hmm...this had totally slipped my mind about the US

Carrying ID with you...everywhere, everytime:

Getting re-acclimated to this whole exercise of showing one's ID at the door of a club/bar is annoying me tremendously. I understand that it's the bouncer's job, and he probably does it with the same enthusiasm I exhibit towards writing up meeting minutes, but really... the bounds of the sane/reasonable and the outer edges of the sublimely ridiculous have somehow managed to cross over to a greater than needed extent around here. Now...putting all delusions aside, one hasn't looked younger than 21 since, say, one WAS younger than 21. Is it REALLY necessary to stop the line and INSIST that an ID be produced if the ONLY person in a group with otherwise stellar age creds has forgotten an ID? And... surely if you do this for a living several days a week, you have an idea as to what <21 is meant to look like? In the time that I've been back, I've forgotten my ID twice, and have had to wheedle an entry into the places as if I were truly going to go in for an under-age drinking binge (with the rest of the group waiting, BURSTING at the seams to have a "Geez, HOW could you have forgotten your ID?" moment!!) As if I did it on purpose just to have the pleasure of stroking the bouncer's ego!

And it's not just at bars, either... just a couple of days ago, a young man at a cash register in a supermarket refused to sell me a bottle of wine due to lack of 'government issued ID'?

Him: "Why aren't you carrying ID?"
Me: "um... because I didn't realize I need my ID to use my credit card"
Him: "No, I need it for the alcohol purchase"
I wanted to collapse to the floor and laugh hysterically. DW, who was accompanying me, offered to buy it instead, and yer man (hehe) says, "I can't allow that... you could be purchasing alcohol for a minor". Oh P-U-H-leeeeeeeeeease!! *exaggerated eye-roll*

Besides, everyone knows that the heaviest drinking happens in dorm rooms between the ages of 17 and 20 using wine from a box. I'd say it's time to spare the "legal" lot of us this pious idiocy and re-deploy those resources towards putting some standards around wine in boxes so that less kids get poisoned after drinking it.