At 7’2, in his younger days, Peter Mayhew was not a man to be messed with, and not just because the former hospital orderly is the guy who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy. That was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. These days, Mayhew leads a quiet life, attending comic book conventions and traveling around the country meeting and greeting fans. Unfortunately, that requires airports, and airports mean you’re entangling with the TSA. When traveling from Denver to Dallas, Texas, TSA agents took away Peter Mayhew’s lightsaber cane.
Turns out, the cane needed for a guy who is taller than most doorways is a bit heavier and larger than average. It was the mass of the cane that had TSA agents at Denver’s airport suspicious. Mayhew looked to be facing a real dilemma until he turned to his Twitter account @TheWookieRoars. Once Mayhew hit Twitter and started to raise up a stink with his 25,000 followers, the TSA agents changed their tune. Of course, the TSA says it wasn’t due to Twitter pressure, but it’s awfully coincidental, isn’t it? I’m sure the A-Team of Twitter had something to do with all this.
Here are some of Mayhew’s choice tweets from the day of the security screening: “In the caffufel of the cane”, “Giant man need giant cane… small cane snap like toothpick…. besides … my light saber cane is just cool.. I would miss it.”, and most tellingly, “Magic words to TSA are not ‘please’ or ‘thank you’… It’s ‘Twitter’. . .cane released to go home …”
Note to self: let the Wookie win.
Image: Examiner
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