Confessions of a rental-car salesman

We loved the exotic passport stamps that readers of BudgetTravel.com recently shared. Here's a slide show of the most fascinating ones, from Laos, Turkey, Libya, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal, Brazil, Suriname, Mozambique, and Bangladesh. Since publishing the slide show, we've received a couple more rare ones: Back in the 1970s, I made many trips to Afghanistan, where I was involved in helping the Afghan government start a new medical school in the city of Jalalabad. On one of these trips, I was traveling from Karachi, Pakistan, where I had picked up a case of Skippy peanut butter at the American Embassy commissary to take to my son who was working in a youth camp in France, where I was headed the next day. When the Afghan customs officer at Kabul Airport asked what was in the box, I told him it was food and took the cap off one of the jars so he could see and smell it. He was totally bewildered, and filled up this entire page in my passport giving me permission to import the stuff, so that when I departed the next day I would be permitted to take it out through Customs.—Edwin W. Brown, M.D., Indianapolis When my husband and I traveled to Zimbabwe in 2005, we got this cool stamp. We were there on a hunting safari and I got to go to Victoria Falls too. The falls were so powerful and beautiful! At the time the country had it's share of troubles, and it's saddening to know that it has continued it's spiral downward. With the fastest growing inflation in the world and severe shortages of everything, the country is in great turmoil.—Wende Warren, Milwaukee [who has a blog]. Shown at left is a honorary stamp from Port Lockroy, British Antarctic Territory.You'll find the stories behind all of the stamps featured in the slide show here. Update 11/28: It’s not too late, you can still send us your coolest passport stamps

Transportation Security Administration officials at airport checkpoints have confiscated millions of items annually since 9/11; chain saws, fuzzy handcuffs, nunchucks, and ulus (round Eskimo chopping blades) are among the craziest. The contraband is turned over to state surplus agencies, and our recent story Leftover Loot details where you can puchase it in stores and online. Not only is more stuff being confiscated, but the amount of lost and mishandled luggage is rising. On the eve of Thanksgiving—when an estimated 27 million passengers are expected to be flying—the New York Times reported that all major airlines have had increased difficulties with baggage in 2007. ("One in every 138 checked bags was lost during the first nine months of this year, compared with one in 155 bags a year earlier.") After 90 days, an unclaimed bag's contents are put up for sale at the aptly named Unclaimed Baggage Center (UBC), a 40,000-sq.-ft. store and the biggest tourist attraction in tiny Scottsboro, Ala. The UBC has seen its own share of oddities, from a suitcase full of Egyptian artifacts dating to 1500 B.C. (sold to Christie's) to a 5.8-karat solitaire diamond ring (bought by a couple from Tennessee for $23,000). More than 7,000 items arrive daily, and spokeswoman Brenda Cantrell cautioned that the privately-owned UBC can't take requests to search for anything specific. Disgruntled callers are instead invited to make a trip to Scottsboro—as are interested shoppers. The press-savvy store's website allows you to take a tour and read about surprising finds, but not to make online purchases. According to Cantrell, the UBC has only one documented case of a retrieved lost possession: A man passing through on business picked up a gift for his wife, who had the unexpected pleasure of being reunited with lost ski boots that had her initials monogrammed inside. A photo of assorted goods for sale at the Unclaimed Baggage Center (courtesy of the UBC). RELATED: Tired of lugging your luggage? Ship it!, Pack to Avoid Checking Luggage, and Confessions of a Baggage Handler.

You know those sorta-bookish, sorta-edgy glasses Johnny Depp is always wearing? I became obsessed with them recently when I decided I needed glasses, so I did some research. It turns out that they're made by Moscot, and the company's flagship store is right here in Manhattan, on the Lower East Side. The shop has been open for more than 90 years and is something of an institution. A travel destination? Unless you share my optical obsession, probably not. I just learned, though, that the shop is turning its first floor into a temporary museum, which, to my mind, earns it instant travel-worthy status. The collection will consist of never-before-released black-and-white photographs of the Lower East Side from the 1930s to the 1970s. As any New Yorker will tell you, before the neighborhood was taken over by American Apparel, Whole Foods, and more hipsters than you can shake a leg warmer at, it was home to one of New York's most prominent immigrant communities. With such a rich, eclectic history to draw from, these photographs are bound to be interesting. The collection will only be up from November 23 to December 31—here and gone before you know it. If you visit, be sure to head upstairs to the retail shop and check out the eyeglasses. Turns out my vision is fine, after all (and I would never be able to pull these off anyway), but maybe you can come up with an excuse to buy a pair. Moscot Museum, November 23 through December 31 Grand opening: November 23 1 p.m.—7 p.m. Regular hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 1 p.m.—7 p.m. Saturdays: 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. Sundays: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. 118 Orchard Street (at Delancey) Subway: F train to Delancey Street) MORE BY BETH COLLINS Traveling for the food. A new online tool makes trip-planning easier. Flickr can help you buy a camera.

We just can't blog fast enough to keep up with the breakneck pace of Beijing's development, which extends well beyond its Olympics-related construction. Earlier this week, the city welcomed the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA). One of China's few non-profit, privately funded arts organizations, the UCCA will host lectures and screenings of experimental films—in addition to contemporary shows, such as an inaugural one on the Chinese 1985 New Wave movement. The UCCA's spare galleries, exposed support beams, and 31-foot-high ceilings recall the Bauhaus-style building's original function as an electronics factory. It's a natural fit for the 798 art district in Beijing's northeastern Dashanzi neighborhood, which got its start in the 1990s, when massive factories were converted into galleries, boutiques, and cafés. UCCA, 798 art district, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, 011-86/(0)10-8459-9269, ullens-center.org, 30 RMB (about $4); closed Mondays. Photo of an exhibition hall, courtesy of the UCCA. EARLIER: The Great Wheel of China and Complete Coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.