Month: November 2007

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Now, I’m not one to advocate telling corporations what to do in their day-to-day business (unless it’s illegal, unethical, or unhealthy), but there’s something that’s been bugging me for a couple weeks, and I know I’m not alone. Actually, it’s been bugging me for a lot longer, but the problem is getting worse. I’ll call it Holidayification, which I’ll define as going to the extremes to get an upcoming holiday in people’s minds. Generally, it covers most major holidays, but specifically, I’ll discuss Christmas.

I first noticed it several years ago, but this year has taken the cake. I think I first noticed Christmas displays going up a few weeks ago, maybe the second week of October. Now, I know corporations consider Christmas as a huge part of yearly profits, but is starting your marketing that early necessary? Do corporations really think getting the idea through our heads earlier and earlier going to make us spend more money for Christmas? My answer is…it’s probable. Their thinking is that by getting into people’s minds that Christmas is coming up that they’ll buy more. There may be other reasons for starting earlier, such as increasing population. By starting earlier, the increasing amount of people in the country will be able to get their Christmas decorations and presents.

However, I do see some problems with my previous ideas. I think that corporations are likely to get more money just from an increasing population. Seems simple to me; more people = more money. So the reason might seem to lean more to the burgeoning population. However, even with a larger population, it seems to me that people still don’t really seem to start buying for Christmas until Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. They’re busy worrying about Halloween and then Thanksgiving. So, there must be some other reason I’m not thinking of.

So, there must be a good reason for doing it, even if I do think the whole idea is a bit ridiculous. For example, this Sunday, my local Walgreens was playing Christmas music. I thought displays were bad, but now music? I mean, come on! If anything, they ought to be playing Halloween music. I don’t know. I just worry that we’ll soon be hearing Christmas music before the 4th of July. If it ever comes to that, I do expect a lot of Americans to put their foot down, given the importance of the 4th. Indeed, if it ever were to happen, I’d put forth a special version of Independence Week, shaming all the companies who are desecrating that holiday with their corporatization.

Dymersion Video update: My second time in front of the camera during a newscast went very well.  As I mentioned on Monday, I’m going to use my appearance on the show’s editorial segment as this week’s episode, so expect that uploaded to my YouTube channel sometime tomorrow.

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If there’s anything I hate more than chain email (and I hate chain email like I hate corrupt politicians), it’s badly researched chain mail, which seems to be a characteristic of a lot of them. Most of them are rumors started by someone who couldn’t spend two seconds looking up the facts, so they get all hot and bothered by the issue.

Take the new $1 coins from the U.S. Mint. I got a chain mail from my mother (who didn’t start it, so not her fault) complaining that these new coins should be boycotted because supposedly they don’t have “In God We Trust” on them. Well, apart from the fact that I could less if they did – I feel a lecture in the importance of God coming from a commenter in my future – something tells me that given most politicians in the federal government are not atheists, this wouldn’t fly with them. They’d be on the Mint faster than you could blink.

Sure enough, it’s not true. Just the position of the phrase has moved. As you can see, it’s now on the edge. This is interesting, because I think it’s the first time any coin (of any country, but not sure on that) has has words on the edge of them.

Now, I know what people are going to say, “But you can’t see it as easily.” Well, maybe you can to actually exercise for thumb and forefinger to get to it, but looking at the picture, it would seem that the words stretch the whole thickness of the edge, potentially making them a bigger font size than they are on any current coin. I’d have to see one to be sure, but if that’s the case, wouldn’t that make it easier to see? Especially for the elderly?

Surely doing this would make people happier, as it’s actually emphasizing the phase just that much more. But, people will probably still complain. By the way, “E Pluribus Unum” and the year are also on the edge. So, no people. This isn’t some vast far-left conspiracy to remove God from our lives. So, stop while you’re ahead.