The Dog ate my passport

A dream wedding as the sun sets on the beautiful shores of the Mediterranean and a warm breeze blows in from the sea… It doesn’t get much more romantic than that. To get to the Mediterranean, though, you have to travel to Europe. And for that, you need a passport. Donato Frattaroli and Magda Mazri had all the elaborate wedding plans made for a year. They had the trips lined up for the parents and the guests for this beautiful intercontinental experience. The couple has been planning their wedding ever since their engagement: It has taken years, everything was finally in order: the venue in Italy, the catering, the guests… Surely, it was going to be perfect. The couple clearly like reaching significant relationship milestones abroad. When they got engaged a few years ago, the Boston couple was in Mexico.

On August 17, Frattaroli and Mazri went to Boston city hall to acquire their marriage license and letter of intent. To celebrate the occasion, they decided to go grab dinner afterward. Finally, they got back home for the night. But as they walked in through the door, they realized that Chickie, their golden retriever, had decided to have a special dinner as well. She was chowing down on Frattaroli’s passport. Panicked, the couple rushed to pull the vital identification document out of Chickie’s chompers. Initially, they thought they had managed to arrive home just in time to save the passport. “When you first looked at the passport, it didn’t look like it was super damaged,” Mazri told NBC Boston. Then, they opened the passport. We can only imagine the panic that ensued. “It was like every important page. Like all of his personal information — completely torn up, his picture page was torn up, the barcode on the back of the passport was torn up,” Mazri explained. Now, the couple is scrambling to find some loophole in the system to get an emergency passport replacement for Frattaroli. The express passport service is 7 to 9 weeks.

House destroyer or not, the fact stands that Frattaroli needs a new passport. The couple’s flight to Italy is next Friday, August 25. Unfortunately, the U.S. State Department is currently so backed up on passport applications that getting a new passport in two weeks is virtually impossible. They have talked to their Congressman and one Senator and report the officials have been very helpful, but they still do not have the passport and the plane leaves Friday. “I’m not allowing myself to even think of Plan B. There’s no other option for me,” said Magda. “We are going to Italy on Friday, one way or the other.”

Show me your papers

Putin is going through passport control. He’s asked:
– “Final destination?”
– “Kiev”
– “Occupation?”
– “Yes.”

You know what was the biggest waste of money in 2020?
I renewed my passport.

Discussion at a Moscow pharmacy:
   Customer: “I need a tranquilizer…”
   Pharmacist: “Do you have a prescription?”
   Customer: “What, a Russian passport is not enough?”

If you look like your passport photo,
You probably aren’t well enough to travel.

August 22nd Birthdays

1996 – Lulu Antariksa, 1960 – Debbi Peterson, 1947 – Cindy Williams, 1939 – Valerie Harper

1993 – Keith Powers, 1968 -Ty Burrell, 1939 – Norman Schwartzkopf, 1964 – Tray Goudy

Morning Motivator:

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

Ceremony Surprises