Black ruck sack convention

Am I missing something? I found out too late that yesterday was no smoking day, I heard it on the radio at 10am by which time I had already sucked the life out of three.

Is there some kind of 'if you're a shifty looking man then carry a black ruck sack and fiddle with it incessantly on the tube' thing going on today?

For the first time in a while I had to get off the tube this morning. I had the sweats, the shakes, the teeth chattering, the nausea, the fear. Everywhere I looked there were black ruck sacks. I'm not sure that any of their porters were even of Asian extraction, it didn't seem to matter. Many of them were attached to their owner's ears by white wires, they zipped and unzipped, searched and found. I could feel this frenetic activity all around me stirring up the anxiety and quickening my heart. I battled against it, rationalised the moment, but it overcame me and off I got.

A few deep inhalations and a serious talking to later, I boarded the next one, buried myself in a book and refused to be drawn back into the 'spot the scary sack' game.