Traveling with a tin whistle: When traveling by air with a tin whistle in your carry-on baggage – for example a Clarke Original Tin Whistle, do be sure and place the whistle at the top of the bag, where it is easily accessible so that when the bag goes through the X-ray machine at the airport and the man at the machine thinks he sees a gun inside, the man searching your bag finds the whistle right away, and doesn’t have to remove every last thing from the bag, including smelly socks, etc, piling them up there on the steel table covered with the green indoor-outdoor carpeting, as everyone watches and you stand there trying to look innocent and friendly and harmless. On the other hand, the man does pack the bag back up himself, so if you are a lousy packer there is also an advantage to having him remove every last thing, because then when you arrive home and unpack, your wife remarks on how neatly you packed this time. Pros and cons to everything, I guess.

Checking in, the woman at the counter asked me the usual questions – “Did you pack the bag yourself? Did anyone give you anything to carry for them? Do you have any sharp objects in your bag?” “Well, I do have a tin whistle,” I admitted.

“That should be no problem,” she said, “although they might arrest you if you play it badly.” Ha ha. We had a big laugh. Double-checked her name tag. Yes, Irish name. She had obviously suffered through tin whistles during her childhood. Still, I was careful not to play the whistle while at the airport.