.
Then the metal detector decided it didn't like me. But that's another story.
I'm not annoyed by any of it, more just amused. I think I'm a very patient and understanding person. I just chuckled at it all.
In fact... all else equal... as ridiculous as it was, that lady did exactly what she should have done. Something happened that she didn't understand and she didn't just blow it off but she passed it up the chain. How somebody can fail to learn that Dave and David are the same as James and Jim is a curiousity, but it is not relevant to the process and procedure.
Anyway... that's my day so far.
Heh, I had a five-minute misunderstanding this morning; someone asked for a "power cord" but what he actually wanted was an extension cord... English as a second language....
Got through the airport okay.
Hehehe....just be glad you're not a Palestinian named "Ahmed." We've got a Palestinian (originally...I think he's a US citizen now, he's been in the country long enough.) Our Mass Specs are from a Canadian company and everytime he tries to get or send replacement parts to Canada, he gets Customs and the "authorities" riled up. I don't think he likes Tom Ridge much. On second thought....maybe we should have given the parts return job to the Indian guy. :)
What? You're boarding pass doesn't say "Ramius?"
We've all been deceived.
yuhknow, metal detectors don't like me neither... but I ain't got any residual steel in muh body that I know of...