Eat it

Okay, so is everybody resting today?  I mean it is Sunday after all.  I can remember Blue Laws here in Pennsylvania.   Blue Laws you ask... well, there was a time when religion in this dictated Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest.  Stores were closed.  Even grocery stores.  Business's were closed so employees could go to church.  There were no such things as Convenience stores, no 7-11's, or Stop & Go's, or whatever you call them.  If you ran out of milk, you did without.  Movie theaters were open, but if you were like my Mom you never went.  She considered going to the movies on Sunday a sin.  There was nothing wrong with sitting on your sofa watching cable TV, but plunking down your hard earned 35 cents to see a movie was sinful.  (That's right, when I was much younger, kids paid 35 cents to go to the movies).  There are some who dream of bringing those days back as a way of controlling the population.  They want to dictate what is good and what is bad.  Remember, give them an inch and they'll take a mile out of your life.
And, of course, it was only a matter of time before one of the dog's Christmas toys succumbed.  Every year I try and pick which one will fail to survive the first week.  This year, I thought the T-Rex was going to bite the bullet early, of course I also thought it was going to be their favorite.  I was wrong on both counts.  This year that infamy goes to... the inch worm.

Now, I'll admit he doesn't quite look like and inch worm, rather his appearance is much more akin to dino cycling socks.

 Needless to say, the dogs have pulled the worm's plastic innards out, the parts that have the squeaky, noisemaker.  That plastic thing is already in the trash.  The worm's outer skin will be there soon, other wise Biggie will eat it.  I'll throw it out before it gets swallowed.  This is exactly what we need to do with those groups who want to limit what we can do on Sundays.  Just look them in the eye and say:

That's right, just tell them to eat it... and then wait for them to regurgitate.

The hell of holiday retail

As someone who works in retail, I can tell you the holidays bring mostly hell.  First of all there is the merchandising: somebody in corporate always knows the best way to merchandise no matter whether you are a high volume store or a low volume store, or even where the store happens to be located.  After you do you Christmas set you hear from two kinds of customers, those who love it and those who hate it.  A classic example is "every year it gets earlier."  These complainers don't seem to understand that if people didn't come in and shop the merchandise it wouldn't be displayed.  If they don't like this they need to start throwing bricks as those customers busily browsing away.  This year there were some customers who couldn't wait for the display to be set.  If they buy it early, it will be put out early.

If doors are open, they will shop

This year a lot of people pissed and moaned because some retailers were open on Thanksgiving day.  This is America and American Capitalism rules supreme.  Blame the shoppers, not the retailers.  If a Wal-mart or a Target opens their doors and customers show up, those doors are going to be opened.  If the doors are open, they will shop.  All you need to do is look at history.  At one time all of these United States had what were called Blue Laws.  Stores were not legally allowed to be open on Sundays.  Then supermarkets started staying open.  After a while large retailers began to take notice, Sears and Woolworth's and Montgomery Ward's and they thought, hhhmmm, if the supermarkets are making money then so can we and their doors started opening on Sundays.  Nothing is going to change.  This is America and Americans want to make money.  If that means retailers are going to need to be open on Thanksgiving, they are going to be open.  Americans also like to shop.  They like to think they are getting a good deal.  There is no going back to the way it was.