Sure Happy It’s Thursday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa, and Sven!
I made it to 9 o’clock last night, but only barely. I’ve spent the morning wading through emails, making sure I didn’t delete something important while getting rid of the usual stuff. I spent yesterday getting caught up on work stuff.
Our trip was wonderful and amazing. I’ll probably wait until this weekend to give a trip report. Going through customs was completely different this time around. No more walking up to an inspector with all of your luggage and your customs declaration form, wondering how much they’re going to search through your luggage. All inspection of checked baggage happens independently of your encounters with CBP officers. You walk up to a kiosk, scan your passport, and answer five questions. You then get a printed receipt and stand in another line. Since we had answered “yes” to the question about bringing in more than the duty-free allowance on things, we went to a different line. BTW, if you don’t know what the duty-free allowance is on items, I don’t know how you can answer that question truthfully. Generally it is $800, but you are only allowed 1 liter of alcohol per person for personal use, but that information isn’t on the screen when you are answering the questions. I couldn’t remember what size some of the bottles were, but I knew it added up to more than 2 liters. We answered the inspectors questions, didn’t have to pay the extra duty (which would have amounted to a couple of bucks), then picked up our checked baggage, re-checked it, went through security again, then rushed to our connecting flight from JFK to LAX, arriving at the gate while they were boarding.
I’m unsurprised that a gummint kiosk doesn’t provide important information that you need to know in order to answer the damned questions correctly. Wonder if that’s just the usual public agency ineptitude or an attempt at entrapment.
Or both.
Is it a federal crime to “lie” to one o’ them kiosks?
What the duck…it’s Thursday, GN!
Good morning and happy Thursday, Fatwa, and GN!
To start the day -- in my opinion, a rare song where the cover is much better than the original:
Sure Happy It’s Thursday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa, and Sven!
I made it to 9 o’clock last night, but only barely. I’ve spent the morning wading through emails, making sure I didn’t delete something important while getting rid of the usual stuff. I spent yesterday getting caught up on work stuff.
Our trip was wonderful and amazing. I’ll probably wait until this weekend to give a trip report. Going through customs was completely different this time around. No more walking up to an inspector with all of your luggage and your customs declaration form, wondering how much they’re going to search through your luggage. All inspection of checked baggage happens independently of your encounters with CBP officers. You walk up to a kiosk, scan your passport, and answer five questions. You then get a printed receipt and stand in another line. Since we had answered “yes” to the question about bringing in more than the duty-free allowance on things, we went to a different line. BTW, if you don’t know what the duty-free allowance is on items, I don’t know how you can answer that question truthfully. Generally it is $800, but you are only allowed 1 liter of alcohol per person for personal use, but that information isn’t on the screen when you are answering the questions. I couldn’t remember what size some of the bottles were, but I knew it added up to more than 2 liters. We answered the inspectors questions, didn’t have to pay the extra duty (which would have amounted to a couple of bucks), then picked up our checked baggage, re-checked it, went through security again, then rushed to our connecting flight from JFK to LAX, arriving at the gate while they were boarding.
I’m tired just remembering it!
Hai, Sven and Paddy!
I’m unsurprised that a gummint kiosk doesn’t provide important information that you need to know in order to answer the damned questions correctly. Wonder if that’s just the usual public agency ineptitude or an attempt at entrapment.
Or both.
Is it a federal crime to “lie” to one o’ them kiosks?
Yes, you submit, under penalty of perjury, that the answers are true, to the best of your knowledge (which could be an out).
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse!”
(Unless your job is to actually enforce the law on behalf of our rulers, in which case you’re off the hook. It’s good to be one of the king’s men.)
GoodWifeK just called to ask if I’d like a spicy hate chicken sammich for dinner.
I responded in the affirmative but declined fries. Dunno how Chik-fil-A can make such good sandwiches and truly lousy
awfulwaffle fries.¯\_(ツ)_/¯