Ugly Passport Photos

by Adrienne Wilson on

Having recently taken one of the most GAWD awful passport photos in my entire life for my Tajikistan visa application, I could totally sympathize with the author of this SFGate.com piece. If I didn’t know myself and I saw that picture, I wouldn’t allow entrance into my own apartment let alone some post-Soviet country. However, the beauty of Eileen Mitchell’s story is this: everyone laughs at her passport photo, including the folks at customs. (Although, I can’t recall if she was laughing with them.)  And with passports now having an expiration date of 10 years or what seems like centuries, having a bad photo plastered in there really blows to say the least. Her sad, comical travel bit is very much worth a read if you’re having a lazy extended 4th of July weekend.

P.S. – The tiny little creature you see pictured happens to be my first passport picture taken in the Philippines to get me over to U.S. Yeah, yeah, don’t laugh too hard.

Cool or Lame: Get Your Passport for Canada?

by Erik Olsen on

It might be a good time to get yourself a passport, if you are one of those tens of millions of Americans who doesn’t already have one. Sure, you may not be planning a trip anytime soon to Europe or another continent, but beginning on December 31, the United States, which now requires only a drivers license to visit the Caribbean, Bermuda, Canada and Mexico, will be requiring passports for travel to these places. Kinda sucks, huh? I mean, how many times have you bolted for the border on a whim without bringing along your little blue book? The new rules are part of the 20054 anti-terrorism bill and will apply only to air and sea travel (for now, but stay tuned). The headache will get worse at the end of next year when the Department of Homeland Security will demand you show your passport at every border crossing. Yuck.

Lonely Planet's Passport Passion

by Erik Olsen on

Get out!

Is this the
terrifying scream of evil spirits inside your house. Nope, this is the call to action from the folks at Lonely Planet, who want nothing more
than for you to leave the country. You see, they are suggesting a really wonderful idea. By getting away, they suggest,
you do your own country some good. Not because we didn’t really want you here in the first place, but because when you
go abroad, you act as an ambassador of goodwill…assuming you’re not some loud, drunk, arrogant, hat-turned-backwards
frat-boy…in that case, we suggest you not only stay home, but go somewhere with all your friends and bang drums by
yourselves in the wilderness. Anyway, the LP points out (rightly) that American travelers can serve as "agents of
understanding, tolerance and mutual respect " as they travel out into the world and interact with people in other
nations. But they also say that just 23% of Americans have passports. Could that be true? My, that’s a low number.

Well I for one couldn’t agree more that travel helps you and helps others know you. Nothing will make this
world a more lovely place than greater mutual understanding. It’s much harder to hate someone you know than it is to
make up a blanket statement about them and channel all your personal fears and hang-ups into a self-created image…if
you don’t mind me getting psychological on your a$$es for a moment.

Anyway, take the LP advice. If you don’t
have a passport now, go get one. You’ll be doing all of us a favor.