There are a myriad ways to get a new passport. I got mine at the Boston Passport Agency, part of the State Department. You’ll recognize it when you’re there. It’s adorned with neatly-framed pictures of Trump, Vance and Rubio. You don’t have to look at the pictures. I did and was impressed with the quality of the photography and the frames (not gold).<\/p>\n
One of the charms of being an ex-businessman (i.e. me) is to ask yourself dumb questions like:<\/p>\n
+ Why do passports ever expire? Why ten years? Why not twenty? Why not forever?<\/p>\n
+ What do you need to stand in line in Europe, when the airline has all your information and has already given it to the powers-that-be overseas — long before your plane (or you) ever arrived on their haloed shoes?<\/p>\n
+ Why do credit cards expire? Surely they want me to keep on spending?<\/p>\n
+ Why do credit cards even exist? I’m pleased to report: My iPhone now works on everything from the New York City Subway (thank you Janno) to a tiny convenience store in the middle of nowhere Latvia (or was it Lithuania?).<\/p>\n
+ Why do credit cards have numbers printed on them. My Apple\/Goldman Sachs one doesn’t. I feel much safer giving it to a tattooed, nose-ringed, eyebrow-pierced waitress. I know that’s not DEI. But that was last year! Now I’m free to say what I like.<\/p>\n
Next important\u00a0 travel tip<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Never, ever check luggage.<\/p>\n I waited two and a half hours for JetBlue to deliver my teeny tiny bag to luggage carousel 18 in Amsterdam. The JetBlue business class fare was cheaper than Delta.<\/p>\n But the wait for the bag killed all my love for JetBlue.<\/p>\n Worse, JetBlue has a seriously stupid rule that you can only take two bags on the plane — even though business class overhead bins are empty.\u00a0 I routinely take three bags onto Delta. business class.<\/p>\n Last important travel tips<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Eat before you get onto a Europe-bound trip. Get on the plane. Don your sleep mask and drop off.<\/p>\n You’ll feel better the next day.<\/p>\n There is no cure for jet lag, except sleep. There are pills, of course. But one thing you learn from Dan Brown is that everything has long-term consequences. That includes all the the stuff that works on your brain. That’s the little machine you wish to last you 100 years. (Or at least, I do.).<\/p>\n Take engrossing amusement along<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Nana Golden Beach Resort in Crete\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We finally ended up at a water park\/tennis resort in Heraklion, Crete.<\/p>\n It’s perfect for entertaining grandchildren. Pools and water slides everywhere. For me, it has excellent Wi-Fi (that’s where this blog is coming from) and 20 or so gorgeous tennis courts of all surfaces and gorgeous tennis pros.<\/p>\n Crete is loaded with water parks. It seems that the town is served by Europe’s low-cost budget airlines, like Transavia (the one we caught from Amsterdam). To be low-cost, they insist that all their passengers be legless, since there’s so space for legs and they don’t fit in the overhead bins.<\/p>\n Our Nana Gollden Beach Resort is full of overweight Germans, who commented to me that they like the place because “it’s cheap.”<\/p>\n They also have a catchy phrase here “All the food you can eat, All the time.”<\/em><\/p>\n Back to Dan Brown<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The book keeps you engrossed with:<\/p>\n 1. A fast-moving plot. \u201cOui,\u201d he said. \u201cLa petite mort.\u201d \u201cYes\u2014the little death. That\u2019s because the self-detachment felt at orgasm is precisely the same feeling described by people who have had near-death experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n That’s it for now. The grandchildren are calling me to the pool where, thankfully, I can continue eating and drinking.<\/p>\n Miscellaneous<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n If you’re using PowerPooint, make sure you leave your viewers a deck of the slides, and include the words you used when presenting. An empty PowerPoint deck is like tennis without a down-the-line backhand winner. Boring and unfilled.<\/p>\n My friend Frank Derfler tells me than at least 50% of the jobs young people have today didn’t exist ten years ago. My favorite remains influencer. But I do like digital nomad.<\/p>\n Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now believes that circumcision leads to autism. Which didn’t work for me. The New York Times mused”<\/p>\n Or maybe Kennedy\u2019s just totally unqualified for the job and, like many of Trump\u2019s cabinet members, was selected to undermine the public\u2019s faith in the establishment even further.<\/p>\n For now, time to play with the grandkids. And find out why they’re not interested in anything I’m interested in — and wait for this — my granddaughter Eleanor, who’s a really smart kid, has consigned this blog to her spam email.<\/p>\n See you soon. — Harry Newton<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Readers bemoan their idiocy. Their passport expired too few months to allow them to travel. The airline bumped them. They rushed back into the city (in my case Boston), got a new passport and went on their happy way a day or two later. Worst was answwering the children’s question: “Isn’t there an app for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65095"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65109,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65095\/revisions\/65109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Sleep-Mask.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Secret-of-Secrets.jpg\")
\nTip: Buy two copies: One for you and one for your wife. Otherwise. your nose will be in the book and not paying attention to her every need and want! As I do, most of the time.<\/p>\n
\n2. Psuedo-pop insights into the mind. You think you’re actually learning something. Here’s a quote from the book:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pool.jpg\")
<\/p>\n