'Tis the season....of disappointment. Face it, the HOLIDAY season almost never lives up to the hope, but hope springs eternal. And a good thing it does, too, for without this ephemeral hope the wheels of commerce would halt. Retail needs the holidays like a fish needs water. Ta-dum.
With nerves frayed, the pressure of the season can be murderous. Feelings of inadequacy make spouses square off in the arena of not enough. Not enough money, not enough for the kids, not enough time to get it done, not enough..., not enough...
In a Christian based country such as the USA, a religious observance of a birthday has turned into commercial poppycock. Buy, buy, buy and more, more, more ring out like a mantra. There is simply no way for 95% of Americans to sway to that mantra as a result of the syndrome of dollarpenia.
Dollarpenia or the lack of funds is the rate limiting step in the joy of Christmas. Over the last 40 years, with the extension of plastic credit, the December spend-a-thon has become a veritable Super Bowl. Sadly, though, plastic spending has topped off and, in fact, is lower now than it was over the last few years. Worse yet, Americans find their country in debt to the world to the tune of over $13 TRILLION. No matter, with enough green ink the Ben Bernanke seemingly rules the world. Debt, bah!
Most of the stuff purchased to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who was Jew, leads to nothingness. Toys, trinkets, ties and tubas are soon forgotten, broken or never used. Not all is lost, tomorrow's flea market bric-a-brac is born with each preceding nativity party. But go to any house after the gift denuding frenzy is over, look around and most of the haul is useless.
Don't forget the near miss gifts. Near miss gifts can be worse than no gift at all. These bequeathals are losers from the get go. When the giftees want A thing, say an iPod Touch and "Santa" leaves a Zune,
disaster may be in the offing. Imagine cruising with a Zune in lieu of an iPod. What the hey is a Zune anyways? Would this be similar to asking the North Poler for a tie and receiving an ascot. Hey hey, Hugh Hefner! Does hefner mean priapism in any language?
Eleven days left til the red and green orgasm erupts like Vesuvius. (Mt. Vesuvius has not really erupted since 1944.) Got no more time to peck and seek. The siren of buy, buy, buy and more, more, more is blasting like an air raid siren as the Luftwaffe approaches London. The crumpled paper list in his pen pocket is filled with the names of his giftees. They want iPods...
Expensive and overpriced, the iPod has an erstwhile competitor in the Zune. Made by Microsoft, the Zune is an entertainment platform and a portable media player. Each user gets a personal Zune Tag. For all intents and purposes, the Zune can do pretty much what the iPod can do and maybe even more. And it's cheaper.
Nimrod Corsair, the dollarpenic daddy of decision making, rubs his shopping list between his index finger and thumb. He watches the two Zunes being wrapped and he supposes his charges will be happy with Zunes. Well, why wouldn't they...?
Wonder if they ever heard the song Zoom Zoom Zoom (Supernova Girl) by Protozoa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KygD_QLpKeU
Zoom, Zune, Zoom, Zune. Ho-Ho-Ho...
MERRY CHRISTMAS. And so it goes.
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