I am disappointed to report that the Amerika Taxi sticker I saw in the taxicab window in Budapest turned out to be just a promotion for movie that has just been released in Hungary as “Amerika Taxi.” It is better known in the US as either Taxi or “The movie that Queen Latifah actually thought would be a good move for somebody who has just gotten an Oscar nomination.”
Budapest
Today in Budapest, I took a taxicab with a little sticker in its window saying “AmeriKab”. Just to prove that this was an authentic American-style taxi, the sticker featured a photograph of a cab surrounded by mini-skirt-wearing beauties toting machine guns.
And, er, that’s this week’s something interesting in its entirity, since I’m writing this from an obscenely expensive pay terminal in Budapest. If you need an additional fix of my writing, you can head over to www.devincible.com, where you’ll find an article on “9 Ways To Kill 173 Minutes That Will Be More Pleasurable Than Watching Oliver Stone’s ‘Alexander.'”
Housekeeping
My apologies for troubles you might have had accessing the site over the past 48 hours. The first 24 hours were because of problems at Plus.Net, which has proved to be a so-so hosting service. The next 24 hours were growing pains as I switched over to Dreamhost, which is reputed to be better.
Please bear with me as I get everything running on the new server. Thanks.
Thanksgiving: A Guide For The British
We’ve noticed that the British seem to find Thanksgiving more puzzling than any other holiday. And so I’ve written the following, which will (I hope) explain Thanksgiving to my friends and neighbors here in the UK.
Briefly, Thanksgiving is the day when Americans eat way too much and then sit around and talk about how great it is to be American. In short, it’s just like every other day of the year, except this time, we get the day off from work to do it.
Scottish delicacies
From Adam Smith to John Logie Baird, Scotland has made innumerable contributions to world culture. But there is one Scotch invention so brilliant–so vital to the world’s well-being–that it trumps even modern economics and the television. I refer, of course, to the deep-fried Mars bar.
Sounding like a Yankee
As a general rule, British actors are better at sounding American than American actors are at sounding British. Compare, for example, Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs and Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? with Kevin Costner in Robin Hood or Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins. There’s simply no contest.
Election fever
I’m afraid I didn’t have a new Something Interesting last week, and I don’t have one this week. You will be pleased to know, though, that I spent the time I should’ve spent writing them engaged in two vital activities:
1. Writing election-related humor.
2. Arguing about the election with my cousin.
Thanks to my heroic engagement in these two activities, I can guarantee you that Senator Kerry will win the election… unless, somewhere in the world, some Republican has cancelled my efforts by arguing with his own cousin, in which case, all bets are off.
Wait a minute. All the time I was arguing with my Republican cousin, he was arguing with me. Curse those wily Republicans! Looks like this election will have to be decided by the voters.
Next week, I will have calmed down and can once again stop obsessing, and start writing entries that don’t have the word “election” in every sentence. In the meantime, check out my new election-day guide to understanding the electoral college as well as my new ad, George Bush & The Constitution.
The England I know
Writing in Front Page magazine, Carol Gould describes a terrifying place called England, where anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism run rampant, and ordinary shop proprietors can’t wait to burst out with a Jew-hating tirade. Lauren and I have been forwarded that article by two different concerned friends, wanting to know if it’s true. My answer is: I have no idea. I can’t speak for Ms. Gould, because I’ve never visited the England on her planet. In the England where I live, here on Earth, things are very different than she describes.
Sorry for the delay!
Sorry to have missed my usual Something Interesting on Tuesday. My campaign ads have suddenly gotten a huge surge in visitors–after getting maybe a hundred visitors a day for the past few weeks, I’ve had 11,884 visitors in less than 12 hours. I’ve been busy doing rejiggering and mirrorifying to deal with the surge in bandwidth. I’ll have a new essay up tomorrow. Thanks for your patience!
Shaboopie? Shaboopie?
After posting my short films, I was convinced I had a “This Land” style hit on my hands. Beyond a doubt, within a matter of hours, I would be well on my way to the 65 million viewers that JibJab got for their short.
And, indeed, over the past week, more people have been coming to this site than before. Some of them are even watching my short films.
But according to my server logs, an inexplicably large number of them are coming here by way of a Google search for the word “shaboopie.”