Gamblers enjoy super hi-def screen
- — 26 July, 2006 12:28
Good news: The world's biggest high-def screen is a full 218 feet long and 37 feet tall. Bad news: If you want to see it you'll have to spend an afternoon with some of the smelliest, most obnoxious people in the universe.
See, the problem with Mitsubishi's 8,000 square-foot screen -- apart from the extreme engineering required to construct it from 35 separate glass plates and its almost US$30 million cost -- is that it's at a racetrack in Tokyo.
Race-going in Japan is not of the Ascot/Queen of England vintage, where cucumber sandwiches and champagne are the order of the day. Oh no; it's more about 5'5" middle-aged men in nylon slacks spitting on every square inch of ground and stinking up the place with sake fumes and cigarette butts while they form a mass chorus to decry their wives, foreigners, left wingers and, especially, the good-fer-nuthin' jockeys. Stay away.
