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Always the ladies’ man, this just-discovered photo was taken when I was a mere 2 years old.

On my most recent encounter with the TSA, I was running 10 minutes late for my flight and trying to get through security as quickly as possible. As my carryon bag goes through the x-ray scan, the line is held up for further investigation of my offending luggage. Out comes a 931ml container of coconut oil I was bringing in my carryon due to the high cost of checked bag fees. Since I hadn’t flown in over three years, I didn’t understand what the fuss was about, but I was informed that current security limits are a maximum of 100ml of liquid. Coconut oil, however, has the interesting property of being a solid below 76 degrees F – at which it’s about the consistency of cold butter. And it was about 75 degrees in the airport, so it qualified as a solid and I was allowed to carry it on the airplane. Whew! Averted disaster by two degrees!

If ever there was a compound to demonstrate the idiocy of the TSA’s policies, it’s coconut oil!