I'm going to work in Israel this summer, researching and writing (part of) a guidebook. The Sudanese stamps in my current passport make me nervous enough about border crossings that I'm applying to the State Department for a second, temporary passport just for this trip. To that end, I got my 2-by-2-inch picture taken today (it was terrible) at CVS. The photographer was a young Ghanaian guy named Joe. He and I chatted while we watched my limp-haired image emerge on the EasyPrint screen. He told me that Kofi Annan is a great guy -- and from his hometown.