The economy is bad everywhere. Things are so bad in France that Parisians have been requested to stop being impatient with tourists and start smiling in the hopes that some of the tourists that left or never came in the first place will come back. There is no word from the Minister of Culture, responsible for maintaining the French identity free from foreign impurities,  but I would think that this was a more serious threat than the word ‘hamburger’.  Certainly Paris’ most visited resident, the Mona Lisa, although Italian, has the French non-smile down pat for the 6 million visitors she greets each year. Napoleon didn’t exactly have a jovial reputation either. And Humphrey Bogart wasn’t smiling when he delivered the line ‘we’ll always have Paris.’  Paris is supposed to be about drama: starving in garrets for your art or escaping persecution elsewhere for your art, mad (not friendly) affairs of the heart and shopping.  All of which is serious business!

Recently one of those quirky news stories hit when the Virginia DMV banned smiling for driver’s license and other ID photos.  The reasoning being that it messes up the facial recognition software.  They aren’t the first state to do this although I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t get to my state before my next picture since I’ve put a lot of time and effort in figuring out which DMV office and time slot will give me the best opportunity for multiple retakes. Like most everyone else I try to look as friendly as possible.That may not have been the best strategy and the Virginia DMV may be on to something, after all.

In the interest of fast,pseudo-scientific research (this means Google) I did a quick comparison at MyHeritage which offers a free ‘What celebrity do I look like?’ facial recognition program.  I have never gotten any of these comparisons on the street so I’m not worried about mistaken identity or a second career as an impersonator. The difference between smiling and not smiling though is fascinating.  If I smile, I have an 80% match with Drew Barrymore (I just don’t see it, do you?)  If I don’t smile, I have an 80% match with Sandra Bullock and the morphing thing doesn’t produce quite so many images of possible demon possession and might just keep me on the treadmill for an extra ten minutes in the vain hope of getting it up to 85%.