Try to take it easy and relax on your upcoming USA trip? Once you've been fingerprinted and properly documented of course.

MKK

I have a whizzy new(ish) EU-issue machine-readable passport: as far as I know, it confers exemption from fingerprinting, at least for another year or so ...

I just hope you're not flying in a plane with a Jesus Freak at the controls:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3472265.stm

Edited by author 02-09-2004 01:29 PM
See you in Boston. Having just cleared US customs about 3 days ago and watched them using the fingerprinting machines, I can assure you that the time added to the process is not the claimed 10-15 seconds, but rather several minutes. The people most in need of help understanding what they're supposed to do with the machines also tend not to speak English. The most common mistake is people assuming the machine will read their fingerprints like bar codes and thus holding their finger an inch or so above the machine rather then putting their finger in the slot.

Hope you packed a heavy coat, Charlie; Friday and Saturday are going to be warm (as high as 48 on Sat.), but Sunday the temps will drop down to the teens.