Passport: the Uber-Patriotic Edition

My renewed passport arrived in the mail last week, which was some comfort after two weeks of "well, yeah, the check cleared, but the application is not yet in the system", a process which reminded me greatly of a Magic 8-Ball saying "Answer unclear, try again later".

When I looked through the thing, I have to admit I was surprised. Do you have a recent US passport? Do you know where I'm going with this?

I got my last passport in 1999, and from the outside, they still look similar.


The background on the pages of the old one, now, all the pages look the same. Only when I looked closely did I even notice that each of those circles names a different state.


The effect is--what's the word--subtle.

The new design, on the other hand, can't be called that. We have a scene from the writing of the National Anthem:


Oh, look, we've been to space, and apparently we're claiming that:


The Statue of Liberty:


Various scenes of the country and its history:



And a quote on each page, Washington, Lincoln, JFK, MLK Jr, token woman near the end:




Mount Rushmore!




The Liberty Bell!




The preamble to the Constitution (which, thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, I already know the words to):


Everything but the kitchen sink. You know, it's not like I'm ashamed of my country (well, sometimes, but not constantly), but this strikes me as a bit from Hamlet: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." Or in other words, don't hit me over the head with it. Whew!

Still, I'm glad to have the thing in hand again.