Posted by: Old Grouch in Meta at 15:21:23 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.

The back-and-forth went on for 19 e-mails [!!! - o.g.], with the assistant apologizing six times if she had “offended” Becton, while Becton lectured about name-calling.

In the future, you should be VERY careful about such things.  People like to brag about their connections in DC.  It’s a past time for some.  It’s also dangerous to eaves drop, as you have just found out.  Quit apologizing and never call me anything but Elizabeth again.  Also, make sure you correct anyone who attempts to call me by any other name but Elizabeth.  Are we clear on this?  Like I said, it’s a hot button for me.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 18:49:36 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 138 words, total size 3 kb.

Weasel & friends attempt to interpret a string of warning icons:

â–  Hey you!
â–  Read the manual!
â–  If you do the Hokey Pokey
â–  Vending machines will be attracted to you!

Warning: Reading books can lead to nausea and incontinence, followed by death.
Brought to you by the television ad council.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 17:26:14 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 53 words, total size 1 kb.

...is brought to you by the letter “O.”

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 15:30:37 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

Either you get this, or you don’t. (I think it’s cool!) :

I’m Going Underground - USA Style (Episode 1)

On May 2nd 2006, I gave up everything I had in England and moved 4,000 miles west to the town of Charleston, South Carolina - a state which just a few months before I admit I’d heard of but didn’t really know whereabouts in America it was.

And now it’s three years later…

So … the plan is to leave Charleston on June 15th 2009 and head up to the state of Maine.  There is a tiny town there called Epping, which matches up with the tube station in London with the same name.  I quite like the fact that Epping, Maine is located in the top right of the USA and that Epping, London is located in the top right of the tube map.  A perfect way to start.

I’ve then found the name of a place in all of the mainland/contiguous 48 states of USA that shares a name with a place on the tube map (using the fantastic placenames.com) - and I’ll be driving to all of them to see what’s there.  I’ll also obviously take in some of the more traditional ‘things to see’ in the USA on my way round, as well as some offbeat quirky things too...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 23:56:22 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 272 words, total size 3 kb.

“I once had a girlfriend who quit journalism and went into PR ‘because it’s more ethical.’” - Glenn Reynolds (prompted by this)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Clipfile at 19:34:19 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 27 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 22:00:22 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 9 words, total size 1 kb.

King of Queens?  Two and a Half Men?  Scrubs?  JUDGE FUCKIN JUDY?
...
During the day?  Four hours straight, on four different channels: Jerry Springer.  And also Maury Povich.  Please don’t forget Ricki Lake while you’re at it.  I am not blowing smoke up your ass, the fact of the matter is that 90% of the programming over here is American, and 90% of that is our pure, unprocessed, not-gone-through-the-sewage-treatment-plant CRAP...

And we wonder why the Brits have stupid stereotypes about ‘Murricans...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 19:52:05 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 115 words, total size 1 kb.

Analog is still around.
Turns out that my local “SkyTrak Weather Network^[1]” LPTV.NTSC transmission on channel 50 remains on the air, which gives me one less reason to rush out and acquire a CECB.  (This weekend’s watching, aside from a few minutes of weather radar: Selections from Looney Tunes Golden Collection v.6, and a couple of episodes of Waiting for God, season 1.^[2])

Missing stations - in the primary service area.
At dinner with a friend last evening, she recounted the results of her rescan-after-switchover: Her HDTV gets about half of the channels it’s “supposed” to receive: No CBS affiliate, no CW affiliate, either no NBC or no ABC (I forget which). Does get PBS, ABC (or NBC), FOX, and two religious stations. All of the missing channels had been “no problem” in analog.  This is at a location about 2½ miles straight north of downtown - near 30th and Meridian Streets. (Guess she’ll have to put up an antenna, or wait for those rumored power adjustments.)

No urgency for some.
She also gave an account of a conversation she’d had at a party Saturday night attended by a bunch of arts and media types.  Most of those folks do not have cable, and to a man (or woman) none had yet bothered to acquire either a HD television or a converter box.

Grant the possibility of intellectual posturing of the “Why, I simply never watch any television. Except occasionally PBS. And the morning news. And 24...” sort. (You get the idea!)   But even if only partly true, this should be a worry to the networks: The last thing they need in this economy is for this desirable demographic to wander away.


Elsewhere:

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:04:57 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 362 words, total size 4 kb.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:32:35 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 9 words, total size 1 kb.