the new american passport

I had to get a new passport before I flew out, and it's pretty fantastic.

This is just one of its pages, which are completely mind-blowing and look like the freebie dolphin, Daffy, and Canadian geese checks you get at the beginning of a book of checks.

But the passport is not complete without elegantly wrapping my mug in a flag and eagle:

I am not commenting on this derisively. To the contrary, I always admire dolphin check bearers for their gusto and humorous relationship with money. And no, my name is not Frank Moss.

Canton is a funny area just outside Cardiff, a perfect outskirtsville, more complete than Cardiff is complete as a capital city. Of course, Cardiff did not become the capital city yesterday (although it did, to rub some idioms, become so overnight). Actually, when I was trolling through its endless glorious retail sector and found the Cardiff castle gift shop, I read about Cardiff's bid for capital city in 1954, and how the newspaper headlines heralded the day of Cardiff's victory as "The Day of Great Relief."
But it's hard to be a city.