{"id":348,"date":"2007-08-30T11:32:07","date_gmt":"2007-08-30T16:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/index.php\/2007\/08\/30\/attended-luggage\/"},"modified":"2007-09-02T18:50:28","modified_gmt":"2007-09-02T23:50:28","slug":"attended-luggage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/08\/attended-luggage\/","title":{"rendered":"Attended Luggage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><small>Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock<\/small><\/p>\n<p>Men, I&#8217;m talking to you. This week we have a rare opportunity to clear up misunderstandings and clarify the Code. Real men don&#8217;t even try to understand the Code, but for the sake of our manliness we must learn a bit.<\/p>\n<p>This code also is known as <em>gaydar<\/em>, one fellow&#8217;s shout-out to another fellow. Today&#8217;s lesson is not intended to be homophobic. It is, however, addressed to heterosexuals as well as gay men who do not cruise in public places with the intent to, er, &#8220;date&#8221; in public places. I&#8217;m just trying with this new knowledge to help: A straight man doesn&#8217;t have to get embarrassed or offended. A non-cruising fellow doesn&#8217;t have to apologize or explain.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, could have used this information. He pleaded guilty to avoid attention over a miscommunication he had with an undercover police officer in a men&#8217;s room at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Here is what news accounts &#8211;Washington Post and Associated Press, mainly &#8212; say happened. Remember, men, this could happen to you. Larry&#8217;s life is in shambles. He should have read this.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022  Foot tapping. If you want a date, tap your foot. If you&#8217;re nervous, pop your knuckles instead. If you have a really good tune in your headset, snap your fingers instead.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Make eye contact, walk some then three seconds later turn toward that person. If it&#8217;s someone you think you know, forget about it; they&#8217;d get the wrong idea, anyway.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Pass your hand or other body part underneath the wall of a toilet stall in a public restroom. If you drop your car keys, evidently, they&#8217;re lost for good. If you insist on picking up your lost item, pull your pants up first.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Set your suitcase in front of the door of the toilet. Cruisers are said to do this to prevent prying eyes. The rest of us do it to prevent our luggage from getting stolen. It&#8217;s a stall: if your bag isn&#8217;t in front of the door, the only other place it can fit is on your lap. Bringing in your overnighter is your choice: be accused of doing something you&#8217;re not, or losing your toothbrush and underwear.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, airports broadcast continual announcements that it&#8217;s against federal law to &#8220;leave your luggage unattended.&#8221; What&#8217;s a law-abiding, conservative senator to do? Or you?<\/p>\n<p>-30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock Men, I&#8217;m talking to you. This week we have a rare opportunity to clear up misunderstandings and clarify the Code. Real men don&#8217;t even try to understand the Code, but for the sake of our manliness we must learn a bit. This code also is known as gaydar, one fellow&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-lessons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":191,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/05\/where-theres-smoke\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":0},"title":"Where there&#8217;s smoke","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Demzette reported yesterday that Arkansas' new ban on smoking in workplaces also threatens ashtrays, at least on paper. \"Although the law and a draft of the accompanying regulations authorize fines of up to $500 for a misdemeanor conviction and civil penalties of up to $1,000 a day when an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News, Spin&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":241,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/10\/election-in-heat\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":1},"title":"Election, in Heat","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Third District Congressman John Boozman. He's always seemed goofy for reasons I couldn't put a finger on, plus he's a Republican, but now, running for his fourth two-year term (first elected in November 2000), I'm starting to like the guy. Very much. His Democratic challenger, Woodrow Anderson III (from my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News, Spin&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":188,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/05\/santas-brother-grandfather-claus\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":2},"title":"Santa&#8217;s brother Grandfather Claus","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 7, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock St. Nick came from a family himself, but little is known about them. One relative everyone has heard something about is Grandfather Claus, who is Santa's brother, with obviously a family of his own, children and their children. Santa as everyone does know rewards good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Body, Home, Street&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":407,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/we-ran-her-off-the-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":3},"title":"We Ran Her Off the Road","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"You can't have a dope business without dopers.\" -- Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock Proposed laws about paparazzi are worse-than-useless. There are already laws on stalking, creating a public nuisance and any number of other categories that would apply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":361,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/10\/secret-coda\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":4},"title":"Secret Coda","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Corrections: For the Record An article on Thursday about the arraignment of three men in the shooting of two New York police officers, one of whom died, misstated the schedule set by a judge for a trial in the case. The trial is expected to begin by February, not by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Course of Words&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4099,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/02\/as-good-as-it-goetz\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":5},"title":"As Good As It Goetz","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The conversation began with me telling the handyman, who remembered I was some sort of writer, that I was going to report on Friday afternoon's state legislators' forum. Both social media and some news media noted that a likely topic would be the proposals to expand where concealed handguns could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;American Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Time Magazine, April 8, 1985, click for details","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Time-Goetz-040885-227x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}