I am outraged. Outraged, I say.<\/p>\n
Just now, having finally, and very belatedly, send the ms. for a long book on the Right to Die off to my editor (a grim story for another day) , I was able to make my way downstairs to get today’s mail.<\/p>\n
There were packages for both me and Zachary from the State Department. Oh, goody, I thought: Our new passports have arrived. And so timely! We sent in our renewal forms only 3 weeks ago. (My passport was due to expire in Feb, Zach’s this month, and we feared long turnarounds.) So I ripped open the package, full of innocent glee. Well, that didn’t last long.<\/p>\n
A quick google just now revealed that the press and the blogosphere have been buzzing about the revolting new passport design since April! Alas, I happen not to have seen any of that stuff, or anyone’s brand-new passport, and the thing came as such a shock to me that I actually thought someone was playing an elaborate joke. Really. If only I had been forewarned I might have been spared a nasty shock, or possibly considered changing my nationality.<\/p>\n
The combination of terrible aethetics and simplistic, ham-handed patriotism makes me suspect that John Ashcroft designed this piece of crap. The worst part is that I greatly enjoy reading and admiring the many wonderful stamps on my old passports–a pleasure made possible by plain pages. I suspect that the montages of Mt. Rushmore, cowboys, choo-choo trains, and something suspiciously like a tablet of Commandments will greatly interfere with, if not preclude, such pleasures in the future. I must be sure to warn Zach, and possibly make sure that he’s had a drink, before I let him open his.<\/p>\n
And perhaps it would be as well, when memorizing the short list of useful phrases I try to learn in the languages of countries I am visiting, to add: “Please stamp hard. Our passports are very ugly.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am outraged. Outraged, I say. Just now, having finally, and very belatedly, send the ms. for a long book on the Right to Die off to my editor (a grim story for another day) , I was able to make my way downstairs to get today’s mail. There were packages for both me and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":897,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefoff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}