Passport-gate

much ado about not really all that much

so anyway, this whole "passport records" dust up caught my eye this week. As luck would have it, I was filling out the paperwork to have my own passport renewed when the story broke. As per my usual, I have the DS-82 all filled out, the photos ready, the check written, and my passport all stuffed into the requisite padded envelope, ready to go to the Post Office. I should get it in the mail on Monday or, with the way my life works, sometime between Monday and Flag Day. Remember, procrastination is what I do best.

I've been reading through the dextrosphere on the passport records fiasco, and realized that rather than reading the opinions of the punditry, I should go to an expert for the real deal.

After all, if you wanted to know how to make a car's Instrument Panel (that's the "dash-board" for those of you fortunate enough not to work in the Stoopid Business™) as cheap as possible, you'd come to me. That's my job: to make sure the next new car you buy is a bigger piece of siht than the one you traded in. Hey, it pays the bills and I haven't really missed my soul (much) since entering this pact.

If you want the knowledge about things concerning the State Department, you need to read Consul-At-Arms. He has all (as in, all of them) the links, replete with commentary, on this whole situation. Hit the front page and scroll and read.

CAA offers a primer on passport records and passports in general that is a must read. Here's something I bet you did not know:

Lastly, back to those passports some of you have. If you'll peek inside, you notice a couple of things. First of all, notice a blank space where a line has been provided, above which the passport bearer (that's YOU!) is encouraged to write their signature. If you haven't already done so, please sign the Blessed thing. I wish I had a nickel for every passport I've seen where the U.S. citizen hadn't yet signed it. And yet it was being presented to me and I was supposed to use it to verify the citizen's identity and, you guessed it, their SIGNATURE.

How, exactly, is that supposed to work?

So do yourself a favor and sign it; technically it's not valid until you do so.

.....the second thing you may notice in your U.S. passport is a page where you can put some emergency contact information. Please use it.

Read the whole thing. You'll be smarter for it.

There's lots more blog-worthy stuff out there, but the Easter Bunny has to make an appearance in about seven hours, so I should get some sleep. More soon.