Inauguration Day

So we’ve witnessed the election hoopla, now it’s the inauguration ceremony. And what a ceremony. A full day of parades, speeches, swearing-in, and (although not telecast) nine inaugural balls. Busy day, George.

It’s been on every channel since early this morning and will go on for some time yet. I actually think a bit of pomp and ceremony is a good thing when swearing in your country’s leader. Kinda marks the day, let’s us know when (s)he’s actually started the job. But I’m sure its no surprise to you to find out that, as with so many things here, it’s all a bit overdone.

I’ve just watched the presidential motorcade cruise along at snail’s pace for eons so that supporters and citizens can wave, catch a glimpse and maybe get a photograph of the venerable GW and Laura. All that royal waving – the most anyone saw was the hand in the window.

Earlier there was the lead-up to the Inaugural Speech, then the speech itself which has already been over-analysed by numerous political pundits and journo’s. The main gist of which was “the world needs freedom and we’re gonna bring it to ya” – mmm, a touch of the maniacal power baron disguised as the good guy? Too bad if you’re not interested in the American model, you’re gonna get it.

But I suppose it’s really all very nice and the locals are being very patriotic. Even the protestors, who are restricted to particular areas in Washington and can’t carry placards on sticks for security reasons, are behaving themselves. The Secret Service (who don’t incidentally walk alongside the presidential limo in disguise – not so secret huh?) are, unsurprisingly, very jittery about security. There’s a no-fly zone around Washington the size of Tasmania and numerous security barriers for excited attendees to pass through.

As inspiring to patriotic fervour as it is, and we really ought to let them have their day without criticism, that good old American ego can’t seem to get out of the way. I’ve lost count lately of the number of people, significant numbers of whom have never travelled outside of their home state, let alone to a foreign country, who continually invoke the phrase “this is the greatest country in the world” based on some mythical notion of what the individual can or cannot achieve elsewhere. Every time I hear it I start looking around wondering where the evidence is.

Today, we kept hearing not only that America was the greatest nation in the world, but that this peaceful transition of power (um, it transited from GW to GW, duh) was only possible here. I’m trying to stay calm, but the temptation to shriek from the highest tower that this arrogance about themselves and ignorance about the rest of the world is part of the reason they have issues with their “allies”. But who’d listen?

Quiz time

Here’s a quick quiz for you. Identify the following item (clue - it’s a food):

Water, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut and palm kernel oils), less than one percent of sodium caseinate (milk derivate), natural and artificial flavour, modified food starch, polysorbate 60, Xanthan and guar gums, sorbitan monostearate, sodium polyphosphates, beta carotene (color).

Unless you’re a chemist for Kraft, you’re probably no more clued up than I was. A visitor dropped something off using the container (a good citizen, reusing before recycling) and I was unfamiliar with the trade name. I’d heard it before, but didn’t know what it was. You might have heard of it too – Cool Whip. So I read the contents label to try and figure it out. There are no clues on the container as to what you do with the stuff. I had to ask a local when we were visiting, she just happened to have some on hand and served it with dessert. Yes, apparently it’s some manufactured version of whipped cream. The label scared me, I was wary of the look of it – kinda plastic-y and shiny – and the taste? Well, let’s just say real whipped cream has nothing to worry about. This is nothing like it. Even the colour is too bright white to resemble real cream. I suppose that’s why they call it an by an indistinct adjectival noun combination. So the cows don’t sue them over breach of copyright.