November 28, 2014
It's Black Friday...
... and I can't believe you'd go out shopping. Or would you? I do my shopping on line, in the intervals between blogging, all that hardworking blogging I do for you, dear readers, you, who can so easily show appreciation — without spending any extra money — by entering your shopping experience via The Althouse Amazon Portal.
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15 comments:
Oh! Nice in-scene product placement, Ann. Having worked in the TV biz at a couple of networks and a couple of studios for many years, I always appreciated how George Burns could seamlessly integrate his cereal or soup commercials into the narrative of the scripts in the early days. But old farts in the compliance and practices departments turned off those revenue spigots for decades.
Today, we're starting to see these opportunities pop up again. A mounting breaks loose from the deck of a gold dredge in the Bering Sea threatening an entire day of sluicing, and the captain drags out his Miller welding unit...or Lincoln welding unit depending upon who is willing to pay.....and fixes the problem to save the day.
Similarly, a blogress head fakes us into an Amazon portal commercial by appearing to talk about Black Friday and who-goes-out, and, before you can see it coming, moving effortlessly into a sneak attack revenue opportunity.
As an unrepentant entertainment capitalist, Krumhorn likie.
- Krumhorn
I won't go shopping today, with one exception: Lowes. They have small poinsettias at 99 cents each. I buy 20 of them every year to decorate the house with. They are beautiful, smell wonderful, are easier to decorate with than lights or knick-knacks, and get me in the spirit better than a fiberglass snowman or talking Santa ever could.
@Krumhorn
Actually, no product is named in this post. The next post however is about Elsa and Barbie dolls.
Actually, no product is named in this post. The next post however is about Elsa and Barbie dolls.
Hmmmmm....it can't have escaped your notice that you're the product, Ann. All we're discussing now is how to make the purchase and what's the price?
Of course, I don't intend any subtext whatsoever. I promise!
- Krumhorn.
I have a sister who is one of those people waiting outside the doors of Walmart at 4 AM. It wouldn't surprise me to see her on YouTube rioting over a beanie baby one day.
Last time I spent Thanksgiving with her, I woke up as usual around 6 the next morning and she was already back from the mall, the living room full of bags, her Christmas shopping half done.
That sounds like hell to me, but to her the middle of the night shopping trip is part of the Thanksgiving celebration. She doesn't even think about it in terms of I like and I don't like. It's hard work cooking dinner for 15 people, nobody complains about that any more than she is going to complain about crowds at Target as the sun comes up.
I just came home Target. It seemed less crowded than a normal weekend.
*from* Target.
Is Althouse showing her smug disdain for poor Americans looking for a bargain in the middle of the night? While she does her shopping online I'm surrounded by people who don't do computers.
Granted, from what I've seen, the bargains really aren't.
We've taken a day of thanking God for all we have and turned it into a day of wanting and acquiring more. Nice.
Back when I was younger, (and they were "the" place to go for toys) I used to poke my head in at Toys R Us on Christmas eve; just to do a little people watching. I need to go out today, but it's for a few things I need, not for any bargains. If, however, something catches my eye at a good price, I will probably pick it up.
"Is Althouse showing her smug disdain for poor Americans looking for a bargain in the middle of the night?"
I avoid crowds. I don't see why that's smug.
I don't like most shopping. If others do, that's their business.
Bargain-hunting takes effort, and some people like that kind of work. An alternative is frugality, which one rarely sees promoted.
I did go shopping today. My son broke his glasses, so we went out and got Super Glue.
We're visiting my parents in northern VA this weekend. I have a 3-year-old daughter obsessed with Thomas the Train, so we thought it would be fun to take her on the new metro line down to the fancy malls at Tyson's Corner, because the train goes up in the air over the highway and commands some nice views. It was the highlight of her year.
We ventured off at Tyson's to see what was going on and it was INSANE. We bought a Christmas ornament for each of the children and then hurried off again for home and sanity. It would have been smarter just to ride the train back and forth and save ourselves the walk and the expense of actually going in the mall. All she wanted to do was ride the train and look out the window.
Althouse wrote:
"Bargain-hunting takes effort, and some people like that kind of work. An alternative is frugality, which one rarely sees promoted."
No one doesn't because it cannot be monetized, like the value of a woman's work before the feminist movement.
Alhouse also wrote:
"I avoid crowds. I don't see why that's smug."
The, "smug disdain," was a phrase quoted by Instapundit, I think, and then I read your post with that fresh in my mind and thought, "Is this smug disdain?" But now I've re-read the Instapundit via Ricochet via the NY Times thread and find the word, "smug," doesn't appear so where did I get that?
My reaction to stores opening on Thanksgiving or at the stroke of Midnight and actively promoting it is a religious objection not a poke in the eye to Althouse. Like a kid at Christmas with a new toy I just had to try out that, "smug disdain," phrase.
Yeah, I saw that at Insta. Seems to me that it can be smug to call others smug. He who smelt it dealt it...
I worked two years answering the phone taking orders at Hanna Anderson, which if you don't know sells fairly expensive Swedish cotton clothing for children (or mostly for children). This was a couple years after my first novel came out, when I had thought I was rich -- but then I had MS, and ended up broke. I liked the job, mostly, though at first my lesbian supervisor tried to get me fired, I guess because I was too butch. But my best friend there, who was gay, told her I was okay. I was actually very good at the job. I don't mind tallking on the phone, and we sold an excellent product to sell. If I was in the mood, and it was slow, and I liked you, I might let you know abouot some discontinued items available for just about nothing, in your kid's size.
I once had a long conversation with Mia Farrow, and sold her over $2000 of stuff, including 2 cotton nightgowns for herself. I asked her to spell her last name when she was giving me her credit card info. I thought she said "Farrell" at first.
Black Friday was fun. Busy days went by very fast. It was the same as busy nights, a couple years earlier, when I worked in the ER. I also always liked that feeling engendered by surviving intense sessions with my co-workers, the solidarity.
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