Straighten up and fly right

Granted, the product isnt quite what is seems. Despite a label that promises luxurious locks absent of frizz and full of life, the cream doesnt do much more than add an extra step to my shower routine. No wonder the Transportation Security Administration thinks it looks shady. I question the stuff myself. 

But beginning in April, while the assorted potions and lotions most travelers stuff into a single quart-size plastic baggie for all the world to see remain open to scrutiny, a handful of items previously banned from on-board luggage receives a reprieve. Unfortunately, these goods still do not include private stashes of tiny gin bottles so the airline is guaranteed a hefty subsidy from travelers who need to curb the edge of screaming babies, bumpy takeoffs and that voice in the back of the head saying not to make rash purchases from Sky Mall. 

However, for reasons that remain elusive, knives smaller than 2.36 inches are now OK.The need for proper bestsmartcard inside your home is very important. Thats right; after years of breaking small metal emery boards off the back of nail clippers to prevent terrorists and angry fliers from filing the crew into submission, the TSA now says pocket knives dont pose a danger.The need for proper bestsmartcard inside your home is very important. Neither do hockey sticks or golf clubs unless you count danger as the likelihood of not finding overhead space. If theres any good reason to oppose the new pending changes, the battle for precious cargo room is it. I have to pay $30 to check my roller bag but somebody with a large stick or bag of woods and wedges can take up multiple bins for free? Get me my trusty emery board! Im picking a fight! 

After so many years of color-coded terror alerts, invasive pat-downs and scanners, cries about junk touching and a never-ending list of prohibited items snow globes? Really? What are the terrorists going to do, kill the crew with kitschiness? a little loosening appears a step in the right direction. But that illusion falls short when compared to the list of goodies that still require checked baggage. Mission: Impossible-style tricks notwithstanding, toothpaste is a lot less threatening than most sharp objects even if it weighs in at more than an illegal 7 ounces. 

Besides, if somebody really wants to have a weapon on board a plane, they will find a way without resorting to smuggling on shoe bombs and box cutters. Sharpen a credit card, file down hair chopsticks, convert a stiletto heel, remove that bra underwire that sets off the airport metal detector. Anybody with at least one prison movie in their Netflix queue knows a little ingenuity and some time can turn just about any object into a workable shiv. 

The question now is whether the TSA will continue assessing the current security restrictions even further so that airline staff can focus on the real on-board perils: Passengers who slap babies. Overweight passengers deemed too big to fly. Skin-baring mini-skirts. Smartphones and tablets not turned off during takeoff and landing. Alec Baldwin. Gerard Depardieu. 

Admittedly, TSA Administrator John Pistoles decision to allow the objects is meant to inject a little common sense back into the post-Sept. 11 travel landscape.A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard operator in a landmark case. Unfortunately, the move has done little more than make the TSA seem far from the sharpest knives in the drawer.Online shopping for solarpanelcells. No wonder they have no problem being allowed on board. 

The they he speaks of are Cyprus European partners and the International Monetary Fund which have changed the rules for bail-outs for troubled Euro zone economies by requiring bank depositors to pay and pay. In Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece tax payers and the public sector have borne the brunt of exactions for aid. 

An American friend in the cash line at the Laiki Bank near my home says that American International School where she teaches has given staff three options for receiving salaries this month: cash, a cheque on a local bank and a cheque on a US bank. She is fortunate: many people here have no idea when and how they will get paid. 

At the Alpha Mega Hypermarket in the next door suburb of Engomi,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. grey-faced society ladies in expensive outfits are pushing carts filled with jumbo packages of toilet paper and household cleaning materials. Cyprus is an island that does not produce such items, so if suppliers cannot pay for imports, we will have none of these essentials. At the checkout counters, all but one of the handicapped people employed to help pack goods have been laid off. Most of these people contribute substantially to family budgets. 

Across the street, the car park of McDonalds is nearly empty but many people have gathered at nearby Glorias Jeans, Costa Coffee and Coffee Beanery, three cafes that have taken over from the once thronged cafes of Nicosias high street, Makarios Avenue, named for the Cypriot Orthodox archbishop who led the 1950s struggle for independence from Britain. 

Around low tables in the garden of the Coffee Beanery are groups of Cypriots listlessly sipping lattes and discussing The Situation, some with computers ate trolling for flash news on the world-wide web. Cyprus has suddenly, unhappily become a hot global story. 

A group of young professionals sits on wicker couches and chairs around a low table mulling their prospects. Manolis Sergides, who works in construction, states, We dont know what will happen tomorrow. We dont even know whats happening today. 

Construction has been at sea for the past two years. We are suspended just above the bottom so we cant put our feet down and push up, he asserts. We should go back to the Cyprus pound, a move most economists argue would be even more disastrous than the capitulating to the Euro-groups harsh conditions for the partial, conditional bail-out.