HEY BUDDY, GOT A LIGHT?
For smokers who travel by air
You know who you are...the guy outside the baggage check area trying to bum a light from another smoker who also doesn’t have a pack of matches, thanks to the "shoe bomber."
TSA regulations allow four packs of book matches in carry-on bags, but no strike-anywhere matches. Lighters which have been previously or are now filled are verboten in either checked or carry-on bags, as is lighter fluid. (You can pack an unused lighter in checked baggage, but how you prove this is beyond me.)
Well, Zippo and OtterBox have come to the rescue with the Zippo Cargo Case. This miniature air-tight vault costs $12.95 which, according to Greg Booth, President and CEO of Zippo Manufacturing, Inc., "We are offering...to consumers at cost." He thanks Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), along with U.S. Representative John Peterson (R-PA) for their assistance. (Zippo Manufacturing is located in Pennsylvania.)
"This is not an income stream for our company – it’s a convenience to our customers," says Mr. Booth. The Zippo Cargo Case by OtterBox is available at zippo.com or otterbox.com. You can also buy a 2- to 15-stick cigar travel humidor, and Otterbox does make bigger cases for such items as handhelds, tablet PCs, Apple Ipods and more.
All are waterproof, crushproof and airtight and, as I see in their literature, they’ll float as well. (Only two lighters to a bag, though.) Now all one hopes is that the TSA baggage inspectors get the "word"!
