All those jokes you were making in the security line at the airport about strip-searches are no longer parody, at least not in my neck of the woods. According to today's South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

A Miramar man says an overzealous security guard at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport ordered him to remove his pants and then fed them through an X-ray machine at a checkpoint as bystanders looked on.

Martin Holness, a 34-year-old truck driver, said he was humiliated when he was forced to stand in his gray-and-black boxer shorts before his trip to Chicago on July 17.

The airport denies it, but neither side disputes the fact that this guy was standing at the checkpoint in his underwear. According to the folks at the security checkpoint, he took off his pants by his own volition.

The guard countered that Holness pulled down his own sweat pants and handed them to the officer after two quarters in his pocket set off the metal detector. According to a written incident report, Holness lost his composure after setting off the metal detector, barked that he had "nothing to hide'' and removed his own pants without provocation.

It's difficult to know whose version is true, but this much I do know: I'm flying next week for a business trip, and I'm going to pick out my dainty unmentionables extra-carefully that morning.