By LEONARD GRAY

I get to play one of my favorite games this weekend, and I can hardly wait.

Did you ever play “Spy” at the airport? Yes, in this post-9-11 era, it may not be particularly popular right now, but the game is simple.

Go to any large airport. Somebody, somewhere, may be a spy, like James Bond or Mata Hari or something. Your job: find him.

Of course, the game is played out entirely in your mimd; you don’t actually do anything like follow people around or look shifty or suspicious yourself. That’s part of being a good counterspy – don’t get caught.

Good counterspies will spot that strange package or that suspicious person traveling alone, just sitting there.

One never knows just who is traveling through New Orleans, on their way to Hong Kong, Zanzibar or Rome. Is that bulge under the businesman’s jacket a Walther PPK, or is he simply well-built? Is that woman a femme fatale? Is that quiet businessman really an international man of mystery?

Then again, if I saw Austin Powers at the airport, I think I’d take a bus.

LEONARD GRAY is assistant managing editor of L’Observateur. He may be reached at (985) 652-9545.