I’m still mulling this one over. Believe it or not, I try not to have a kneejerk reaction everytime someone bonks my consciousness with a little rubber hammer. The Transportation Safety Administration is proposing to allow passengers to carry small pocketknives on airplanes again. There are limits and stipulations, of course. A blade 2.36 inches long? OK. A blade 2.37 inches long? Not OK. The flight attendants’ union does not like this change, and I can see their point. The 9/11 hijackers used very small box cutters. Have small blades somehow been rendered harmless? What was the point of taking my favorite pen knife away at the Jackson airport? Of course, no flight crew today is going to open the cockpit door for anyone, no matter how large the knife. I suppose this is exactly why the flight attendants feel vulnerable.

But more interesting and amusing are the other formerly excluded items that would also be allowed under the proposed changes: whiffle bats (?!), pool cues, hockey sticks and golf clubs—but only two. I think I would take a 7 iron and a putter.