The man and knife in question.

The Derby Telegraph in Derbyshire, England, reports that a man got a 7-inch knife past the security checkpoint at Birmingham Airport, while his daughter’s soda was confiscated.

The man, Nick White, says he’s a construction worker and he forgot he had the knife in his pocket when he and his 13-year-old daughter went to the airport. He realized it was with him when he approached the security checkpoint and, not knowing what else to do (he didn’t want to just throw it away), put it through the scanner along with the other stuff from his pockets. And no one said anything.

His daughter, meanwhile, had her soda taken away due to the ban on liquids on airplanes.

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Five years ago, I spent a few days visiting friends in South Florida. And wouldn’t you know it, I wrote a column about it when I got back, and that column — “Humid Nature” — is this week’s “Snide Remarks” Classic. It was column #279, published April 19, 2002.

If you’re just joining us, 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of “Snide Remarks,” and we’re commemorating it by spotlighting a good-but-forgotten column every Wednesday. Later this year we’ll do some best and worst lists and other retrospective-oriented stuff. Then we’ll have a big party, and there will be a giant cake, and former BYU president Merrill J. Bateman will jump out of it.