Travel Non Sense

Lately, I am worried not of stuff being taken out of my bag, but of stuff being put in..

The check in at our airports is done at gut level. Literally . The passport and boarding pass are carefully matched but nobody ever looks up to see you eyes. Last week I found myself on board with my mother's passport in hand.. We both went through all check points with each other passport, switched by mistake. True, she is only 25 years older and looks better than me.
But still.

All the Manhattan busses carry a large American flag on their back window. Nobody seems to notice or care that the Stars are placed on the right corner of the Stripes. And I saw the same flag on the uniforms of our army - noted in "Lions for Lambs."
Another coup of Chinese creativity. And American nonchalance.

After so many years I am still baffled by the Inbound and Outbound directions of the Boston subway system. Inbound and Outbound to what ? Such notions are just point of views not geographical markers.

The West Delta Bus posts a large "No smoking" sign on board. But the driver finishes up a pack of Cleopatra's by the time we are out of Alexandria. We the passengers are in just for the ride,
I guess.

In Humanitas bookstore in Sibiu I fail to find Rilke's poems., or even the poetry section for that matter. After a while I realize to my dismay that the books are set up at a whim, under no law of subject matter or alphabet....As a correct American that I have become I complaint enthusiastically to the front clerk - "true there is no order, but looking for something you may find something else that you never knew existed !" Touche.