610. América

«The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.»

George Washington, 1790

601. Obama visto do espaço

470. Eleição V

Milhões de votos nas eleições do meu tempo:

1972 Richard Nixon: 47
1976 James Carter: 41
1980 Ronald Reagan: 44
1984 Ronald Reagan: 54
1988 George Bush: 49
1992 Bill Clinton: 45
1996 Bill Clinton: 47
2000 George W. Bush: 50
2004 George W. Bush: 62
2008 Barack Obama: 66

458. Eleição III

Magic America

Bill barrat has a simple dream.
He calls it his plan b.
Where there are buildings in the sky and the air is sugar free
And everyones very friendly.
Well, plan b arrived on a holiday.
He took a cab to the shopping malls,
Bought and ate till he could do neither any more
Then found love on channel 44.

He wants to go to magic america
Hed like to live in magic america
With all those magic people

Bill barrat sent his postcards home
To everyone hed ever known
They went, fifty-nine cents gets you a good square meal
From the people who care how you feel.

He wants to go to magic america
Hed like to live in magic america
With all the magic people

Blur

457. Eleição II

456. Eleição

Estranhei hoje não estar disponível a minha habitual mesa de voto 14, no Pavilhão-Complexo Desportivo Municipal do Casal Vistoso, na freguesia do Alto do Pina. Uma pena. Estava fã do penteado proposto pela Escolha Pessoal.

407. Café

387. Previsão

A minha previsão na CNN. Lamento, mas é uma das minhas ideias de diversão.

310. Sondagens

Sondagens da América na CNN.

273. Presidente

257. Obama

A nossa tão esperada indicação de voto: Obama. Não sei porquê. Talvez seja o mais desconcertante. Mas se a França tem um presidente húngaro e Portugal um presidente algarvio, porque não um presidente queniano na América?

232. Bacalhau

Há coisas que não podem deixar de ser referidas: a câmara baixa do parlamento do estado de Massachusetts tem, desde o século XVIII, um bacalhau de madeira pendurado no tecto. É o chamado Bacalhau Sagrado de Massachusetts.

42. Nova Iorque

«There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter - the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last - the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum, or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by their neighbors, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh eyes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company.»

E.B. White in «Here is New York» (1949).

37. Hambúrguer

Novo recorde mundial: hambúrguer de 55,91 kg. Pôde ser comido no Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, na vila de Clearfield, na Pensilvânia. Não está normalmente à venda. No entanto, no âmbito do seu «Burger Challenge», o restaurante serve o Beer Burger Belly Bruiser (23kg), por $179,95. «Delivered to any location». Hum...