…To Bloggers

As we all know, President Obama’s tacky gift of DVDs to Prime Minister Gordon Brown was completely excusable^[a] because Bush had once given Mr. Brown a bomber jacket:

The Prime Minister has not had the best of luck when receiving gifts from U.S. presidents.

He was given a fur-trimmed brown leather bomber jacket by George W. Bush during his first trip to America in the summer of 2007.

Commentators gleefully pointed out that the garment was hardly in keeping with Mr Brown’s usual sober attire of business suit and tie.

As it turns out, though, the bomber jacket has an advantage over the DVDs. No, not the fact that random DVD movie collections are a gift only one step removed from gift cards^[b]. The bomber jacket, at least, could be used in England:

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.

Now, I am the first to admit that this isn’t the end of the world, but when the President and his staff are too overwhelmed to even get region encoding right on their unbelievably tacky gifts, should he really be taking time to go on The Tonight Show making fun of the Special Olympics?

1. Note the sarcasm, please. [↩]
2. Please note sending DVDs that are specifically picked out for the recipient’s tastes are okay. Anyone who was thinking of buying me Firefly or Serenity on Blu-Ray, please go right ahead. [↩]