Visiting major cities; consular operations

I have tickets to be flown from Glasgow, Scotland, to Windsor, Ontario, via Toronto, and it got me to thinking that, aside from Paris, these days I tend not to visit major cities, I just connect through them, London especially given that it does not attract me anyway. I do quite like Toronto: something about the zoning policy seems to have made it pleasantly livable once one is used to sharing the road with the trams.

Before I became a dual citizen I would have to visit cities for visa reasons: of course the US Embassy in London, but once I was in the US certain visa operations could still be done only abroad so from Ohio we would drive up to the US Consulate in Toronto or wherever to perform them. Actually, one of our more recent visits to Edinburgh was to the US Consulate, though I don't yet foresee further reasons to pay such visits.

Television show provider fragmentation

Partly because of our awkward situation in having Amazon Prime US available while living in the UK, the television shows that I would like to watch are very much split across different providers or not available at all. I read that a recent survey suggests that many younger people both illegally pirate shows and subscribe to various providers and I can wholly sympathize: it would be one thing if they were all available à la carte or from multiple subscription services but, even for those willing to pay for content, having the shows spread across exclusive bundles really is difficult to joyfully accept.

Personally I am lucky enough to be patient. Some shows are very difficult to avoid being unwillingly spoiled on but most can come and go and within a year or two will be out on DVD. So, my approach is to maintain our Cinema Paradiso subscription (DVDs by mail; Netflix don't do that in the UK) and my wait is rewarded by having a provider who does carry a wide range of shows, albeit not streaming.

Still, I wonder if the days of DVDs are numbered. They are probably already encumbered by tight restrictions on fair use: for example, having bought myself a copy I doubt that I am permitted to then rip it to preserve a scratchless copy then simply play it from that disk image even though I see no persuasive moral argument that I oughtn't. I hope that the fragmented content provision market gets its act together before I can no longer rely on shows turning up on DVD a while later.