Obligatory election content
Actually, I'm not at all sure why I would consider it obligatory since ‘I am not, nor have I ever been’ an American (though I did hold a green card for a while). One of the bloggers yesterday (I forgot to link the reference, sorry) wrote that the general political position of poker bloggers was off the left hand side of the road and in the ditch. Well, if you look across the fields next to that ditch, towards the horizon you might see my car on a road over there somewhere. After all, I'm a centrist (ex-)Canadian.
A few random observations.
On pronunciation If the locals call it Missourah, then it's Missourah (ref: Brisbn, Oregn, Melbn, Tranna -- Paris is a tricky case, if only because Paree sounds so affected). The town in Pennsylvania is called Versails, and the palace in France is called Versigh, no problem there. But the locals do not call it I-wrack, so why do 99% of politicians and political commentators? (Exception: Nancy Pelosi, and a couple of others).
On time zones New Zealand is the best place in the world to watch American elections (well, it would be if we could get anything other than CNN coverage, neither Sky News, nor BBC World seemed to think it merited any more than passing comment). Polls closed on the east coast at 2 p.m., and even after waiting until it was abundantly clear that the Senate was going to remain undecided, I could still get to bed at a reasonable hour. The only comparable event was the premature millennium party on December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000. We had our champagne at midnight, got a good night's sleep, and then got to spend the whole day drinking more champagne and watching the rest of the world celebrate.
On ties Was it entirely necessary for every male pundit or politician to wear colour-coded neckwear? Were there guidelines? Did they have to sign a contract? It was quite a joke on CNN really -- extending even to the neutrals who wore mixed red/blue ties, or, daringly, ties of a completely different colour.
A few random observations.
On pronunciation If the locals call it Missourah, then it's Missourah (ref: Brisbn, Oregn, Melbn, Tranna -- Paris is a tricky case, if only because Paree sounds so affected). The town in Pennsylvania is called Versails, and the palace in France is called Versigh, no problem there. But the locals do not call it I-wrack, so why do 99% of politicians and political commentators? (Exception: Nancy Pelosi, and a couple of others).
On time zones New Zealand is the best place in the world to watch American elections (well, it would be if we could get anything other than CNN coverage, neither Sky News, nor BBC World seemed to think it merited any more than passing comment). Polls closed on the east coast at 2 p.m., and even after waiting until it was abundantly clear that the Senate was going to remain undecided, I could still get to bed at a reasonable hour. The only comparable event was the premature millennium party on December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000. We had our champagne at midnight, got a good night's sleep, and then got to spend the whole day drinking more champagne and watching the rest of the world celebrate.
On ties Was it entirely necessary for every male pundit or politician to wear colour-coded neckwear? Were there guidelines? Did they have to sign a contract? It was quite a joke on CNN really -- extending even to the neutrals who wore mixed red/blue ties, or, daringly, ties of a completely different colour.
Labels: random observations
posted by Michael Albert at 7:38 am
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