I work in the Dirksen federal building (219 S. Dearborn), and (fortunately) can park my bike in the basement parking lot, but have to pass two check points. The guards recognize me but I still have to show ID for the eye in the sky. My impression is that they could care less about me, considering that they have to deal with federal prisoners, ensure the safety of building workers (i.e., judges and me), make sure the Ice Mountain delivery guy really has water and not fertilizer in his truck, and corral the scampering herd of media types. They are certainly not the "Armed and Dangerous" variety of guards. So I have much respect for them, but then again, I don't have to put my junk through an X-Ray machine everyday.

The irony is that while the guards recognize me as non-messenger, when I get beers after work at Cal's (monkey, I think I've seen you there before--I asked you if you owned the Gios that I saw locked up near the double door a couple weeks before that. I know, random.), I have been mistaken as a messenger. So the "smile, I'm not a messenger" button may be a necessary accessory for the times when my possenger status is not oozing from every stich of my reload.