Also, in this post’s subject: obscene misuse of the term ‘fubar.’ I’m sure the inadequate gift is still recognizable as an inadequate gift.

Just go to View > Page Style > No Style.

Aside from the region faux pas, I can see people comparing the gifts badly. But aren’t movies a meaningful art form? I don’t see much of a problem with it. Just because you don’t give an antique doesn’t mean it can’t be meaningful.

Which is a whole lot slimier, actually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Resolute_(1850)

That whole episode was pretty embarrassing and I really hope that someone canned the guy from the state dept. that was quoted saying that the UK was no more important to us than the other 190 nations.

…obscene misuse of the term ‘fubar.’ I’m sure the inadequate gift is still recognizable as an inadequate gift.

Sounds like you need to read up on your FUBAR.

Can’t wait to see what our PM gets, if anything: “The people of Australia are proud to present with this handmade didgeridoo, Drizabone and Akubra.”

“And the people of America are proud to present you with this $30 Borders gift card – good for books only, not magazines.”

Freetardzero: Having had crappy NTSC woes for half my life, I can happily report that technology has overcome that incompatibility. NTSC’s crappy frame rate can’t hurt me anyone… unless a distributor decides to just sped it up to hit the 29 fps required for PAL. Then you have extra-nasal Seinfeld. I shit you not.

I think Stevie Wonder’s mangled corpse in the Pillared Room, along with the roof and floor damage caused by the piano, would be much worse than the DVD incident.

This whole story is like something out of a sitcom. Some White House staffer, new in the job, must have had about half an hour’s warning:

Actually, from the Daily Mail:

But the Mail has learned it included classics such as Star Wars, The Godfather and Citizen Kane and was produced by the American Film Institute as a ‘special request’ for the White House last month.

This was the result of considered action.

Lots of people are laughing or worried about how angry we Brits are about it, but I’m pretty sure that most of us don’t care. Did one of the big tabloids (I’d guess Daily Hate, maybe the Sun?) get all angry about it for a day or two when I wasn’t looking? Remember that people being outraged and the red-tops telling people that they’re outraged are very different things ;).

I’ve actually seen many more British sources laughing about the “Overload” switch that Clinton recently gave Putin. Is “gag gifts” going to be the theme of this administration? I really hope so: Watching Brown follow Obama into a bad comedy trope will be much more fun than watching Blair following Bush into a bad war.

Gob-smacked doesn’t begin to describe how I imagine their reaction.

I wonder if any had big “New Low Price” or “Nice Price” stickers on them, revealing them to be from the closeout bin at the nearest Best Buy in D.C.?

If you find yourself considering including a gift receipt with the gift, you might want to re-think the gift.

Yes. Well, kind of no. Nearly every PAL device will play NTSC media. But the reverse is not true. Nearly all NTSC devices will not play PAL media.

Unlikely, but one can hope. (We’re still allowed hope, right?)

IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE

What? They’re supposed to exchange gifts!! Crap, crap, crap!! What the hell is that for?! Shit, nevermind, just go to the store down the street and get . . . something — anything!! No wait, it’s gotta be “American.” Get a crapload of hot dogs or something!! No, shitshitshit, it can’t be food. Go get — videos!! Movies are American! Except the foreign ones. But most of them are American! I don’t know if they have blue ray in England, so just get regular DVDs. Grab a whole bunch of them and get back as soon as you can!