I was in the Leonardo DaVinci Airport in Rome heading home when they asked me to open my backpack which of course contained cards, coins, etc. and a rope. She asked me if it was a magic rope or a regular rope. My Italian is limited. I suppose if I said it was a regular rope they could have thought that I might strangle the pilot with it. I told them that I was a magician and they asked me to show them something with the rope. I did a quick move where a 3 inch ring penetrates the rope with a brisk toss. They let me thorugh and seemed to enjoy the brief show.

Of course, you know that when the terrorists hear of this, they will be able to smuggle all the rope they want onto planes if they only learn to do a few magic tricks with it first.

After having had a loaded and cocked M-16 (safety in the "3-shot burst setting") shoved up my left nostril after Mac World in New York a while back, not because of the magic gear in my bag, but because my black dress gym shoes seem to have a metal shim in them (which they do NOT according to the manufacturer) and I wound up ALSO having to do an impromptu 10 minutes for the TSA troops and the National Guardsmen there, I can relate.

And this was BEFORE that idiot with the shoe bomb!

What really gripes me is that now the TSA wants to relax the regulations to allow scissors, nail files and "small knives with blades of up to FOUR INCHES" on board planes because we are focusing on the more serious threat of bombs!"

Just for the record, the 9/11 hijackers used box cutters with blades under TWO inches and the regulations AT THAT TIME only allowed knives of under THREE inches. And they didn't have ANY explosives!

SHEESH!

However, I would strongly recommend that if you are carrying your magic equipment on board, that you be ready to do everything in the bag, right there at the gate, because the TSA people will ask you, SPECIFICALLY, about individual pieces in the bag - and you had better be able to show them what it does - t they will make it disappear.

And maybe not allow you to take the flight as well.

Word to the wise from someone who is still trying to get the powder smears out of his sinus cavities.

Lee Darrow, C.H.

Lee, you are lucky it wasn't worse. I was detained overnight in L.A. because of a misunderstanding regarding a small, unloaded derringer in my luggage, and my intention to declare and check it at the gate. Security informed me I was 5 ft. past the 'line' where I would be allowed to check it, and consequently it was considered to be 'already on the plane', even though the plane was hundreds of yards away. Oh, and the 'line' wasn't marked in any way, nor were there any signs to the effect of 'last chance to check firearms before being arrested'. Fortunately, the charges were dropped, as was the FCC's attempt to extort a $5000 fine from me despite that fact. But now my fingerprints and mug shot are in the system, and it cost me almost $2000 in legal fees. This was all before 9/11, so I can only imagine what they'd do to me now. I don't care what they say, I don't even carry nail clippers with me anymore. It's not worth the risk that some zealous Checkpoint Charlie will use something innocuous as an excuse to detain me.