I’m having a great time watching The West Wing on DVD, which arrived via air mail yesterday. Two things: Why do I have to order American television programs from England because they won’t sell them in America? I guess they figure that if we had the option of watching pristine episodes, uncut and without commercials, network logo bugs, and screen-covering promos rather than a syndicated version, well… you know the rest.
And, contrary to what the set designer of The West Wing thinks, you cannot see a typical street scene of DC row houses outside the windows of the Oval Office. I’ve never been in the Oval Office, but I know that the windows face out to a fairly large backyard… not 3 story brick houses with English basements. This is really bugging me. Did they not have a backdrop with the Washington Monument? (Also, I don’t really think that would be right, either. The Monument is slightly east of the sightline from the center of the White House, and the Oval Office, which is in the west wing, is farther west than the center of the White House. So, it seems to me that the windows in the Oval Office really only look out at a garden.
Why, oh why, do I think about these things?
