The “Free Kokoretsi” site comes with a mourning red ribbon and ticking clock reminding Greeks there are only 109 days left before “We can forget about Kokoretsi”. In South Korea the government has launched an all-out patriotic campaign against an invasion of foreign bullfrogs: the Hyundai company has offered extra holiday to workers who catch one, amid slogans like “Let’s set a goal to catch 100 tadpoles each” and local TV is showing films of nasty, imported bullfrogs eating nice, noble, indigenous Korean snakes.In Greece, meanwhile, lovers of kokoretsi – kebabs of liver and kidney, wrapped in lamb intestines – have launched a web site lamenting a European Union rule banning consumption of innards as of next year. A more serious objection is that lobbyists might e-mail senators during crucial debate or votes, but Enzi, a former computer programmer, says this could be prevented.I can’t help wondering, though, whether the fact that Enzi is also the Senate’s only qualified accountant explains much of his colleagues’ resistance to his new-fangled ideas.Hopping madMaybe some linguist out there could inform us whether there is a word for the animal equivalent of xenophobia. But Enzi is one of the two US Senators from Wyoming, and while his colleagues may have given up quill pens for ballpoints and allowed TV cameras into the Senate chamber, some have drawn the line at admitting personal computers.
Apart from claims that laptops would be ugly and distracting, one senator feared discussions might be “scripted” if members had access to laptops – a bit rich, given the absence of any genuine debate in the chamber 99 per cent of the time. In most occupations, taking a laptop computer to work is seen as a an admirable sign of technical adeptness and a desire to be as productive as possible.
Michael Enzi wanted his for note-taking and possibly a bit of research. Two thirds of them, figures show, buy Christmas presents for their pets.”How many viewers of the Homes and Gardens channel buy gifts for their lawn-mowers?” he demanded to know.. But the secret of success, says Mr Marcovsky, will be the commercial and promotional tie-ins aimed at pet owners. Movie moguls divorce their spouses and fire their agents; their dogs they send to personal trainers Pet cemeteries refer owners to bereavement counsellors.
Stories of summer camps and surf-side dining for furry friends abound.My Pet TV already produces videos for animal shelters and 7,500 veterinarian offices around the country. Any start-up cable venture has to jostle for limited channel space with big guns like Murdoch or Disney. And in fact, it already has a competitor: the Animal Planet, based in Maryland, was launched last year with big-budget promotion.It seems entirely fitting that Mr Marcovsky is developing his station in Los Angeles which, as well as being the home of the US entertainment industry, is surely the world capital of dumb animal excess. But the goal for these new ventures is the same: to become a real station, broadcasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week.My Pet TV has plenty of hurdles to overcome.
Others, such as Parenthood Television and the Sewing and Needle Arts Network, struggled to get off the drawing board.My Pet TV bought just one hour a day of broadcasting time in 11 television markets around the US hoping to show a demand for pet programming. Viewers continue to drift from ABC, NBC and CBS to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network, sports and movie channels, satellite and the World Wide Web. CNN, once the upstart, is now fending off newer rivals in the tiny 24-hour news market. Digital compression technology, lurking just round the corner for the last few years, holds out the prospect of US households picking and choosing between hundreds more cable channels than the average 50 or so they now have.In this free-flowing environment, founding a successful cable network has become a favourite rags to riches story in the entertainment industry Nearly 50 new networks actually launched in 1996. So why leave Fido and Fluffy out?The US television market is in a shifting state.
