Big Fuss Continues Over ANN's Favorite "Little Guy"

We continue to get feedback (fallout?) on the incident, finally "reported" in the Washington Post, wherein our beloved Wes Oleszewski (author of "Klyde Morris") was menaced by a guard at the FAA building, as the cartoonist tried to take a picture of it. We pointed out some of the more-ridiculous aspects of the Post's story (they're not an aviation paper, you know); the FAA, of course, had to pick up on it, too. Here's the FAA's take on the incident, courtesy of an ANN News-Spy:

A SLOW NEWS DAY:  The Washington Post ran a piece this week about aviation cartoonist Klyde Morris trying to take a photo of the FAA headquarters from the outside, only to be turned away by FAA security who told him to vamoose. The article suggested this might have been in retaliation for the cartoonist's attacks on the FAA in his weekly comic strip.  Nice try -- but no cigar. 

It doesn't make for nearly as good a story, but it's far more likely the security guard had no clue who Morris was and in line with security measures in this post- 9/11 atmosphere has been instructed to look with suspicion at anyone taking a photo of a Federal building.

-- Gerald E. Lavey, Manager, Internal Communications, FAA

[Note that Mr. Lavey, too, doesn't know the difference between Klyde Morris (the fictional ant) and Wes Oleszewski (the real cartoonist). That's probably because he reads the Post, where they don't clearly differentiate between reality and fiction --ed.]

FMI: http://voice.faa.gov; Post article