The Irish Al Capone

You know, there is much wisdom in the current trend to give children unusual names. I say that because my brother and his two sons have very straightforward White Anglo-Saxon Protestant names.

Which it turns out they share with Irish terrorists, so they are on the no-fly lists.

This was especially a problem as they tried to fly out to vacation in Palm Springs last week. The cranky NWA employee at the ticket counter (are they getting screwed on contract negotiations? on the merger with Delta?) was completely flummoxed by the fact that my 12 year old nephew was a child, and thus did not have a driver's license to verify that he was not some radical IRA member bent on making a point to the English. In Palm Springs.

So this cranky employee just kept typing away at her terminal, and not saying anything to my brother or his wife about what was going on. For forty minutes. As the time for the flight got closer and closer and they started to get panicky about actually making the plane.

"What's going on?" they asked.

Cranky NWA employee said nothing for a long time, then said she couldn't clear my nephew to fly.

This has happened before, and it has taken a supervisor to come over and input some sort of override, which is pretty easy to convince them to do, since my 12 year old nephew is short and wiry and looks younger than his 8 year old brother.

"It would take too long to send you over to the supervisor. You will miss your plane," says cranky employee. "Of course, you are going to miss your plane anyway."

Finally, someone gets wind of the situation, and a supervisor comes over, and the problem is resolved in 10 seconds. They manage to make the plane, but are NOT in the most relaxed mood. Except for my nephew, who has now dubbed himself "The Irish Al Capone," and demands to be treated with RESPECT!