A post on YouTube reminded me of this. Years ago, I was flying with a lens for a movie projector and the TSA guy had no idea what it was. He ended up calling two other people over to look at it. It was a black metal tube, threaded on one end, with a glass lens. You can see right through it. But these guys were inspecting it like the computer scene in Zoolander. I was watching this and after a minute said "It's a lens!". They looked at me sheepishly and put it back in the bag. Another time, a guy was spending a whole lot of time scanning my camera bag. He was surprised by the gear I was carrying. I said "you haven't had a photographer come through, have you?" He hadn't. Mind you, other TSA agents were in the process of hand checking my film while this was going on. SMH
skisby:
I once came back from a huge security conference with a bag full of samples & brochures, kept them entertained for about an hour & almost missed my flight!