{"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":241,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/10\/election-in-heat\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":0},"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":191,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/05\/where-theres-smoke\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":1},"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":394,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/12\/cotton-candy-club\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":2},"title":"Cotton Candy Club","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Driving home from work early Sunday morning, the radio was playing \"It Ain't Necessarily So\" from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. The tenor's voice was to-the-back-of-the-hall soaring, precise in enunciation and emoted with the sass the song demands but rarely gets. This was public radio's Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson, who\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":404,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/book-em-benno\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":3},"title":"Book &#8217;em, Benno","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Book 'em, Danno\" is a stick-in-your-brain phrase I've no memory for this. A book is mentioned and I'll remember if I've read it, and how long ago, and whether it was paper or audio, as I also \"read\" about 1 1\/2 books a month on CD while commuting. (There's no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Mr. Boo Klist&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"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":4},"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":[]},{"id":407,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/we-ran-her-off-the-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":348,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_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}]}}