WWTBAM Bored

Making the rounds of the blogosphere is the story of the Brown/Obama gift exchange on the recent vists.

Apparently Brown gave Obama a series of well-thought out and prestigous items and Obama gave him a DVD set of 25 classic American movies.

Setting aside the tackiness of the gift-A funny question from some commentator(Steyn?-not sure)is are they compatible with English DVD players?

Spock wrote:Setting aside the tackiness of the gift-A funny question from some commentator(Steyn?-not sure)is are they compatible with English DVD players?

It's a legitimate question. DVDs purchased in the United States are Region 1 DVDs and will not play on most DVD players sold in Europe. You would need to either have an all-region DVD player or purchase Region 2 DVDs (which can be ordered through outlets like Amazon-UK).

I'm sure that the British government has access to an all-region DVD player. However, gifts like that are often donated by public officials to schools or charities and these types of entities wouldn't necessarily have such equipment.

Although I'm not one to stand up for Obama, it's the sort of mistake a lot of people might make if they didn't take the time to think about it (or were unaware of the regional coding of DVDs). For this reason, people who sell Region 2 (or other Region) DVD's on Ebay usually put a big warning up with their listing that their DVD will not be compatible with most US and Canada DVD players.

Does anyone actually think Obama personally chose the gifts?

He has people to do that.

Spock wrote:Setting aside the tackiness of the gift-A funny question from some commentator(Steyn?-not sure)is are they compatible with English DVD players?

If the answer is "yes," is the question still funny?

A set of classic films is a "tacky" gift, but our Secretary of State's mistranslated "Reset" button gift to her Russian counterpart was not?

christie1111 wrote:Does anyone actually think Obama personally chose the gifts?

He has people to do that.

And the scary part is-that is the best idea they could come up with?

I am trying to imagine the thought process involved in selecting this gift. Presumably it includes Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, Citizen Kane etc.

I would suspect that most of the films are as well known and loved in England as they are here.

I have a mental picture of the White House realizing at the last minute that they should give the guy something and an underling running into Walmart to see what he could come up with. "Boss, all I could find was this $99.95 movie collection of classic American movies."

Boss-"Yeah, it works,I have heard of most of these movies, but as usual they always throw in some filler."

christie1111 wrote:Does anyone actually think Obama personally chose the gifts?

He has people to do that.

Pretty consistent in his successes of picking people to do jobs for him, important or otherwise.

TheConfessor wrote:

Spock wrote:Setting aside the tackiness of the gift-A funny question from some commentator(Steyn?-not sure)is are they compatible with English DVD players?

If the answer is "yes," is the question still funny?

A set of classic films is a "tacky" gift, but our Secretary of State's mistranslated "Reset" button gift to her Russian counterpart was not?

The button thing was kind of interesting for another reason: the image that I saw doesn't even show it in 'Russian,' that is, it uses Latin letters for both the English word and what they thought was the Russian word (they wrote 'peregruzka' when they meant 'perezagruzka') rather than using Cyrillic letters for the Russian word (their word would be written as перегрузка, but the one they wanted would have been перезагрузка). One would think that the US State Department would have at least one employee who speaks-- and writes-- Russian. Heck, there are two such people in my house right now (my mom is visiting). Боже мой.

It's a good thing Bush isn't President anymore, because then we would have the usual suspects going on interminably about how stupid he is, how he probably fired all the good Russian translators for some political reason, etc.

All of which reminds me of a diplomatic anecdote. It is a common place that Americans of the US variety generally cannot be bothered to learn languages other than English (unless they happen to speak some other language in the first place, in which case a substantial number never bother to learn English, but that is another story). This shows up very often when you have these diplomatic meetings, when the US representative (Secretary of State Clinton, in this instance) is meeting with a foreign dignitary, and the US representative is unable to speak a word of the foreign dignitary's language, while the foreign dignitary speaks flawless English (I know, I know, some would say, 'That's as it should be, English rules, yadda yadda yadda'). Where was I... oh, yes, the diplomatic anecdote. It seems that there was a diplomatic reception several years ago, in which the Russian ambassador to Brazil happened to comment-- in very good English-- about 'ugly Americans' who don't bother to learn the languages of other people, and who went on to mention that even on the rare occasions when an American makes a half-assed effort to learn Russian, he fails, because Americans do not have the right 'ear' for Slavic languages; he happened to be speaking to Lt. General Vernon Walters (who, among other things, was US Ambassador to the UN, and who engaged in a lot of diplomatic activity in his career), who happened to speak five languages fluently (and who spoke three others moderately well); Walters responded to the ambassador, in perfect Russian, then switched to Portuguese and asked him if he would rather continue the conversation in that language instead. The ambassador responded, "General Walters, you may be a good soldier, but you are not a diplomat.' (begging the question, how 'diplomatic' was the Ambassador's original comment, which was nothing more than a blanket insult of leveled against the people of the US).

I'm just getting around to reading today's local newspaper, and I found an article that is germane to the subject of governmental gift giving. This may help put the matter into perspective. There is a federal law that prevents U.S. Presidents from accepting gifts valued at more than $336. It's not clear whether the same limit applies to gifts given by the President to foreign leaders, but to maintain a perception of balance, $336 sounds like the de facto gift giving limit in either direction. I have no problem with this. I'd be fine with making the limit lower, or perhaps zero. I see no reason to have the country go deeper into debt just so we can try to impress a visiting sheik or despot with our extravagance.

As the article indicates, a collection of classic American films is far nicer and more appropriate than some of the previous diplomatic gifts that have been exchanged.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content ... gifts.html

From what I understand, Fleetwood Mac nearly broke up when Christina McVie didn't like her gift of 25 8-tracks of classic American songs, as given to her by Stevie Nicks.

TheConfessor wrote:I'm just getting around to reading today's local newspaper, and I found an article that is germane to the subject of governmental gift giving. This may help put the matter into perspective. There is a federal law that prevents U.S. Presidents from accepting gifts valued at more than $336. It's not clear whether the same limit applies to gifts given by the President to foreign leaders, but to maintain a perception of balance, $336 sounds like the de facto gift giving limit in either direction. I have no problem with this. I'd be fine with making the limit lower, or perhaps zero. I see no reason to have the country go deeper into debt just so we can try to impress a visiting sheik or despot with our extravagance.

As the article indicates, a collection of classic American films is far nicer and more appropriate than some of the previous diplomatic gifts that have been exchanged.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content ... gifts.html

The individual cannot accept the gift valued at more than that. The office may. Upon the incumbent's leaving office, the gifts amassed are turned over to the GSA (I think) or the office holder may buy the gift at the market value as determined by GSA.

This was a pretty cheesy gift to give. Nothing political intended. I'd have said the same thing if GWB, Reagan (not in the same class at all), or Harry Truman had given it.

The official explanation for this seems to be that Obama has got "too much on his plate".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... Brown.html

This is the Telegraph, so take it for what it's worth.

Weyoun wrote:From what I understand, Fleetwood Mac nearly broke up when Christina McVie didn't like her gift of 25 8-tracks of classic American songs, as given to her by Stevie Nicks.

It could have been worse. Obama could have given Brown some of those Obama commemorative coins and plates that are being sold all over the Internet. Or autographed copies of his books.

Flybrick wrote:This was a pretty cheesy gift to give. Nothing political intended. I'd have said the same thing if GWB, Reagan (not in the same class at all), or Harry Truman had given it.

I'm doubtful you would have said anything in the first case, but pretty sure you would have said "What the hell is a DVD?" in the latter two cases.

smilergrogan wrote: I'm doubtful you would have said anything in the first case, but pretty sure you would have said "What the hell is a DVD?" in the latter two cases.

Well, that was unpleasant and a long reach for humor.

As it's impossible to prove an impossibility, I won't try.

However, as the President's desk is carved from the timbers of a famous British warship and the pen and holder were carved from the sistership to that ship, the historical significance would be pretty important to me. Also, as Britain has been one of our most reliable friends in geo-politics, 25 DVDs, VCR tape, or 16mm versions would all have been equally cheesy if more technologically accurate for each time period.

Flybrick wrote:Well, that was unpleasant and a long reach for humor.

As it's impossible to prove an impossibility, I won't try.

Wow. Somehow, I get the feeling that for you, anything is a long reach for humor.

Smilergrogan sure ain't smilin' today.

Jeemie wrote:Smilergrogan sure ain't smilin' today.

He was overcharged for a pack of DVDs; he was hoping just to be reset.

smilergrogan wrote:
Wow. Somehow, I get the feeling that for you, anything is a long reach for humor.

I'm glad you've been able to draw such a penetrating and insightful conclusion from a message board (bored).

Does the reverse hold true for you?

Flybrick wrote:I'm glad you've been able to draw such a penetrating and insightful conclusion from a message board (bored).

Speaking of penetrating, I think that stick up your ass may have penetrated your brain. But it probably didn't have too far to go.

smilergrogan wrote:

Flybrick wrote:I'm glad you've been able to draw such a penetrating and insightful conclusion from a message board (bored).

Speaking of penetrating, I think that stick up your ass may have penetrated your brain. But it probably didn't have too far to go.

BDM? Is that you?

smilergrogan wrote:
Speaking of penetrating, I think that stick up your ass may have penetrated your brain. But it probably didn't have too far to go.

That's it? That's your best for wit?

Standards are slipping...

edited to ask: So you think the Obama gift to PM Brown appropriate?

When viewed in conjunction with President Obama kicking the bust of Churchill out of the Oval Office, the gift of the DVDs might be viewed in a non-positive light.

However, I am sure that the DVDs were just the first part of a overall theme.

For the next visit, I think that Obama will be getting Brown some of those big boxes of candy that you can get at Wal-Mart, packages of Pop Secret (Movie Theater Butter version), and a large ceramic bowl that has the painted message, "Ye Olde Popcorn."

There sure are a lot of people in this thread who are eager to look a gift horse in the mouth, but not so eager to suggest an appropriate alternative. Y'all must be hard to buy for if anyone draws your name in a Christmas gift exchange.

TheConfessor wrote:There sure are a lot of people in this thread who are eager to look a gift horse in the mouth, but not so eager to suggest an appropriate alternative. Y'all must be hard to buy for if anyone draws your name in a Christmas gift exchange.

I did not expect this.