I bumped into Andy Blitz (writer/preformer on Conan) at Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle last night. He seems like a really great guy.

Talked to him about how I was a laid off computer scientist..how I've got 10 years experience, and I've worked at NASA and how it seems near impossible to get a good job in high-tech these days.. how I'm dreaming about a job as a comedy writer or some other creative type job. I could kick myself now - there's were so many things I wanted to talk to him about. One thing in particular was something I saw when I lived up in Canada. (Maybe the moderator could send this his direction.. wink, wink)

My wife's Canadian and I lived near Toronto for several years. I'm sure there's probably Canadian's working on the show, and maybe he's already heard of this. In Canada, theres a fake news show called "This hour has 22 minutes". I haven't seen the show in years, so I'm not sure if its is good anymore, but a few years ago it was awesome. There was a brilliant comedian named Rick Mercer on the show. They have a bit where they pretend to be reporters and interview political figures. When the 2000 US elections were going on, the show put together a team of fake Canadian journalists who went to interview Texas Governor George W. Bush. They told him that Prime Minister Poutine of Canada supported his campaign for president, and Bush said he was glad to have Prime Minister Poutine's support.

1) The Prime Minister of Canada was Jean Chretien. He had been Prime Minister for 7 years.
2) In Canada, everybody knows poutine is a snack sold at fast food joints - french fries with gravy and cheese curds.

Basically they got Bush, on Canadian national TV, saying "I'm glad I have Prime Minister Cheesy Fries' support." Bush was the laughing stock of Canada, and it WAS funny, but as one the few American living in Canada, I felt kind of humiliated. The Canadian friends I was watching the show with felt embarrised for me. A year later I lived in Washington DC and Bush was president. When I would tell my co-workers at the dot-coms I worked at about the incident they would say indignantly: "Well, it's more important that the president knows the names of the leaders of countries that are our enemies." They would also say "Who give a !@#$ about Canadian anyway." Guess they don't know Canada is our #1 trading partner. BTW, I'm not a Democrat or Republican, I consider myself independent. I'm also not anti-American.. I've seen brillant and stupid things in all of the countries I've been in. I'm a equal opportunity offender. :^)

One of the show's other bits is they would send a fake new team to interview US college students and professors. I remember one where they had students and profs on camera denouncing the barbaric practice of Canadians sending their elderly out on ice flows to die. Another had people congratulating Canada on getting FM radio and getting running water in all 5 states. It was pretty horrific yet hillarious when professors were saying these things on camera.

Another thing my Canadian friends thought was funny was Americans would show up at the border, in the middle of August, with roof rack skis. Some were from border towns like Buffalo, Detroit, etc. where the temperature was exactly the same as in southern Ontario. It's as if they thought that there was a magical boundary at the border and when they crossed there would be a winter wonderland.

Anyway, after a lot of living and travelling all over the world, the world just seems more and more absurd.