IR Blog Post 2

Symbols- Cupholders- Bill talks about how Americans are obsessed with having cupholders in their cars. People will get many cupholders, even more than are needed for how many people the car seats. He talks about a car that he saw that seated 7 people but had 14 cupholders. That means that each person gets 2 cupholders for themselves when people do not need to have 2 to themselves. 
CD Tray- Cupholders were first thought of when a man called a computer place saying that his "cupholder" broke off of his computer. When they asked how he got a cupholder on his computer he replied "when i push the button, the cupholder comes out and I can put my coffee cup in it.
Customer Appreciation Day- He talks about how in America and especially where he lives the post office every once in a while will have a customer appreciation day, where they will give out doughnuts and other treats to customers. In Britian, things are very busy and they do not show any appreciation to customers taking care of too many things at once.


Themes & Ideas-
Laziness- A researcher at the University of California at Berkeley found that Americans are becoming lazier and lazier every year. People no longer walk the average of 75 miles a year like times before only walking about 1 mile a week. Bill admits that he has noticed that he became lazier once he moved back to the US. He said he chose to live in the town they do because everything is within walking distance of all the places he needs to go to. 
Health- Bill and his wife go to the grocery store to go food shopping. While there Bill's wife stays only in the healthy foods section and complains when Bill tries to get "bad" food. She tells him everything he gets he must eat all of it or else he can never get it again. By the time he is about half way done all his "junk" food he tries to find anything healthy to eat.
Intrusion- Clothing stores have every legal right to spy on you while you are trying on their clothes. This is to ensure that no one sneaks anything into a purse or under clothes to steal thier items. One time when Bill's wife was shopping she had put something into her purse by accident when changing mixing up her's and the store's clothes. When she left the changing rooms a man in a nice suit came up and asked to see what was in her purse. After emptying and finding the items the man let her go saying to not do it again.