I have a media PC for a television. It has its awkwardnesses, but on the whole I am very happy with the way it works. One of the greatest benefits is that I can have a library of all my media somewhere on the network and just play whatever I feel like without having to hunt for a DVD, put it in, take it out, wipe it down, put it in, take it out again, scratch the specks off, put it in again, then watch what I wanted to watch.

As a result I found myself recently ripping my West Wing DVD set to the media PC for future viewing. As I am wont to do I check the results of the rip before moving on to the next disc, and something happened...

I missed Josh... and Toby... and CJ... and Bartlet. As scene after scene of the show skipped by in my fast-forward I realised how much of a hole the cancellation of this show has left in my viewing spectrum, so I did the only sane thing that was available to me... I have started watching the West Wing again.

I am only up to episode 4 of the first season yet, but ... damn ... the writing is even better than I remembered. The pace of the show is phenomenal. Stuff just happens continually, and as a result it takes a while after the end of an episode for it all to sink in.

Some classic lines already, I just love dead-pan Toby "I don't understand... did you trip or something?". And Josh "drinking from the Keg of Glory" and wanting "all the bagels in the land". Watching the West Wing just makes me feel ... I dunno... happy?

Which brings me back to the first nit-pick, and the title of this post. At the end of Ep 4, Leo goes to the secret AA meeting in the white house for high level politicians... guard on the door... disguised as a card game.

As the door opens... ... ... there is a coffee (tea?) urn visible on a little table. First of all... WTF, ... a well-disguised poker game with an urn right in the doorway?! Nobody is going to believe that. Second, ... I have a very hard time believing that the wealthy and powerful would have an AA meeting and drink *anything* from an urn.

Clearly, alcohol is out, but comeon... a good coffee machine of some sort? Fresh squeezed whatevers maybe?

And even outside of the context of this setting... urns feel so "I'm not really trying". I wonder if on some level meetings with urns simply have them because it's "the done thing". Having a meeting? Oh, you're going to need an urn. And little cookies. Wrapped individually in plastic. Or a cake. Something home-baked. Preferably bland.