Article August 19, 2002 Issue

the Shakespeare seat on Flight 121

"To be or not to be, that is the question." Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1

By Keith Wommack

My Seat Was "the Shakespeare seat": 2B. I guess the fellow next to me was in "not 2B." Let's just say I was surprised when I saw the knife he was showing me. This was just a few months ago, with heightened airport security already in operation.

I asked myself some basic questions. How did he get that thing through security? Why would he even carry it? And last but not least, was I safe?

I thought of all the police on duty at the airport we'd just left. All the times my baggage had been rummaged through. All the electronicwand searches of my body. You would think dangerous items, like a fairly large knife, would be detected.