March 10 Times

I was worried going through this paper that I was going to find nothing that I found interesting enough to write about. All the headlines seemed boring, and like I had heard them all before, and none of them caught my eye. Then, came page A22, and my luck turned right around. I read the article about the man who slipped past an airport security checkpoint in order to kiss his girlfriend goodbye before she got off her plane, causing the airport to be evacuated on its busiest day. Though I understand the need for this kind of security and how there can't be any exceptions, the whole thing just seems very odd to me. Of course it was wrong for him to pass by security to kiss his girlfriend, but the frenzy that this story has created has been absolutely insane. It's just a normal guy who happened to make a mistake and now he is paying for it, both in punishment and unrelenting media attention. I also was drawn to the article about the extortion plot against David Letterman for his affair with Stephanie Birkitt, and how the man has now received a jail sentence for his actions. This one only struck me because Stephanie Birkitt is from my hometown, and I have been following the story for months now.