This is an idea that shows thinking way outside the box, and I’m talking a distance of several light-years. And it comes straight from the “Gee, I wish I’d thought of that” department. The e-mail came to me Nov. 23, in the middle of all the controversy about Transportation Security Administration pat-down searches at the nation’s airports. We have one John Tyner of San Diego to thank for this brouhaha.

Around mid-November, he attempted to board a flight to South Dakota when he refused to go through the body scanning machines. So TSA personnel took him aside for a pat down, but Tyner balked when he learned the pat down included a crotch grope.