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One for the colleagues

Jacksonville Beach City Hall
It’s a bit of a quiet news week so here’s a photo for my colleagues. This is Jacksonville Beach City Hall, home of the local city council. It looks a tad better than the accommodation I’m used to at work back in the UK, and I might add, it’s just a block and a half from the beach.

Meanwhile back at the shack we’ve finally made use of the US government’s kind gift of a $40 coupon towards a digital converter box – America has turned off the analogue TV signals, and those who cannot afford cable cannot be allowed to go without TV over here. The boxes are like the Freeview ones in the UK, and have proved difficult to track down, fresh deliveries are immediately snapped up. The unit we “bought” was exactly $40 so we expected just to pay sales tax of around $2. But apparently so many people complained about paying the sales tax that it’s been removed on these items! Only in America.

Another “only in America” moment came when the box was finally set up (a new antenna is still required to get the full offerings). Tuning to one of the local news channels unearthed an astonishing story about a truck dealership in Missouri offering a free AK-47 assault rifle with every new vehicle purchased. Apparently Mark Muller had experienced an upturn in sales after a previous promotion offered a free hand gun, so he’s decided to offer a voucher worth $450 which customers can exchange at gun stores for a AK-47 or the weapon of their choosing. Unbelievable but true – here’s the evidence. I think I will stick with TV vouchers and supermarket coupons. Much safer.

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