Once when I arrived at JFK, the immigration officer realised it was my birthday and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. Sweet, and embarrassing. Didn't enthuse the tho

Once when I arrived at JFK, the immigration officer realised it was my birthday and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. Sweet, and embarrassing. Didn't enthuse the thousand people waiting behind me in the queue either. The difference with arriving in Australia and having my biometric passport checked, answering questions on a touchscreen, automated photo gates (and a total elapsed time from getting off the plane to waiting for my luggage of about, oh 10 minutes including walking) - it still seems that the US doesn't get it. Friendly is good. Manual, time consuming processes (and don't get me started about the ESTA introduction confusion) not to mention irritating queues, are all dumb and just piss people off.