My fandom for Alton Brown and Good Eats is well known. I haven't flown anywhere since May 2001, and stories like this are exactly why I don't really want to, even though I'm supposed to head to WWDC in one week. Absolute, unquestionable discretion in the hands of clearly unqualified mean-spirited people used to only affect prisoners dealing with "correctional officers." As with TSA screeners, one haploid moron ruins the reputation of dozens of conscientious workers, especially when the good guys won't do anything about the bad guys.

Addendum: at Medley, commentor Eric Wagoner says, "Speaking of Windows on the World, when I saw Alton a few months ago he said that he had reservations for a 9am breakfast there on September 11, 2001. He decided the day before that he didn't feel like flying to New York and cancelled."

In case you don't know, Windows on the World was the famous restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower. The first jumbo jet hit the north tower at 8:45 AM ET on September 11, 2001. All people in the restaurant at that time were trapped above the crash point, and they all died when the building collapsed at 10:28 AM.

And as absolutely and deeply scary as this is, I don't see why it somehow has to lead to confiscating AB's omelet pan.