By Angelica Beneke
Staff Writer
This week’s meme is a bit unusual in terms of format. While it does evoke the tfw (that feel[ing] when) meme, the kind of emotion evoked is unclear. OP’s caption is “tfw Hofstra is now working in conjunction with the TSA,” followed by a screenshot of the Apple Safari browser of an error code which says “500: 0727:Your Passport is invalid.\”
One might assume the feeling is negative, since it’s unusual to feel positive about your “passport” being called invalid. But if that actually makes anyone ecstatic, well, more power to them.
Even if it’s hard to discern what emotion OP is conveying, maybe we can figure it out if we break down this meme’s components. So, let’s break this down.
It’s interesting how the error code starts with the numeral 500. Hofstra does have the P.R.I.D.E. principles and there are five letters in pride. Five times one hundred is 500. The code also includes 0727. 727, interestingly enough, is also a type of airliner.
You might have heard of a Boeing 777 from when the flight attendant says, “this is a Boeing 777 aircraft.” Well surprise, surprise, 777 isn’t the only type.
Along those lines, why would you need a passport (an e-passport, in this case, I guess) just to log into DegreeWorks?
My theory is that each school on Hofstra’s campus is actually now its own country. That would be impressive, considering even the largest of public state schools are only considered “college towns” and not college cities or even college countries. Yet Hofstra, as a private institution, has schools that require passports for you to view your own degree audit.
Incredible. My brain hurts trying to figure out the logistics.
Perhaps Hofstra is preparing for those of us who have to fly back and forth for the new airport guidelines that will be effective basically any day now. These guidelines say that, depending on where you’re flying out from, your driver’s license is no longer adequate documentation to present to TSA (Transportation Security Agency) officials.
“Hofstra in conjunction with the TSA” is also a peculiar observation. You can’t spell Hofstra without the letters t, s and a, after all. Is that why planes conveniently start their descent close to Hofstra because of this fact? I see and hear airplanes all the time as I walk across campus (I actually hear one as I’m writing this analysis), so it’d be fascinating if that was the case.
Finally, the backslash after the period in the error statement, for some reason, absolutely intrigues me. It looks out of place enough for it to have not been there on purpose, but I’m pretty sure it was intentional. Maybe the error code was supposed to say “Your Passport is \invalid.\” but the first backslash was dropped as the code was sent.
If that’s the case, /that’s/ unfortunate.
(see what I did there?)
So, I guess the feeling OP was describing was absolute annoyance. I feel that. Meme rating: 727/10
