TSA - You can't make this stuff up

[Silent_Bob]

[WithoutAPaddle]

Actually, you can make this stuff up.  Do you have a source for this picture, such that I might authenticate it?

[WithoutAPaddle]

I googled for the terms: TDA, smoking, picture, and snopes, and it produced a page of images including the above.  One identical picture was hosted by http://msgboard.snopes.com/photos/signs/graphics/tsasmoking.jpg , at an address that incorporates the terms "msgboard: and "snopes", but so far, I haven't found such an actual message board to see if it is authenticated or debunked.

[WithoutAPaddle]

I just trunkated the URL to: http://msgboard.snopes.com , which led me to http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi , which is a closed message board that is not searchable.  My investigation continues.

[WithoutAPaddle]

http://www.loweringthebar.net/2011/06/who-watches-the-watchmen.html

That is from June 19, 2011.  The picture is attributed to a twitter user.  Someone in a blog commented that both cigarettes appear to be unlit, so it certainly is suspicious that each person got enthralled in a telephone conversation before lighting up and held their cigarettes the same way.  The other thing pointed out is that would be a strange place to put a no smoking sign since the whole area may be closed to (or open to) smoking.

[Kat Kanning]

Why do you believe Snopes more than other websites?

[WithoutAPaddle]

I didn't say that I believe snopes more than competing sites, though I often do, because they often offer links for their sources of information.    I don't consider snopes to be apolitical or above reproach.  They sometimes declare things to be true or false when the matters they are pronouncing upon are subjective or too vague to be definitively characterized as true or false. 

In this instance, I wound up at a snopes-affiliated site because I had found this same picture hosted by a defunct, snopes affiliated member discussion board that had a link to the googled image, and from there I was forwarded to a current, similarly formatted, snopes affiliated member discussion board where a dozen unidentified members offered their two cents, and then I further followed a link in that member discussion thread to the June 19, 2011 publication of this photo in a blog titled, "Lowering the Bar", a website maintained by a lawyer who identifies himself on its home page and ho belatedly attributed the photo to the twitter user, "comedian Chris Burns (on Twitter: @chrisburns)", and posted this caption beneath that picture:

I don't have a source for this picture (please let me know if you do), but This picture looks real to me. That is, one of them's not paying attention at all, and the other one's only bothering because he's pissed that somebody's taking a picture of him doing something wrong. So that seems true to form.

Update: It looks like our heroes were captured on film by comedian Chris Burns (on Twitter: @chrisburns), who has graciously given me the OK to repost this picture. Okay, I had already posted it, but he has graciously given me the OK to leave it here.

So at this point, I am inclined to believe that there is an attorney Kevin Underhill who is a partner in the San Francisco office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon, who posted the photo nearly two years ago and who publicly attributed it to a Mr. Chris Burns, but I welcome additional information that might further corroborate the genuineness of the photo or dispute it.