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Comment by madeofpalk | Hacker News Reader

Side note: Just a few days ago I flew domestically within Australia just a week after some anti-terror arrests and increased security screening (which has since been lifted). As my bag went through it got flagged and the security officer flagged the aerosol can. I was already pretty nervous already, so I apologise profusely for the mistake.

Turns out the security officer was just a Regular Person, claimed deodorant cans are his "bread and bitter" and had a little chuckle as he found it in my toiletries bag.

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What airport security had to say about a regular person impersonating security agents?

> What airport security had to say about a regular person impersonating security agents?

I initially read madeofpalk's comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14940680) as it seems that you might have, so that it seemed to say that the supposed security agent was not actually a security agent; but a second reading suggests that the meaning is instead that, in addition to being a security agent, the person in question was a Regular Person, and had a sense of humour.

Repeated readings still do not reveal whether an Australian security agent referring to something as his "bread and bitter" is a typo or intentional. :-)

A bread & bitter is a typical Australian breakfast of stale bread and (when available) an anise liquor.

It's derived from the continental "existentialist breakfast" of a black coffee, cigarette, and Aspirin–but had to be adapted due to the bad availability of commercial products in the past, as well as the higher activity levels the Australian bush requires and the resulting danger of a breakfast completely devoid of calories.

I had to look it up to see if you were serious or not. There does happen to be a brewpub by that name in Nottingham though.

http://www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk/pubs/bread-and-bitter/

I can't tell if this is real or not. I guess the joke is on me for not knowing if you're satirizing with bitter and liquor or not.

As @jonah found out, it's just a joke–only the "existentialist breakfast" is a real thing that probably started as a joke, and that I've seen on one or two menus of cafes willing to skirt the rules on selling pharmaceuticals.

But the joke is most definitely not "on you". As in: It wasn't meant to expose anybody's shocking lack of knowledge of arcane Australian trivia.

The idiom is definitely "bread and butter", perhaps madeofpalk was making a joke about his accent?

U and I are adjacent on QWERTY. Easy typo. Even worse pick-up line. “Hey baby, I prefer QWERTY because it puts U and I together.”

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