(no subject)

Seriously, this is the sort of thing that is why I watch Top Gear:

1) The concluding sentiment: "We are numpties, aren't we?"

2) A competition between the three hosts which involves a lap race... in small, cheap cars, in which the time starts as the driver has to try and load a very large dog into the car he's chosen. At the end of the lap, if the dog "looks sad", the driver is disqualified. James May: "But St Bernards always look sad..." He has a point, of course, but the obvious meaning of the restriction was that they must drive with due care and attention to avoiding any distress to the canine passenger.

Currently: There's nothing else I want to watch on, so I'm watching a few minutes of England vs Australia rugby union. Later, two things I want to watch are on simultaneously... but one of them is on Dave, so I can just watch the other one, then watch the one from Dave on Dave ja vu.

English television is spectacularly repetitive. Never mind channels repeating other channels - you'll have the same show more than once ON THE SAME DAY, and then repeated again the NEXT day. It's bizarre. It's not like the BBC hasn't produced a vast stockpile of extremely good television over the last few decades, after all - or even the last few months. But no, repeats are frequent and recent.

Wow.

You know, you really don't expect Top Gear to be both heartbreaking and heartwarming. (As well as a little terrifying.)

Their challenge was this: going to America, buying cars in Miami for under $1,000, driving them across four states to New Orleans, and then selling them.

A couple of highlights:

- In Alabama, they nearly got killed by rednecks after a challenge to decorate each other's cars entertainingly.

- Arriving in New Orleans a year after Katrina, they found it was still utterly devastated, and were shocked. When the person saying, "How can the rest of America sleep at night, knowing this is here?" is Jeremy "Compassion Is For Other People" Clarkson, your country is messed up.

They decided that the original competitive terms, of seeing who could sell their car for the most money, would be Wrong. So they contacted a local mission and gave the cars to families who'd lost theirs in Katrina.

I will say, their experience of trying to buy a car for less than the cost of hiring one has not really soured me on my decision to hire a car for my trip, for all that plans have gone awry somewhat.