Gives New Meaning to the Phrase "Lie Back and Think of England"

Amusing item for sale in a local drugstore... durex limited edition england supporter condoms. I particularly like the photo of Foosball soccer players on the cover-- very sexy indeed. If anything represents masculinity, it's got to be Foosball soccer players, wouldn't you say?


It is, thank heavens, made with recyclable packaging. Good to be environmentally aware while supporting England through your sex life.


A brief explanation on the back cover. "'Durex England Supporter' is a limited edition assortment of condoms designed to maximise your fun in the bedroom." Followed by a series of legal disclaimers about how even though the condoms are designed to prolong ejaculation, if they don't help you, it may be due to a condition that requires medical supervision.

Storytelling, Culture and Social Change

Yes, I'm lame and haven't posted much lately.
Last week and now I've been devoting my internet spare time to facilitating this discussion on the Skoll Foundation website-- any additional input most welcome!

The discussion is here.

Overheard in...: An Italian Restaurant

The "Overheard In..." category for the blog recalls snippets of conversation I happened to stumble across that for some reason stand out as indicative of cultural differences, or cultural issues I'm trying to understand. (And all subtly prove that reality is stranger than fiction.)

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The Setting: A nice Italian restaurant in Menlo Park, California, right off the main drag. I'm sitting with my parents having dinner on a recent visit. A Monday night.

The Characters (6): (1) A woman in her late thirties, dyed blond hair, sitting at the table behind us with (2 and 3) two men, professional, mid-thirties, just getting off work, wearing slacks and dress shirts, one with a goatee; (4-6) Me and my folks.

The Scene:

Woman: So, do you really think body is more important than the face?

Man #1: Definitely.

Man #2: Yeah, of course.

Woman: Really. Even in the long term?

Man #1: Honey, who's thinking about the long term?

(pause. Their conversation gets quieter so I can' t hear. Eventually she cuts in again.)

Woman: But going back to the face thing-- I mean, don't you think you can tell a lot from a woman's face?

Man #2: Look- when you're doing the dirty, you can ignore her face, but you can never, ever ignore the body, can you?

Woman: No I guess not. (Beat.) That makes sense.

Man #2: Don't worry about it. You've got nothing to worry about.

(Conversation dies down again. My mom and I have both been eavesdropping on this conversation (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree). We give each other knowing smiles. )

The Network (Huff Po piece)

Posted yesterday on Huffington Post.
You may recognize this as a revised version of an earlier post here-- based on some of your helpful comments emailed to me (thanks!). Sometimes it takes a few tries to figure out what one actually means to say.

Incidentally, I've spent the last week traveling around the US-- in Baton Rouge yesterday, in Albany today. The difference in environmental consciousness from the UK are striking. I have to admit it's been a (temporary) relief to be driven around in cars again, to drink water out of plastic bottles, and not feel as if you're being labeled. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, you don't feel as bad about this kind of stuff if the people around you don't either. Which is the whole point of the HuffPo piece.

I did find it strange, however, that nearly every airline in-flight magazine I read this week had several mentions of environmentalism and the need to reduce emissions. An entire issue was dedicated to this on Sky (Delta's inflight magazine) without mentioning that air travel is one of the industries that will require massive overhaul.

Corrections

When I started this blog, it was a bit of an experiment with voice. I thought I'd be a little less careful with my opinions than I'd been in the past, when I was being paid to represent an idea or institution. I thought I'd just say what I actually thought and discover (and learn from) when I was wrong.

So, here are a few cases where I was wrong.

First off, my snarky comment about people claiming that London's weather is mild. I wrote that "mild" was a strange description for a place where it rained nearly every day, regardless of the season. Well, I'm in NY and DC this week on business. Today as I walked to the metro and was surrounded by snow flakes in the air, I realized I hadn't seen these little white things in quite some time-- certainly not in London. Not to mention that the grass in London stays green throughout the seasons. So, "mild" may not be my description of choice for London weather, but it's not a crazy description as I originally wrote.

Second, my rather silly entry about taking pictures on the shortest day of the year, in December. I wrote that the darkness was depressing and taking photos helped to make it a little less depressing. The truth is, that was crap.

Short days suck, cameras or no. The exercise was an interesting one, but well, short days still suck.