International News, Britney Does A Sinéad

Yes, Englanders. Britney Spears has shaved her head. It was the moment I've been awaiting after four years in America. Not that I've been petitioning the White House, or her fan club. Only that American Culture was awaiting its first meltdown before rising from the ashes Phoenix-like, or however long it takes Britney to grow her hair up. Clearly there are more important questions, o transatlantic friends. But I'm struck by a random memory that if Sinéad O'Connor - according to nothing more glamorous than a rumor lounging in my own dubious skull - hadn't shaved her head in the mid-80s she "could have been bigger than Madonna." Now let's not be grumpy in our clearly holier than thou envious way, Britain: Madonna is big, and she's American so more free-spirited (well, aristocratic Cockney). God I'm confused. But Sinéad's moment wasn't just a snip, as it were: she's made a career of weird (and wonderful). Britney however, might go Vanity Fair for her third celebrity baby with a thin veneer of brunette (on her head) to match her latest production, no? We'll have to see. And I'm not saying she's pregnant, just a bit bald. Discuss. And this won't be on the test.

International News, Britney Does A Sinéad

Yes, Englanders. Britney Spears has shaved her head. It was the moment I've been awaiting after four years in America. Not that I've been petitioning the White House, or her fan club. Only that American Culture was awaiting its first meltdown before rising from the ashes Phoenix-like, or however long it takes Britney to grow her hair up. Clearly there are more important questions, o transatlantic friends. But I'm struck by a random memory that if Sinéad O'Connor - according to nothing more glamorous than a rumor lounging in my own dubious skull - hadn't shaved her head in the mid-80s she "could have been bigger than Madonna." Now let's not be grumpy in our clearly holier than thou envious way, Britain: Madonna is big, and she's American so more free-spirited (well, aristocratic Cockney). God I'm confused. But Sinéad's moment wasn't just a snip, as it were: she's made a career of weird (and wonderful). Britney however, might go Vanity Fair for her third celebrity baby with a thin veneer of brunette (on her head) to match her latest production, no? We'll have to see. And I'm not saying she's pregnant, just a bit bald. Discuss. And this won't be on the test.

Dear England, You Don't Know Cold

Somehow I never get used to the cold in DC, England. I console myself that every day of freezing bright skies, sun shining, and 5 below achieves me the perfect summer's day in May. That's how it works in the Big Country: actual seasons. I've long brushed off the rainy, grey, drizzly, dark winter weather we know and love in the UK. But I regret it now! It's bloody cold in Washington! I don't like John Kettley weather where the snow turns to ice faster than the sugar to alcohol. I don't eat yellow snow, but some of the gales in the past week have been beyond brass monkeys, and beyond a joke. Oh for a pint of winter warmer! (And winter weather that hovers above freezing). I miss you, oh happy certainty of English weather!

Dear England, You Don't Know Cold

Somehow I never get used to the cold in DC, England. I console myself that every day of freezing bright skies, sun shining, and 5 below achieves me the perfect summer's day in May. That's how it works in the Big Country: actual seasons. I've long brushed off the rainy, grey, drizzly, dark winter weather we know and love in the UK. But I regret it now! It's bloody cold in Washington! I don't like John Kettley weather where the snow turns to ice faster than the sugar to alcohol. I don't eat yellow snow, but some of the gales in the past week have been beyond brass monkeys, and beyond a joke. Oh for a pint of winter warmer! (And winter weather that hovers above freezing). I miss you, oh happy certainty of English weather!

Gobble Gobble W!

Happy Thanksgiving America!

Yes it's that time of year again when America likes to stuff its turkey inappropriately close to Christmas, and of course eat turkey. Here Mr. President (or perhaps we should say, after the recent defeat in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the rapidly outgoing president) receiving an unwelcome guest in his pants, without mentioning Karl Rove. Brings a whole new meaning to bird brain and s(h)itting duck. How do you like them apples?

I'm loath to take sides in American politics, but well, you'd have to be a turkey-gobbling idiot not to.