It is the third of December, it is a dark and cold winter’s morning in the small village of Sandane, in the western part of Norway, population 6000.
At the local airport, a grumpy check-in attendant is registering passengers for the morning flight to Bergen and Oslo, before urging the customers on to the even grumpier security control attendants.
A passenger decides the gloom of the situation calls for a wee bit of cheering up, and, as he approaches the security guard, asks “have you had my bombs checked yet, sir?” – upon which the desired reaction, a smile, make it’s absence painfully apparent.
Instead of the envisaged upward mood-swing, the security guard pushes his alarm button, triggering a terrorism alert, calling in the police, while simultaneously detaining the well-meaning passenger, with the ill-chosen joke, for questioning – denying him to board the plane.
At the same airport, a few years ago, a friend of mine was allowed to carry an ice axe as hand-luggage, on the sole condition that he promised not to hijack the plane.
It’s a truly wonderful world!