THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

Busy day. Short posting.  As you know, we're going on an international trip in exactly one week. So here is Condé Nast's  report on one facet of this subject.

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  Have you ever been stressed by your passport?
• Always check ahead of time when  your passport will expire, for some countries will not let you in unless you have weeks or months left when the deadline is reached.
• Then, when you do look, ever panic that you might not get a renewal in time, for there is always something going wrong with our government or society that makes this difficult?
• When we left for our Regent 7 Seas cruise from Dubai to Singapore last year, I found myself in this predicament.  But all eventually went well after much stress.
• When on travel, you protect this as much as yourself.
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  Well, the future of international travel will be passport-free.
• When will this occur?  
• How can this possible?  New technology.
• Singapore Changi Airport, back to #1 in the world, will be the first to go passport-free early in 2024
• Instead of showing your passport, passengers will simply step up to the automated checkpoint for facial scan.
• This new technology is biometrics, which will occur from bag-drop through immigration and boarding.
• This process has already been available to residents through their home airport, like Dubai.
• Surveys show that 75% of passengers like this futuristic answer to easier travel.
• However, both Singapore and Dubai travelers will, for now, still need to carry an actual passport, just in case.
• By 2030 many airports will have this walk-through and contactless immigration system.
• However, an internationally recognized digital identity for all passengers might need to wait until 2050.

I woke up this morning to You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone.  

• First, few know that the song was originally recorded in 1977 by Kasey Cisyk for a movie of the same title.
• Debbie covered, and reached #1 that year, and stayed there for 10 weeks, beaten only by Elvis Presley's double sided Don't Be Cruel / Hound Dog in 1956.
• Song won a Grammy for song of the Year and was the biggest single of the 1970s.  
• Lot's of controversy and turmoil regarding Cisyk's problems.

We all know that her father was Pat Boone, who had a more famous career.

• He had 63 singles, mostly in the 1950s.
• Seven reached #1, including his best seller, Ain't That a Shame in 1955.
• But Fats Domino co-wrote that song and came out with it first that year.  I rather liked Fats' version.
• Maybe Boone's Love Letters in the Sand in 1957 was my favorite song of his.
• Still hold the record for being on Billboard for 220 consecutive weeks.
• It's interesting how one gains "fame,' but in high school I saw him wear white bucks on TV one night, and the next morning saw a white pair of shoes my brother had left behind, which had used once for his wedding.  It fit, so I wore it and became a fashion attraction for the rest of my high school career.

Few know that her mother was Shirley Foley.   

• Her father?  Red Foley, for two decades a leading country/western star, who sold 25 million records.
• His Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy in 1949 was the first country disc to sell a million.
• His 1951 hit Peace in the Valley was among the first million-selling gospel records.
• Was on Grand Ole Opry till his death at the age of 58.

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