Checking in

I guess the tip-off was the inability to download boarding passes before leaving for the airport. Whatever it was, Madame Cura and I were taken aside at airport security in "Oakland International" for the "deluxe" search. All very civilized, although it's disconcerting watching one guy swabbing for bomb residue on you bag to your left, while a guy on the right is holding your coat (with wallet) in the air, patting it down just to your right, during which time a third woman has the backpack off to your left. Anyway, when it was all over and all possessions back in possession, I said "Thank you" to the TSA agent handing me my laptop in the final rite of this 21st century ceremony (we were the virgins sacrificed to the gods of sense of public well being).

Why thank him? And I was not alone in doing this. Strange. I mean, crossing the Dumbarton Bridge a few nights earlier (Christmas night, in fact), I stunned the toll collector when I replied to her "Thank you," by wishing her a "Merry Christmas." It seemed like no one was being particularly civil to her.