Well, Boston is all aflutter about Star Simpson, a student at MIT. There’s a fad going around the campus now, with students wearing circuit boards and other home-made electronics as ornamentation. Ms. Simpson, trying to be trendy, had her own that she wore attached to her hooded sweatshirt. She also carried some Play-Doh.
That might have been the height of fashion in Cambridge, but it didn’t fly too well at Logan Airport.
Logan Airport, you might recall, was the starting point for two of the four airliners hijacked on 9/11, so they’re a bit touchy about security. And when a person walks around with an electronic device strapped to their chest and holding handsful of a putty-like substance, they get a bit edgy.
Edgy enough to arrest her at gunpoint — and ready to shoot if she made the slightest suspicious move.
Let’s see… a person wearing an unusual-looking, home-made electronic device, holding stuff that rather resembles plastic explosives, at an airport… yup. a clear-cut case of Fascist Oppression and Iron-Handed Overreaction if ever there was one.
Ms. Simpson is free on bail. She’s lucky to still be breathing.
