I mentioned the other day that I subscribe to Google Alerts for articles on Mexico.
Strewn amongst the minor earthquake reports and the hysteria reports of drug terror, I occasionally find an amusing tale.
I knew I had a winner with the opening phrase: "A man with a mysterious bulge under his T-shirt ... ."
Here it is. Apparently, a 38-year old man boarded an international flight from Lima to Mexico City. When he arrived, someone noticed the "mysterious bulge," and searched him.
And I thought I knew what it was. Peru. Bulge. It had to be a cocaine smuggling operation.
Smuggling it was. But not nose candy.
When the security forces searched the man, they found 18 tiny (6 inch) titi monkeys attached to a girdle.
He told authorities he initially carried the monkeys in a suitcase. But he decided to put them in his girdle "so the X-rays wouldn't hurt
them."
For some reason, I found the juxtaposition of "monkeys" and "girdle" to be hilarious. Monty Python at its height could not have written -- and performed -- a more existential script.
Of course, the story is not humorous. The monkeys are endangered and two died.
What gives me pause is how anyone gets on an international flight begirdled with monkeys.
The answer is simple. Airport security is more theater art than it is an effective tool against terror. It creates jobs.
And that is about it.
