A Common Language?

There are Americans who pride themselves on being straight talking and then there are those who call a spade a manual excavation instrument. I recently came across a couple of examples of the latter.

We were in a car showroom and the salesman described a used vehicle as being “Previously Enjoyed”

I walked into a company’s headquarters and there was a woman wearing a telephone headset. I would have guessed that she was the receptionist, but a sign on her desk informed me that she was “VIP First Impressions”.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US. This seems to be the most important holiday in the country. Families get together and eat a large meal, usually featuring Turkey. Thanksgiving is held on the fourth Thursday of November in the US. The holiday is an opportunity to be thankful for what one has and is timed to celebrate the completion of harvest. The meal is also a commemoration of a meal held in 1621 by the pilgrims and the Native Americans to celebrate the former’s first year in the new country.

Thanksgiving is also associated with American Football games, with watching a game post lunch as much part of the tradition as not watching the Queen’s Speech is in the UK at Christmas.

It seems a little bizarre to have a holiday fixed on a Thursday, but I gather that most offices close on the Friday too. People working in retail are less lucky, as the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday; a day in which US shops are packed as sales commence. The day gets its name from the fact that the volume of sales pushes stores from a loss for the year into a profit; from the red into the black. Frankly, it seems like a day to stay home and eat turkey sandwiches.

The days leading up to and following Thanksgiving are also a good time to avoid American airports, as it is their busiest time of year with people crossing the country to be with their families.

It Pays to Advertise

Watching TV here in the US is a different experience. The number of advert breaks per hour is greater, so one has more interruptions. This can make it frustrating to watch programs live, without the ability to forward through the breaks.

If I do watch the adverts, there are several things that strike me as different from those in the UK. Prescription drugs are frequently advertised, not just over the counter headache tablets, but drugs for conditions as varied as genital herpes and diabetes. The adverts all come with warnings about possible side effects and an exhortation to ask your doctor if the drug is right for you.

In the UK adverts may compare products to “other leading brands”; here in the US they mention the products by name. One recent example is from Subway (The sandwich chain) that announces that a number of their sandwiches have 6g of fat of less and then compare this to the number of sandwiches at McDonalds with 6g of fat or less; the number is zero. It is worth noting that in the US a burger in a bun is called a sandwich, which since it is stuff between two pieces of bread makes sense, I suppose.

Even bigger than the boat-race

From the BBC Sports pages, an interesting article on the immense popularity of college sports. In the US, college sports are covered on mainstream television.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/american_football/6153746.stm 

Here in LA, you see more people wearing the colours of the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans than for any professional NFL team. Though, in the case of LA, the popularity of college gridiron is probably intensified by the lack of any NFL team.

The one time I have seen a significant number of people in NFL colours here in LA, was last Sunday on a flight up to Oakland. Just as you see football supporters in numbers at UK railway station, here it seems they can be seen at airports. I did wonder whether a man with his face painted black and white, the colours of the Oakland Raiders, had problems at security since his photo-id probably does have his face so decorated.

Tis the season to be politically correct

It was in August that I saw the first Christmas items in shops. Now that Halloween is past, the number of shops with Christmas items has snowballed. However, here in the US there is a reluctance to use the ‘C’ word. The local Starbucks, with all of its stuff in seasonal colours, is advertising CDs for placing under The Holiday Tree. I assume they mean what every person in real life calls a Christmas Tree. I wonder if Bing Crosby will be on TV this year in the perennial classic “White Holiday”.

End of Season

Today is the MLS (Major League Soccer) playoff final, in which the New England Revolution takes on Houston Dynamo. I would normally support the team from New England, as it is an area of the country of which I am fond and is where I was married. However, my support in this case is determined by deeper issues; the rivalry between Norwich City and Ipswich Town. I am a supporter of Norwich City and this automatically makes me dislike Ipswich Town. The Revolution’s assistant coach is Paul Mariner who had many successful seasons with Ipswich Town when I was a school child. The Dynamo feature an ex-Norwich player; Paul Dalglish. Despite, his less than stellar performances for Norwich, his presence combined with that of Paul Mariner leaves me rooting for the Dynamo.

Unfortunately, I find it a little difficult to take seriously a competition whose final takes place at the Pizza Hut Park.

Touch Me

Computers are amazing machines; they can do things beyond the ability of mere humans: fly aerodynamically unstable fighter jets, unravel the mysteries of the human genome, and taking orders in a fast-food restaurant. In a Burger King restaurant on Sunset Boulevard there are touch screen terminals on which you can place your order, pay with cash or credit card, and then wait for the staff to mess-up your order. The only difference between these terminals and a human is that it now takes longer to place your order. The terminals even do that annoying thing of asking if you want a drink after you have placed an order for a burger – if I had wanted a drink, I would have asked for one. The differences are actually rather more substantial, with a human taking your order, you do not need someone standing by the customer instructing them in how to use the system.

I have had to use the BK on Sunset several times in the last few days, as my wife has been in hospital across the street. There is one real advantage to these machines; they lie unused while technophobic people queue to have their order taken in the traditional manner. I have ignored this queue entirely by using the machine. If this lack of use persists, I doubt I will see many more of these units deployed.

Back in Blighty

I have been away from Los Angeles for ten days or so, returning to the UK to do some work and see friends and family. Posts should resume shortly.