Adventures in the USA, Round 2

[tealin]

Funny things about the USA from within the last two hours:

In line for the security checkpoint, I was treated to a video telling me 'You know you're not a threat, so pack your luggage in a way that the TSA can know it too!' I wonder what the TSA will think of the animation disk, percolator, and two pounds of chocolate in my suitcase...

I come to the boarding gate and on the screen that pipes CNN to waiting passengers is a six-way split-screen of drive-by footage of houses, as if they were involved in some sort of one-sided low-speed chase. At the bottom, on a bright red bar above some urgently scrolling text, was 'NEW DEVELOPMENTS.' I thought there had been some sort of terrorist attack or random shooting in a posh neighbourhood back East somewhere, but no – it was just the mortgage crisis. OMG AMERICA, HOUSES. DON'T PANIC BUT THEY ACTUALLY COST MONEY. MORE AFTER THE BREAK.

Then, later, there was a commercial ... I don't know what it looked like because I was sitting behind a pillar at the time. It started out with a fairly serious voiceover by a guy reading off something like 'imagine an all-American energy source' bla bla bla jobs and families and apple pie, then – cue 'Celebration' – COAL! It heats our homes and powers our cities and isn't bought from shifty-eyed swarthy foreign types, bless its little cotton socks! I am not making this up though I am paraphrasing.* This commercial would not be out of place on The Now Show, and here it was on serious national television. I don't know whether to be endeared or appalled, but it did make me laugh out loud.

And there's someone talking in a very penetrating voice on his cell phone about high-def ESPN.

This will be an interesting six weeks...

*I'm not making up the part about 'Celebration' though.

Comments

[lilyson.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the world of American television. Explains a lot, don't it? ;)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

One must ponder whether it is a symptom or a cause ... though it's more likely some sort of perpetual feedback loop (or downward spiral).

[lilyson.livejournal.com]

I'm more of the opinion nowadays that it is a vicious cycle.

(Did you enjoy SeaTac? It's one of the prettier airports in the US. Maybe I'm biased, though. Seattle is awesome)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I used to be in the habit of spending the night there around Christmastime because of annoying itinerary gaps, but it's been a while since I've been there. It is nice – I like the varying types of brass salmon in the wavy pattern on the floor and the Sky Wall (is that new?) ... I was disappointed in Ivar's though. Terry Pratchett swears by Seattle clam chowder so I though I'd try some and the soup was okay but the bread bowl was ... not. I keep forgetting about American food. Good thing I've learned how to cook. :\

[lilyson.livejournal.com]

The brass salmon is one of my favorite parts; it's one of the surest signs I'm in Seattle, and makes me happy when I arrive and depressed when I leave. I don't know about the Sky Wall or Ivar's, since I've only been in the city a handful of times to visit my boyfriend. The thing I like most about SeaTac is that it's never seemed overwhelmingly crowded like Newark or LAX, but we'll see how I brave the holiday traveling rush this year.

About American food; I have a classmate who's from Kenya and lived in England for a few years before coming to the US and said he couldn't eat for the first three months he was here because the food just didn't taste natural to him. This has only convinced me that I need to branch out my culinary horizons beyond the ethnic food available in America and Taiwanese food.

Damn. Now I'm hungry.