This would certainly explain the little shit who gave me such a bad time at Manchester airport security.

I'm not annoyed that they pulled me out of line. This was a flight to the Canary Islands, and I'm sure I didn't have "happy holiday maker" body language" because I was on my home from my father's funeral. I could have done without them taking my odd-looking luggage apart, showing the whole queue my knickers, and ostentatiously checking it for explosives, but if they had any reason to think there might be explosives in there, obviously they had to check.

What gets me is that I made some sort of friendly conversational remark to try to smooth things over a bit. (I've worked with the general public, too, and I wanted to look non-threatening and unaggressive.

He stuck his nose in the air and said, "I can have you thrown off the flight, you know." And smirked.

He did wince a bit when he found the sympathy cards in the bottom of the case, but he didn't say sorry or act any kinder. Just, "All right. On your way."

I could have bloody done without that. But having some sort of explanation makes it a bit less painful.