Silly Little Country

Can't Anyone in this Administration get a Simple Detail Right

When Obama reciprocated Gordon Brown's very carefully thought-out set of gifts by giving him (and implicitly the UK) a DVD set of 25 classic American movies, it looked as if an intern had been sent out to the nearest Wal-Mart at the last minute to find something. This was consistent with the other backhanded ways in which Brown was treated on his visit.
Cheesy as that was, some mischievous bloggers began to ask whether the DVDs were Region 1 and NTSC, and therefore unplayable on a standard UK DVD-Television combination. Via Allahpundit we get the Telegraph enjoying the delicious stupidity of it.

While not exactly a film buff, Gordon Brown was touched when Barack Obama gave him a set of 25 classic American movies – including Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins on his recent visit to Washington.
Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.
The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen. Although he mournfully had to put the popcorn away, he is unlikely to jeopardise the special relationship – or "special partnership", as we are now supposed to call it – by registering a complaint.
By the way, when Obama's unlikely gift was disclosed, a reader emailed me to ask if Clueless was among the films. Funnily enough, it was not.
Brown, on the other hand, presented a rather more thoughtful gift to the American President in the form of a penholder carved from the timbers of an anti-slavery ship. The sister ship, in fact, of the one that was broken up and turned into the desk in the Oval Office.

Americans would likely feel embarrassed if their press told them about this. Maybe it will, but it would be out of character to suggest that a lot of the change is pretty hopeless.
Allahpundit adds an update to his post:

Iowahawk e-mails to remind me that he called this 10 days ago, but, he says, “In Obama’s defense at least they weren’t Betamax.”

posted by Alan Adamson @ 8:10 PM