There have been stories coming out recently which focus on lengthy, time-consuming T.S.A. security lines travelers have been finding themselves in as of late. One TV newser was stuck in a situation like this at LAX back in 2009. The difference here is this traveler turned a potentially frustrating experience into a positive one. He ended up meeting his future wife on this T.S.A. security line.
Longtime Dateline correspondent Josh Mankiewicz married Anh Tu Dang on May 16 in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held at the home of Mark Thompson, a retired L.A. newscaster turned Universal Life minister who has known Mankiewicz since childhood. Mankiewicz described the unique first encounter with his new wife: “Standing in line ahead of me was this stunning woman. I was staring at her. She didn’t notice. Finally, we started talking. Actually, I started talking and she responded.”
Mankiewicz ended up giving Dang, owner and chief executive of a home health care business, his business card, but admittedly never expected to hear from her. Yet, she got in touch with him four weeks later. “He was handsome and apparently smart,” Dang said. “I thought, let me give it a shot and see what happens.”
Mankiewicz, 60, and Dang, 42, dated for a month in 2009 before he decided to break it off. He found himself in her neighborhood one day four years later, and decided to call and ask her out to lunch. The rest is history.
“Sometimes the path to love is slow, sometimes – courtesy of T.S.A. – it is excruciatingly slow,” said Mankiewicz. “But I suppose we should thank them. It gave us time to have that first talk.”
Mankiewicz, who has been a reporter for Dateline since 1995, is perhaps best known for his report on the Atkins Diet. He a new story premiering this Sunday during On Assignment. In it, he investigates the story behind the brand-new Bay Bridge, an architectural marvel but a project which finished billions of dollars over budget.