Security, NBC and Me

Sometimes I really wonder what planet I'm living on.

Today I cut through the main lobby of 30 Rock. I hadn't done that -- walking from the ice rink to the side entrance on 49th Street -- in a long time. The 49th Street entrance is opposite the bank of elevators which leads to NBC's and Channel 4's (WNBC)studios. Otherwise known -- for decades I think -- as the studio entrance. There's one on the 50th Street side as well.

So why am I telling you this? Why should you care? Because what happened next is a primer on how much our world has changed.

There was a group of maybe 20 people lined up on the short flight of stairs leading to the elevators. And a person I couldn't see addressing the group in a very loud voice. "Be sure to remove your belts before going through the metal detectors. And take out all loose change......" And on and on and on. All of it the now familiar instructions we hear and see as we go through airport security. And I mean ALL of it.

An errant thought crossed my mind. Women now know enough not to wear underwire bras when they fly because they set off the alarms. But to see a TV show? So when the alarm on the NBC metal detector goes off because you're wearing your usual underwire bra -- does someone with a TSA uniform -- errr NBC uniform -- come out of woodwork and wand you and pat you down to be sure that's all you in the underwire? Do you have to explain about breast enhancement??? And while I'm at it -- what about knee and hip replacements? The TSA folks wand, poke and pat little old ladies with metal hips unmercifully at airport security.

It would be laughable if it weren't so earnest. The very Soviet-style world we thought we overcame when we won the Cold War. We DID win it didn't we?

Come on guys. IT'S A TV SHOW. Not a jetliner loaded with fuel flying over the Atlantic. Or DisneyWorld.

I'll go along with searching purses and backpacks. Almost every building does that now. Not like a few years ago when only the state and federal courthouses did -- looking, I presume, for something logical-- like guns and knives. Hell -- DisneyWorld does it. I mean, gee. You can't be too careful around Mickey and Minnie.

But back to NBC and taking off your belt to see a TV show.
Y'know -- maybe it was all part of a reality TV show. Because it doesn't take much imagination to visualize what might happen to some members of the hip hop generation when they take off their belts. And then NBC might have another issue -- with the NYPD for indecent exposure. When those 4 sizes too big pants siting uneasily below the hip line --- now bereft of the one thing keeping them there -- fall off completely.

Maybe I should have stayed around for the "floor" show.