# Yanks bearing gifts **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 7, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688 "2009-03-07T23:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/1 "2009-03-07T23:39:39Z")
**Obama: A 25-DVD box set of classic American films** > [@](#): > > Brown gave Mr Obama a pen holder carved from the oak timbers of HMS Gannet - a Victorian ship which spearheaded the Royal Navy’s fight against slave trading. > > He also gave the president a first edition set of Sir Winston Churchill’s biography by Sir Martin Gilbert. [To my special friend Gordon, 25 DVDs: Obama gives Brown a set of classic movies. Let’s hope he likes the Wizard of Oz](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1159627/To-special-friend-Gordon-25-DVDs-Obama-gives-Brown-set-classic-movies-Lets-hope-likes-Wizard-Oz.html) - it has not been reported if they are region encoded. Ps. Gordon Brown is blind in the one eye and reduced sight in the other, so it’s not even sure he can watch that great Star Wars DVD movie. Pps. Brown has a history of receiving tacky gifts from US presidents. In 2007 President Bush gave him a bomber jacket. **Clinton: loaded and overloaded** > [@](#): > > Russian media has been poking fun at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she gave her Russian counterpart a “reset” button with an ironic misspelling. > > Clinton’s gift to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at their meeting in Geneva on Friday evening was meant to underscore the Obama administration’s readiness to “to press the reset button” in ties with Moscow. > > But instead of the Russian word for “reset” (perezagruzka) it featured a slightly different word meaning “overload” or “overcharged” (peregruzka). [Russian media teases Clinton over ‘reset’ button](http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.9ca28ad2530b0d0029e1304762eca18f.8c1&show_article=1) - them funny furrin languages are awfully hard too. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/2 "2009-03-08T02:56:59Z")
They couldn’t even bother to write it in Cyrillic? ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/3 "2009-03-09T09:02:25Z")
Is it just me, or does the DVD set seem a little tacky? ---
**Author:** ![Ellef](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8dc957/32.png) [@Ellef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellef)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/4 "2009-03-09T09:46:48Z")
Brit Doper chiming in here: I think the DVD set thing is hilarious. Obama seems to be keen to show he’s up to date on new technology. There seemed to be a fuss over there when he announced he was going to use a Blackberry (aka The Devil’s Tamagotchi) in the White House, so perhaps this is just his way of showing he knows what a DVD player actually is. I’d love to know what the DVDs were. I’d like to think it’s the entire run of Sex and the City, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/5 "2009-03-09T09:57:27Z")
The DVDs might have been “George Bush’s Greatest Speeches”, so they both could have a good laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/6 "2009-03-09T10:03:43Z")
I suspect a staffer got sent on an emergency trip to the nearest Walmart. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/7 "2009-03-09T10:26:30Z")
I’m sure the DVD’s would have been lost on Ian Drury, the _Mail_ reporter, too. > [@](#): > > And he will hope that at a General Election the British public do not shun his imploration for another term in office by thinking at the ballot box of the famous line from another of the movies, Casblanca: ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.’ Yeah. :dubious: Are you sure it wasn’t, “What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate.”? ---
**Author:** ![Aquila\_Be](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@Aquila\_Be](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquila_Be)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/8 "2009-03-09T11:32:30Z")
According to this [Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2009/mar/06/film-list-gordon-brown-barack-obama) article, The PMs office wouldn’t divulge details of the titles, but the Daily Mail did some sleauthing: Downing Street refused to identify the titles that were included, but the [Daily Mail](Daily Mail story on the gift exchange includes a list of 25 DVDs the American Film Institute recently prepared)did a bit of independent sleuthing to find out. The Titles are: 1. Citizen Kane 2. The Godfather 3. Casablanca 4. Raging Bull 5. Singing In The Rain 6. Gone With The Wind 7. Lawrence Of Arabia 8. Schindler’s List 9. Vertigo 10. The Wizard Of Oz 11. City Lights 12. The Searchers 13. Star Wars: Episode IV 14. Psycho 15. 2001: A Space Odyssey 16. Sunset Boulevard 17. The Graduate 18. The General 19. On The Waterfront 20. It’s A Wonderful Life 21. China Town 22. Some Like It Hot 23. The Grapes Of Wrath 24. ET: The Extra Terrestrial 25. To Kill A Mocking Bird I suspect the DVDs would probably all be coded for Region 1 (North America) so PM Brown wouldn’t be able to watch them even if he wasn’t nearly blind. I’d estimate the collection must be worth at least $20. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/9 "2009-03-09T15:38:22Z")
It’s clear that the Obama White House needs a new protocol 'droid. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/10 "2009-03-20T12:12:37Z")
Yep. Wrong region. > [@](#): > > **Gordon Brown is frustrated by ‘Psycho’ in No 10** > > Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem. > > The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words “wrong region” came up on his screen. > > … [Gordon Brown is frustrated by ‘Psycho’ in No 10](http://beeqube.com/article/gord) ---
**Author:** ![mecaenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@mecaenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mecaenas)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yanks-bearing-gifts/488688/11 "2009-03-20T12:46:35Z")
I foolishly assumed that there would be some kind of office of protocol attached to the White House or the Dept of State that would handle such things as thoughtful and culturally relevant gifts for high ranking dignitaries and heads of state etc. A DVD boxed set? Some toy helicopters? And (previously from Bush) a bomber jacket? Wow. I’m embarrassed for you guys. Both parties really. I bet the poms wish they just brough across an old dog-eared copy of Harry Potter and maybe a jar of marmite and call it even.