In Toronto Saturday, a 17-year-old Canadian boy was trying to repair his tennis shoes, while seated next to his father. The boy, on a US Airways flight to Pittsburgh, said he was trying to rid his shoes of dangling threads and material -- by melting the offending material, with a butane lighter.

While no one was explaining how he had carried a butane lighter onto the plane, many were anxious to explain how all 40 or so of the passengers were checked by police, and how the boy was charged with disorderly conduct. The boy's father is apparently not in any trouble.

At the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Sunday, a man tried to go through security with razor blades in his shoes. His explanation: he was packing, and a quantity of loose razor blades must have fallen into his shoes, from his shirt pocket, unnoticed. Why he wanted to carry loose razor blades in his shirt is the beginning of another line of questioning. The FBI is exploring that line; the 29-year-old man, identity withheld, was arrested.

Also Sunday, but at the Buffalo Niagara (NY) airport, a man identified as Phillip Ciccone, 28, came up to Continental, and said he wanted to fly to Tampa. His ticket was expired, and he was refused. Then, he jumped over the counter and ran. He was tackled shortly afterward by a couple uniformed police, who were working security checkpoints. He was arrested and charged with criminal impersonation, disorderly conduct, harassment, resisting arrest and criminal trespass and was being held without bail Sunday night. He may face other charges; he told local television that he was high on ecstacy...

For no apparent reason, flights there were also delayed an hour and a half, as nearly 1000 passengers were rescreened. Nobody bad was found.

On Saturday, a man who claimed to be a retired police officer was arrested for trying to board an airplane with a 9mm S&W pistol and a knife. He was arrested, and faces 10 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. No passengers were rescreened there, in Louisville (KY), as Russell Baldwin, 43, of Atlanta, was stopped at the security checkpoint.

FMI: www.fbi.gov