Our northern neighbors

I'm sitting around with my thumb up my ass because our office email is down and I can't do anything to prepare for a radio interview I have later on today with the CBC (that's the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.). Ah well, it's for an issue area that I could talk about in my sleep - and undoubtedly have, given how boring most my dreams have been lately. Let's see if I can speak coherently and simply this time around, instead of succumbing to acronym-itis. It's a common ailment in DC but one that I'm trying to fight off.

Really, I'll be happy if the interview even comes off. The last time I was supposed to speak on the CBC, it was for a call-in TV show. Alas, one caller in, and they broke to cover Michael Jackson emerging from the courthouse. I spent 20 minutes watching him wave at his psycho fans from top of an SUV. Then, right when he was getting into his car, the producers came to me and said, "We're very sorry, but we've run out of time. Thanks for coming by."

As far as these things go, it wasn't that bad: if you have to get bumped, Michael Jackson isn't too shabby of a reason. And the whole time the cameras were on him, the producers were making snarky remarks over the headset which were quite funny. As I was walking out, one of the staffers came up to me and apologized profusely, saying, "I thought that we wouldn't turn into CNN quite yet." I was going to protest their slurring of the preeminent U.S. cable news channel. But then I remembered that a State Dept friend had told me they kept the BBC on the TVs in main State because they didn't want foreign emissaries to be subjected to the latest on the Lori Peterson case or the Kobe Bryant trial while trying to conduct official business.