My Deodorant is a Threat to National Security

I am sitting in Chicago right now, killing a little bit of time before I hop on the next leg of my flight to Frankfurt Germany. The Wi-Fi access isn't cheap but it sure beats using my laptop to do something resembling work. I am surrounded by a terminal full of German speaking teenagers and it's finally starting to set in that I am about to be in a different country. It's kind of a surreal feeling. This morning, I was in Spanish Fork, Utah and tomorrow I will be in Munich Germany. Yes, the fact that I'm so amused by this betrays the fact that I'm still a pretty novice world traveller :)

So, about the title of the post... I had heard about all of the new restrictions about bringing liquids on planes. But, to be honest, I didn't even think of it as I was packing last night. So, I packed my deodorant and my toothpaste without even thinking whether or not they would be OK. I mean it's deodorant and toothpaste... what kind of a threat could they possibly be?

Well, when asked to declare all of my "liquids" as I passed through security. I whipped out my Deodorant and asked whether or not it would be OK for me to take. The security guy grabs it out of my hands and inspects it like he had never seen deodorant before. Despite the fact that the deodorant was in a clear plastic container and you could clearly see that there was a gel inside, he pops off the cap to get a closer look before finally pronouncing, "Yep, that's a gel, you're going to need to declare that".

He was just about to hand it back to me when he noticed the label. "4 ounces. I'm sorry sir, you're not going to be able to bring this on the plane".

"Why not?"

"Sir, you are only allowed to have 3 ounces of deodorant with you on the plane. Those are the rules."

"But it's only half full. There can't be more than 1.8 ounces left in that container."

"I'm sorry sir, the rules are based on the size of the container and not the amount of actual deodorant. You can't bring this on the plane with you."

And then he turns around and flings my 1.8 oz of deodorant (in a 4 oz container) into a garbage bin behind him. Oh well, i bought a new travel size deodorant on the other side of security. I'm sure that the airport is making a killing on travel size personal hygiene items right now.