Today was a travel day that started at the Houston’s Intergalactic Airport (IAH). I dropped off the rental car, checked in at the counter, and then as I was walking up to security I saw that a nude-o-scan was in operation. It was one of the millimeter wave scanners. Some people were going through it, others through the normal metal detector. It almost looked like people were being asked to go, not being chosen to go through. Even so, as I got into line, I geared myself for opting out.
As I put my bags on the belt for their scan and was just about to find out if I was going to get to opt-out or not, the TSA agent managing the front of the area closed down the entrance to the scanner. That was a nice surprise.
More surprising was watching a couple of people get patted down in the physical examination area of the checkpoint. They were getting the new enhanced pat-down routine, but it wasn’t the extreme version that includes lingering feeling up of traveller’s genitalia that I’ve witnessed in several other places recently. Instead, it looked like a text-book example of how you’d do the new procedure on somebody you wanted to respect you afterword.
It was a much different mood than many of the checkpoints I’ve been through lately. It was almost like the local agents were going out of their way to not appear anything like the worst of the stories we’ve heard. It was strange, but welcome. I hope it wasn’t an isolated case.