We’ve written before about the over-the-top patriotic design of the new U.S. passport. Reviews are still trickling in, and I like Karrie Jacobs’s take. “When I travel, I try to be the Complex American—a citizen of the fascinating, nuanced, multicultural, messy and basically decent place I know this country to be,” she remarked yesterday in a short essay on public radio’s Marketplace. “But I feel like this passport blows my cover. It’s like suddenly, against my will, I’m wearing ugly khaki shorts and talking way too loud.” That’s right, Karrie. You might as well be wearing these at every customs checkpoint.

* The New U.S. Passport: ‘It Is Like Being Given A Coloring Book That Your Brother Already Colored In’

“Most of us are stuck in economy class, but not all of us stay there,” writes Christopher Elliott this week. “How do people snag upgrades? Well, one of the secrets of frequent travelers is to look the part....I’ve spoken with several airline folks who have admitted they’ll pick someone who looks like he belongs in the forward cabin.” In other words, this guy probably isn’t getting the nod.

Related on World Hum:
* ‘Really Cool, Well-Traveled’ John Flinn on the Dorky Zip-Off Pant
* In Thailand, Pink is the New Black

Photo by crucially via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Great question, Steve Rushin. He poses it in a hilarious column in Time, in which he offers his own “modest proposals to return air travel to its original upright position.” Among them: “Prison time to the passenger who stands in the aisle fastidiously folding his blazer.”

Related on World Hum:
* Armrest Seating, Anyone?

Seriously. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who traditionally has worn dark colors, was recently spotted wearing a pink shirt, and that has prompted a run on pink shirts in the country. Reports the BBC: “Thais have been queuing in their hundreds” for shirts like the one pictured, and the “Phufa fashion chain said it had sold 40,000 pink shirts this month.” No word on whether backpackers in Thailand will trade in their ubiquitous Southeast Asian Red Bull T-shirts for something in pink. I hope so.

Photo: AP.

It’s obvious why Sioux City might want to get rid of its airport code. The city actually petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration twice to change the favorite three-letter designation of 12-year-olds everywhere, but it was offered alternative three-letter designations that didn’t excite anyone. So, Sioux City has decided to embrace SUX, making it the “centerpiece of the airport’s new marketing campaign,” according to the AP. Look for it on T-shirts and hats and online at flySUX.com.

Related on World Hum:
* Virginia Tourism’s ‘Symbol of Love’ Actually Symbol of Chicago Gang

I recently parted ways with a beloved North Face backpack, one that had seen me through seven years of delayed flights, typhoon rains and a would-be pickpocket in Shanghai. Its zippers had broken down irretrievably, the plastic lining was crumbling, and the water bottle pockets had stretched way beyond their usefulness. When I finally surrendered the pack to a recycling truck in Taiwan, I felt a small stab of grief and wondered how I could ever replace it.

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The airline that once booted a passenger off a flight for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words Meet the Fockers—it had pictures of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice— is making travel fashion headlines once again. Southwest Airlines apparently didn’t care for the skirt and top that 23-year-old college student and Hooters waitress Kyla Ebbert wore aboard a flight two months ago from San Diego to Tucson. Reported the San Diego Union-Tribune this week, Ebbert “had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon in Tucson, where temperatures had topped 106 all week. She arrived at Lindbergh Field [in San Diego] wearing a white denim miniskirt, high-heel sandals, and a turquoise summer sweater over a tank top over a bra.” The U-T has a photo of said outfit.

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There’s another great slice of life piece—this one from Delhi, India—in the Washington Post’s enlightening Time Zones series. It’s the start of the monsoon season in India, writes Emily Wax, and well-heeled Indians are making their ways to city salons in Delhi to battle a universal enemy—the bad hair day. For both sexes in India, healthy, long hair is a major beauty symbol, and Indians take tress management seriously.

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And they say the glamour is gone from air travel. In the tradition of the Singapore Girls and Hooters Air, Ecuador’s Icaro Airlines has been parading beautiful women as in-flight entertainment via 10-minute lingerie shows on selected flights. “It was a surprise, really. A very nice surprise,” one passenger on a flight from Quito to Guayaquil told Reuters. “Before the trip was short, now it feels really short.” Reuters has the original video that features, among other things, leering men and at least one visibly uncomfortable woman. Not surprisingly, the video has multiplied across the Internet. (Via The Perrin Post.)

Related on World Hum:
* Singapore Girl: Icon, Anachronism, Winged Geisha and Pretty Young Thing
* The New Hot Job in India: Flight Attendant
* Lesson No. 1 of Hooters Air: It Is Awfully Difficult to Make Buffalo Wings at 33,000 Feet

Photo by abogada samoana, via Flickr (Creative Commons).

When I first heard about a new law related to kilts, I naturally assumed it had something to do with the hordes of kilt-wearing, buttocks-baring Scots now invading Poland. But it turns out the new law has nothing to do with protecting the poor, terrorized Polish men and women who have suffered the indignity of witnessing one too many bare Scottish buttocks. In fact, the law has everything to do with protecting the poor, terrorized, protected species—otters and badgers, to name just two—whose fur has traditionally been used to make sporrans, the little purses often worn with kilts. Kilt wearers, it seems, may now have to get a license for their sporrans. Well that’s great for the otters and badgers. But what about the good people of Poland? Who’s protecting them?

Related on World Hum:
* Invasion of the Kilt-Wearing, Buttocks-Baring Scots!
* Ask Rolf: Should I Pack My Kilt on My Trip to Asia?

Photo by hans s via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Our hearts go out to the nation of Poland. Groups of kilt-wearing, underwear-challenged Scottish men drawn to cheap beer are apparently invading the country, getting loaded and, adding insult to injury, yes, lifting their kilts. “It’s easy to spot these so-called ‘tourists’ from a mile off,” sniffed one local paper. Now, authorities are considering changes to the law. According to Scotsman.com: “In the city of Wroclaw, in the south-west of Poland, officials are exploring a kilt ban after being horrified by groups of drunk Scottish men who lifted their kilts to strangers to reveal their buttocks. Local police admit they have been unable to control the groups of maurauding Scots, despite complaints from outraged locals and fed-up bar owners, who claim Scots are rowdy, break glasses and leave pub toilets in a shocking state.”

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No, not the image of Che wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt, although it’s clearly an image that should be seen around the world. First, there was the original Alberto Korda photo of the bearded, beret-clad revolutionary looking totally revolutionary-chic. A new AP story recounts that photo’s journey from Korda’s camera to the world-at-large. It notes, among other things, the ensuing ironies (capitalists are capitalizing on the commie’s image!); the pets (meet Che, an elegant Doberman pinscher in Oakland, California); Che detractors (hey, they say, the guy was a murderer); and the spoofs, including this New Yorker cartoon by Matthew Diffee. 

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