Is Trump Administration Trampling The Rights Of Gold Star Dad Khizr Khan?

Is the Trump administration thinking of restricting
Khizr Khan's right to travel?

I'm really, REALLY hoping breaking news reports about Khizr Khan this afternoon are not true.

If the reports are true, we are in desperate straights.

You might remember Khan and his wife delivering a speech at the Democratic National Convention last summer.

He waved a copy of the Constitution and urged then-Republican candidate Donald Trump to read it.

Khan has been an American citizen for 30 years and his son, died in a bomb explosion as a member of the U.S. military in 2004.

If the reports this afternoon are true, then Trump did not read the Constitution, as Khizr Kahn suggested.

Kahn was scheduled to speak at a Toronto, Canada luncheon Tuesday, but canceled reportedly because his "freedom to travel abroad" is under review, according to several news outlets, including Politico.

"This turn of events is not just of deep concern to me but to all my fellow Americans who cherish our freedom to travel abroad.....I have not been given any reason as to why. I am grateful for your support and looking forward to visiting Toronto in the near future," Kahn said in a statement.

I'm writing this, but I'm still skeptical, because it seems so over the top. But you never know with Trump.

I'm hoping the whole thing is some sort of weird misunderstanding.

But if Kahn is right we should be totally worried about this if it's true.  I'll update if there's more confirmation, or it this turns out not to be true.

Heathrow Christmas Ad Tries To Distract Us From Terrible Holiday Travel

Two elderly teddy bears star in a Heathrow Airport
Christmas advertisement.  

Tis the season to deck the halls, or deck the idiot slowing down the security line at your favorite airport.

Yes, holiday travel time is upon us, and many of us face the terror of airport terminals.

Personally, I'm not afraid of flying. I'm just afraid of airport terminals. The flight delays. The fellow, grumpy passengers. The security snafus. Bad weather. It's all crummy, but whaddaya going to do?

Heathrow Airport in London is trying to cheer us up with a holiday ad featuring two elderly teddy bears making their way through that airport during the Christmas season.

The ad doesn't solve the travel nightmares, but at least they're trying to make people feel a little better through cuteness. So, not bad.

Watch:

Did You Know You're Supposed to Hire A "Vacation Photographer" For Your Next Trip

Me and my husband Jeff on a brief getaway in a
blueberry patch a couple years ago. The photo
was NOT taken by a professional, it was a quickie
snapshot. But it did the job just fine. 

We all do it:

When we go on vacation, we take lots and lots of photos. At least most of us do.

Practically everybody has a smart phone, and the photographic images they make are usually pretty good.

However, apparently people who are into conspicuous consumpton believe that no vacation is complete unless you hire a vacation photographer to tail you.

Yes, you can hire your own paparazzi to follow you around.

According to Conde Nast Traveler, people are asking expert photographers to set up professional shoots to make the vacationers look perfect for the inevitable Instagram and Facebook shots.

True, some resorts have long had photographers on duty to take good photos of their guests. But some vacationers want their memories better than everybody else, or at least more slickly produced, than everybody else.

Conde Nast Traveler quoted Tricia Keffer, a Florida-based photographer who said she started getting requests to photograph families taking their Florida vacations nearly 20 years ago. Now, it's a full time gig called Tricia & Co Family Vacation Photographers.

She follows vacationers around the major tourist hubs of Florida, and goes to places like Paris occasionally, reports Conde Nast Traveler.

Vacation photography packages through Keffer's firm start at $350.  That, of course, is a good price for a photographer of Keffer's caliber, but still, it adds to the cost of an already expensive vacation, doesn't it?

If you want to hire a vacation photographer, go right ahead, but for me, it's a little ostentatious. Especially since I'd rather be enjoying the sites, sounds, people and experiences of wherever I'm visiting rather than posing for glossy photos.

I'd rather just take a grainy selfie to remember the moment in Vacationland and move on. Besides, does everything have to be professionally documented? Or documented at all?

Why not just enjoy the moment you're having, and let that nice memory reside in your brain for the rest of your life rather than fuss with staging, posing, lighting and all that to be one of the Beautiful People in one of the Beautiful Destinations?

Glinda the GPS Goddess Tried to Murder Jeff and Me.

Jeff and I decided on a weekend getaway to Cape Cod, and he had his trusty GPS to get us there.

Now, I'm not used to those things, relying on my usual stone age paper maps to get me there, so the woman's voice on the GPS was unnerving to say the least.

But, I went along with it, and named her Glinda P. Salzmann, because the name just seemed to fit the voice.

Frankly, Glinda is insecure and erratic. She kept interrupting to inform us in her cold, rather sarcastic, vaguely European accented voice: "Recalculating your route due to traffic conditions."

All I could say is "You keep working, honey, but try to do it quietly, will ya?"

But she was undeterred.   She was really going at it while we were stuck in a traffic jam at a construction zone east of Lebanon, N.H.  "Stop recalculating and find us a way out of this standstill," I told Glinda.

I could almost hear Glinda sigh with irritation at me. "Recalculating your route due to traffic conditions," Glinda replied, then fell silent.

She perked up once we finally got out of the traffic jam and started  recalculating incessantly.

"Shut up!" I yelled at Glinda after the 1,578,673rd recalculation in 10 miles.

"Recalculating your route due to traffic conditions," Glinda replied gleefully.

Is there medication for OCD? Because Glinda sure needs it.

Glinda's directions were pretty reliable, if a little, well, indirect. She probably felt bad about getting us into that traffic standstill  in New Hampshire. She didn't want to admit fault, but she went out of her way to get us out of the way of Boston traffic. So she led us on  a circuitous route west of  Boston to access the Cape.

Vermont to Cape Cod via Dubuque, Iowa, anyone?

I don't think Glinda thought we appreciated her much, and let us know it. While we were speeding along  amid the cars and trucks whizzing along  I-93 in Peabody,  Mass., Glinda, out of the blue, said, "Make a U-Turn, now!"  Had we done that, we would have slammed into a Coca-Cola delivery truck, then some jersey barriers in full view of bored office workers in a by-the-numbers suburban worker bee complex next to the highway.

"Glinda, if you kill Jeff and me,  you die along with us, you know," I warned.

"Recalculating your route due to traffic conditions," Glinda replied. I swear she also stifled a wicked laugh.

We finally entered the town of Hyannis on the lower Cape, where our hotel was. When we were near the lodgings, Glinda insisted we turn left at the light. The light was red, so we had to stop. "Turn left at the light!" she prodded.

"But there's oncoming traffic and the light is red," I pleaded.

"Turn left at the light," Glinda commanded.

OK, now I knew Glinda was trying to kill us.

We made it alive to the hotel, since the traffic light turned green just in time, before Glina could manage to push the Jeep through the red light into the busy traffic on Main Street in Hyannis.

 But I didn't sleep well. I knew Glinda was still in Jeff's Jeep, and there was no telling what she was plotting.

Next morning, we got up for a trip out to Truro for a wedding.

Glinda greeted us with "Recalculating your route due to traffic conditions."

Good morning to you, too, Glinda!

Glinda was especially testy as we headed out to Truro. "Prepare to turn right," Glinda said. Jeff complied, slowing down the Jeep to get ready for the heralded right turn.

"Prepare to turn right," Glinda snapped.

"I know, I know, shut up," I said. "We're slowing down, what more do you want, Glinda?"

"Prepare to turn right," Glinda repeated through gritted teeth. I think I then heard her whsiper, "Prepare to die, you two morons."

On the trip back to the hotel from the wedding,  we unplugged Glinda.  We figured we'd rather get hopelessly lost in a Cape Cod salt marsh at night than risk Glinda's possibly deadly wrath.

Heading back north toward home Sunday afternoon, Jeff packed Glinda the GPS away and  turned on his Sirius satellite radio for some music. A DJ with a familiar voice came on: "Welcome to a wonderful afternoon of music. I'm your host, Glinda."

We shut off the radio and drove home in silence.

Scenes From Montreal

Jeff and I needed a big city break, so we drove an hour and a half north Wednesday for a visit to Montreal. I took some photos:

Some sort of bridal photo shoot in
Montreal's Old Port

A bunch of decorations strung over St.
Catherine Street with a building in
the background.

A scene in Montreal's Old Port

Me after a sweaty climb up
Mount Royal in Montreal.

The weather felt like we made a wrong turn and ended up in Houston, but between Circ de Soleil and other attractions it was worth the trip.

Montreal is Europe in North America

Last weekend, I went to Montreal, Quebec, Canada,  which is less than an hour and a half from my St. Albans, Vermont home. So I practically live in a Montreal suburb.

A street in Montreal's Old Port

I need a big city fix every once in awhile. I define "big city" as anything over about 250,000 people, so my standards are pretty small.

Hey, I live in Vermont, where the biggest city, Burlington, has about 40,000 people, so the entire population of the city can easily fit in many stadiums. All of Vermont has the population of a small city, roughly 630,000 people.


Given how close I live to Montreal, it's a wonder I don't go there more often. I hadn't been there in nearly a year. Just too busy.

A stained glass window in the Notre Dame
Basillica of Montreal

One thing I like about Montreal is it is in some ways architecturally like a European city. Of course, there's the Old Port, the area of buildings dating back 300 years or so. It kind of looks like an old neighborhood in Paris or something.   A particular highlight is the Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal, with its beautiful ornate interior.

I made sure to take plenty of photos while I was there.

Even the nondescript houses, apartments and neighborhoods in Montreal are built differently than those in the United States. The run-of-the-mill buildings in Montreal are not distinctive, necessarily, but it's nice, just for a change, to see architecture that's a little different than in my home state, just a short distance away.

 .

Montrealers speak French, or at least a version of French known as Quebecois. That also helps you feel like you've gone to Europe.

I'm happy to say I can almost say I live within spitting distance of Europe. It makes me sound so haughty, pretentious and special.

The colorful exterior of a Montreal building

Of course, not really, as unlike the well-dressed Montrealers I was surrounded by, I wandered the city dressed in Carharrts and a flannel shirt.

You can bring a hick Vermonter to the city, but you can't take the hick out of the Vermonter.