Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Security Check: "It's A Fork, Not A Knife!"

One of my ways of saving time, money and calories is to bring my own food when I go places such as to work or to classes.  There's no more "picking up a sandwich or something."  When I first started doing it, I'd bring plastic utensils, knife, fork, spoon, but the money adds up and they break, so I figured that if I'm already washing out the container, I can also wash my regular fork plus.

Nu, it does make sense, but...

Then one time I was checked at the security to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station aka  CBS.
"Lady, is that a knife in your bag?"
"No, it's a fork and a spoon."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes"
"We'll have to run it through the x-ray again."
So I passed the very heavy bag, full of books, back through the machine again.  The inspector peered at the screen.

"Lady, unpack your bag so I can see what you have."

So, I unpacked and showed her the fork and spoon.

"OK, you can go now."

And to show her that I wasn't angry, I thanked her, really, for doing her job the right way.  Thank G-d I had time.  Sometimes I don't have a spare second before catching my bus.

ps  the following week I took the train in the other direction from the shuk (Machane Yehuda) and caught my bus at a regular bus stop, since I hadn't taken along plastic utensils.

3 comments:

Jennifer in MamaLand said...

I do that! I'm not environmentally crazy, but as you say, it's easy enough to wash a fork that isn't very dirty (like from salad or pasta) to begin with. I twist them up in a cloth napkin and then there's no danger they'll get loose and damage my bag... the only risk is that at Pesach, I find a bunch when I empty the bag. ;-)
Good thing I'm now forewarned about the security implications of this habit!

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
If you had had a table knife, not a steak knife, would she have let you through? How about scissors?

Batya said...

Jennifer, It's actually easier to wash stainlesssteel than plastic.
Hadassa, I don't know. Good question.