Flying Then:
This ad from Capital Airlines (which merged with United Airlines in 1961) touted flying as a pleasant experience:
Just a Meal and a Magazine Away
You forget old fashioned ideas about distance when you fly Capital. You relax in cushioned comfort amid congenial, club-like informality.
Flying Now:
Jennifer Castellano of Winchendon, Massachusetts, was sitting for a minute on an Air Tran flight from West Palm Beach, Florida to Boston when she noticed that her pants were soaked:
Castellano said she went to the lavatory to check her jeans and long sweater.
"I then realized I was saturated in urine from the smell," she said.
Castellano said a flight attendant told her someone had gone to the bathroom in the seat during the previous flight.
"A flight attendant told me that on the previous flight a man had urinated on himself in that particular seat. And I said, 'I'm not sitting on a three hours flight soaked in someone else's urine. That is absolutely disgusting,'" Castellano said.
inside-out!!!
http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm#3
And yes...they're OK to carry on. Cattle prods, No. Nunchakas, No. Optimus Prime, Yes. As it should be.
As for protocol, I heard a story that someone who was boarding a plane was refused entry as his T-shirt had a Transformer character on it and he had a gun. He had to change his t-shirt before he was allowed to fly!