Walked by a club here in San Jose yesterday, plastered with these rather snotty flyers detailing the myriad requirements for entry. Aside from the strict dress code, I was pretty shocked to discover that the one form of ID they consider to be invalid is a passport! I wonder what the State Department thinks of this? I mean, my passport says that the secretary of state requests that I be permitted to pass without delay or hinderance, but I guess Condoleeza Rice doesn’t have much pull with the management of the Blue Monkey.
Wow, if that was the dress code for a club in S. Ill. it would have only 4 to 5 patrons per night.
That is to assume S. Ill. actually had a club.
Could be worse…
http://www.airwhiners.net/trip_report/tr0002.htm
It was now 1130am and I figured that it was about time to head back to the old terminal for my 1215pm flight. Accordingly, I headed up the escalators to the ticketing area, where I suddenly was approached by two people who identified themselves as Investigators with the Wayne County Sheriff Department and asked me to step off to the side with them.
They were very polite throughout this encounter, but demanded to know why I was taking notes and carrying luggage. I explained that I was on a connection and had pre-registered for the event. They did not believe me and asked to see my boarding passes, which I produced. I also presented my passport as ID, which they told me was not acceptable. Evidently, Michigan cops are trained to only accept driver’s licenses. I proceeded to produce my registration confirmation for the event, my tickets, my business card, etc.. and told them they could ask the CEO of Northwest to vouch for me if they wanted since I had been talking with him 10 minutes earlier. This seemed to pacify them somewhat, but they still insisted on going through my bag.
Oh, but it *is* worse. Check out this page: http://www.kctv5.com/Global/story.asp?S=6511234
Turns out that you can make your own ID and use it at the airport; something I always suspected. The reality is that photo IDs are completely pointless, because the minimum-wage screeners simply look at the picture to see if it matches the person who gave it to them… and how hard is it to carry a picture of yourself?