Customised Plates

My new, personalised car number plates arrived in the post today, and I am very proud that I can now advertise my family's perceived status as purveyors of BSE: 


In contrast to the UK and many other countries, custom plates are extremely cheap in the States. Here in Michigan, for example, they cost just $30 for the first 12 months, and $15 a year thereafter. What's more, provided it's not perceived as offensive or already taken, you can choose any combination of up to seven letters and/or numbers - including spaces. As such, you can give your imagination free rein (or not, judging by the "BMW Z4" number plate I saw on one BMW Z4).

Given this undoubted bargain, not to mention solid proof of the "land of opportunities" principle, I'm surprised that everyone doesn't have personalised plates on their car.

Nuclear Herd

I found out today that my 8-year-old daughter is a mad cow. So is my 5-year-old son.

From trying to donate blood in France, where you can't give blood if you've lived in the UK for a cumulative year, I'd known for a while that I and even Laurence were mad cows, but this latest revelation did come as something of a surprise.

The problem is that here in the United States they are so worried about contracting vCJD, the human form of BSE, that you may not give blood if you have spent just 3 months in the UK or indeed a total of five years in one of the following European countries at any time since 1980:

• Albania
• Austria
• Belgium
• Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• The Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Kosovo
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Macedonia
• Montenegro
• The Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey

(Have I missed any?)

That makes both Anna and Tom officially mad as hatters.

Ironically, the Web site of the American Red Cross - the organisation responsible for collecting blood - states the following:

"There is no evidence that CJD can be transmitted from donors to patients through blood transfusions. However, nobody knows for certain that this cannot happen."

By that token, I could claim that all Americans are stupid because they've had fully eight years under George W Bush. I know that there's no evidence that stupidity can be transmitted from the president to the people through citizenship, but hey, nobody knows for certain that this cannot happen.