American TV. Interestingly enough, American TV is only just going digital. And, the US Govt is giving everyone $40 towards a set top box. This is a good idea. It’s the same brilliant Govt that gave everyone, (virtually anyone who declared taxes), at least $300 back as a “help” in these times of economic crisis - thus costing the country millions and millions of dollars! But that’s another story….

American TV advertisements can be broken done into just a few categories:

1. Ambulance Chasers - lawyers/insurance firms who say they’ll get every cent they can for you after your car crash. Nice.

2 . Colleges - apparently the country is not clever enough and dissatisfied with the jobs they have at the moment. So, everyone is being encouraged to quite and go back to college. Texas seems to be incredibly short of “automotive engineers”, sorry, that’s “garage mechanics” if you’re to believe the many adverts for them.

3. New Illnesses/New Medicines - Every twinge in your body could now be a new illness, and there’s a new medicine for it as well. BUT - they ads do say you should consult with your doctor first. In reality what is actually happening is that doctor’s surgeries are being filled with people DEMANDING these new wonder drugs because they saw it on TV , (so it must be true, right?)

American TV and sports commentary. Never have I seen such a biased and hopeless attempt at covering the Olympics in my life. MSNBC, (or any of the other channels for that matter), do one thing, and one thing alone and that is to show American athletes only, give commentary on American athletes only, and interview American athletes only. The absolute audacity of the American TV networks to spoon feed the US public with this kind of output is appallling. The REST OF THE WORLD is taking part in the Olympics - it isn’t the USAYMPICS. 

Example Number One: The Women’s 1500 heats. The American athlete was in third place up until the last few yards when someone overtook her and pinched the automatic third place slot to the final. The commentary - “Oh and someone’s overtook here, but she’ll get to the final with her finishing time”. It then clipped to an interview with the FOURTH place American runner.

Example Number Two: The Japanese women’s softball team absolutely obliterated the USA team. They didn’t just beat them - they ground them into the earth. This was mainly due to the Japanese ladies pitcher who threw an almost perfect game. The commentary: “And the Japanese pitcher made just one mistake in her game….” and then they showed the one mistake which allowed the USA to get a home run. And they never showed any of the Japanese women’s brilliant pitching.

It’s utterly unbelievable. By watching the highlight programmes, (and most of the live events), on American sports channels, you’d think the Olympics were a totally American event with “some other teams” there to make the numbers up. 

Now - let’s talk about the BBC…. at least we’d acknowledge there were other teams at the Olympics!

Tags: American TV, Fun, olympics, Travel

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Texas is big. I’m not going to quote the actual statistics etc, but I think it’s bigger than France - which makes it reasonably large.

We have driven, correction: I have been driven, around Dallas/Fort Worth by my darling wife Sue, for the last 1.5 weeks. Luxury It makes for me arsing around the M25 around London. Of course the car is a rental and has lovely air conditioning. Until you come to somewhere like Texas, you have absolutley NO IDEA just how valuable air con is. You will melt and die in a pool of your own sweat if you don’t have air con - it’s that simple and gory.

But Texas is really big. We’ve gone to a few out-of-town places, (not to be revealed until I come back with the video evidence!), and the state is really, really BIG. And I think I’ve found a new business venture - collected blown tyres off the freeways/highways and selling them to one of those rubber reconstitution places. There are ripped and shredded tyres everywhere! It never looked that bad in “Convoy” did it? I mean, it’s a driving hazard on some roads.

Okay - time to go and get a cold beer on this warm humid evening. I hope ya’ll are doin’ well, and I’ll catch you later good buddies! (Good grief!)  

Tags: dallas, Forth Worth, Fun, TEXAS, Travel, USA

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Texas is hot. very hot. And very, very humid. The car temp said it was 108 degrees today. Walking from the car to the shopping mall was like walking in an oven. it is unbeleiveably hot.

Anyway, here we are in sunny Texas It was a fairly uneventful flight. I even managed to watch a whole movie - “Kung Fu Panda” before falling asleep for most of the 10 hour trip. I have to say a big HURRAH for British Airways. They are extremely professional in everything that they do - and the food, (and free Bordeaux!), was good as well. It’s a pity the passengers couldn’t attain the same high standards as the crew. We had two kids behind us who were constantly loud, (like their parents), and pushed against the seats etc etc. “Murder on Flight 193″ - I can see the movie now…. I think I’ll play myself in it!

You’ll have to wait to see any videos I’ll make over here, and uploading pics appears to be an issue as well. So, you’ll have to take my word for it - I went down to Dealey Plaza today and did a fantastic video and took some great photos as well

And - I’ve not really succumbed too much to the usual jet lag I get when I come over here. Probably from having a lot of sleep on the plane helped.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. That god the house has air con - otherwise we’d melt in the night!

Tags: dallas, hot, jfk, TEXAS

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