Saw this in today’s New York Times. The only reason I’m mentioning it is that I just went through this process last week – I leave for London on Tuesday and discovered that my passport had expired in January. (OK – I’ll fess up: I knew it had expired in January, and had just procrastinated doing anything about it.) Fortunately, I live in Illinois – we have a passport office in Chicago. Most shocking about this was how little time it took me to renew: I called ahead, booked a time slot. Showed up about 20 minutes early, waited in line for less than 10 minutes, and spent just 10 minutes at the window with the appropriate info (proof of itinerary, prior passport, ID, photos). I returned three days later – walked up to the pick-up window, retrieved my passport, and left. In all, I spent 45 minutes in the office – and I don’t have to do it again until 2012. Not bad. (But for those of you who aren’t fortunate to live near a passport office, or are leaving in the next 24-72 hours, the services mentioned in the Times article might be useful.)