Reply #61: I just used my passport to go to Syracuse, NY, from NYC [View All]

[despairing optimist]

Talk about border crossings. I know NYC is another planet, but really.

Seriously, I didn't want any hassles with TSA guards on a one-day Easter Sunday visit with family, and I've had problems with photo IDs that weren't driver's licenses. I once used a license that was still valid for four months, but that didn't stop one TSA person in Boston Logan from advising me to renew it promptly. A university photo ID worked at LaGuardia but didn't pass muster in Boston, so I just figured, use the passport to Syracuse and everyone was happy.

An article in today's WaPo reports on changes in policy that will require US citizens to use passports for all travel in the Americas by 2008 anyway, so Canada's retaliation is rather anticlimactic. The first passport is the worst to get because of the required official copy of one's birth certificate, but passport renewals aren't much trouble.

In this case there's no sense fighting city hall. It's not as bad as having to take off one's shoes and belt and stand on one foot and turn around in the middle of an airline terminal, and that's happened too often.