All in with Laila Ali

On her episode airing March 22, 2014, Ms. Ali teased a story of jousting in the countryside of Norway. That sounded unusual to me, as jousting doesn't seem to be a Norwegian "thing." Apparently it isn't. When the segment aired,there was no trace of Norway. Instead, it took place in St. Wendel,Germany. The segment focused solely on a jouster named Luke Binks, who was identified on the screen as an "armor blacksmith." Based on Mr. Binks' accent, he is clearly not an American, but his nationality or country of origin was never mentioned. Nor was any reference to his "blacksmithing." Jouster Binks twice made reference to this event as, "never having been done before - not really for a long time." Hmmm, aren't those two options mutually exclusive? Disappointing. I also noticed that, while poised, Ms. Ali made certain grammatical errors. If this show is supposed to be both Educational and Informative, its writers should fact check (so they can be accurate) and proofread (so they aren't modeling incorrect English). Educational? Not.

Watching today's episode including feature on Japanese samurai swordsmanship and current top practitioner of it as well as actor, Tetsuro. Shimaguchi. I really wish the charming narrator/host would take the trouble to research how to pronounce foreign names correctly. I was once engaged to a fellow named Tetsuro and lived in Japan for a couple of years, and yes, I did speak Japanese, albeit only conversationally. The name is accented on the first syllable and (not the second, as Ali pronounced it): TET-su-ro.