water taxi Check at any U.S. embassy or consulate for current information and requirements. You can also obtain

Halloween, San Francisco. The City by the Bay celebrates with a fantastic parade starting at Market and Castro, and a mixed gay-straight water taxi crowd revels in costumes of extraordinary imagination. October 31.

Check at any U.S. embassy or consulate for current information and requirements. You can also obtain a visa application and other information online at the U.S. State Department s website, at www.travel.state.gov.

For reversed-charge water taxi or collect calls, and for person-to-person calls, dial 0 (zero, not the letter O) followed by the area code and number you want; an operator will then come on the line, and you should specify that you are calling collect, or person-to-person, water taxi or both. If your operator- assisted call is international, ask for the overseas operator.

Federalization has stabilized what you can carry on and what you can t. The general rule is that sharp things are out, nail clippers are okay, and food and beverages must be passed through the X-ray machine. Bring food in your carry-on rather than checking it, as explosive-detection machines used on checked luggage have been known to mistake food (especially chocolate, for some reason) for bombs. Travelers in the U.S. are allowed one carry-on bag, plus a personal item such as a purse, briefcase, or laptop bag. Carry-on hoarders can stuff all sorts of things into a laptop bag; as long as it has a laptop in it, it s still considered a personal item. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued a list of restricted water taxi items; check its web- site (www.tsa.gov/public/index.jsp) for details.