I guess that's why they didn't call it "This North American Life"

Some of my best readers are Canadians, so I'm first to hear it whenever some short-sighted, dim-witted Canadian broadcaster decides to hold up the telecast of a TV show for weeks after it aired in the U.S.  But what happened to one of my readers is, sadly, all too typical of a Web that is something less than World Wide.

Last week I provided a link in the TV Barn Ticker to the full episode of "This American Life," the highly watchable adaptation of Ira Glass's radio show.  Guess what?  You can't get it in Canada.  Here's what the reader got:

"We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States."