Thoughts about shopping

First, a message from the rat's nest:

I hope all y'all United Statesians had a good Thanksgiving. Here we don't observe it, although I hear that some friends try to keep the tradition going on this side of the Atlantic! If we had been on the perch, we may have made more of it, but probably just for the food, not to celebrate pilgrims and Indians*. Nick has some great pumpkins just waiting to be turned into pie. I got a good recipe for pumpkin pita (pie with phyllo) where you use grated raw pumpkin instead of boiled or roasted. You sautee (actually, sauter) it with onion and add some liquid to soften it up, but also add some sugar and cinnamon. I think this would taste pretty good, especially since the plan is to bake it in the outdoor oven.

Ooh! Just remembered the handyman does fabulous pizzas in the outdoor oven. I will play the sickie card to get some this season. Notice I am not being too good about the salt thing. After 3 no-salt years I am on a salt binge and it isn't pretty. The other night at about two am I craved olives like crazy and downed a couple of dozen lickety split. Then I started feeling guilty and had to check how many calories they have because I don't want to fill up all my loose skin from lost muscle tone with gushiness. But they're not that bad-- less than ten calories each, if I recall, most of it fat but unsaturated. I also yearn for sausage, maybe the kind with orange rind in it, or the kind with leeks, but I don't want to be disappointed by it. I want somebody to tell me at what butcher shop it's clean (okay, I know, but relatively clean) and delicious. Then I will make Nick pop some on the grill (barby). Then I will squeeze tons of lemon on it...mmm...

UPDATE: Orange crop is starting! It's the beginning of months of huge, delicious, free organic oranges from a friend of the perch who no longer picks them for commercial gain. They fall off the trees unless we go pick crates and crates of them! Cannot wait for my first sample of the year!

Anyway, I wanted to share a few musings about shopping and consumerism. Some questions, too. I have often said that there are a lot of people I do not understand. I probably should have taken at least one psych course in college so I could be more in tune with the zeitgeist, or the pulse of the times, or whatever it's called.

So the puzzling thing I'll wonder about now is "Black Friday." Why is it called BF, because all those stupid fucks fighting each other to get into the Circuit City Superstore at 6am trample each other and some of them end up in the hospital, just to get a special deal on a TV two inches wider than the one they have now? So it's "black" because some die?

Huff Post featured some stupid cow who had set up her tent on Wednesday to be one of the first in line. Who was she planning her shopping for? Hopefully not her family, who she cares about enough to blow off Thanksgiving for. I guess she's raised her kids to think consumer products are more valuable than her company on what is perhaps the most important US family holiday.

What is the incentive to go shopping on Black Friday? Are the bargains that good? Maybe they are, and as usual I just don't know what I'm talking about. More likely, you go in for something specific that's a bargain but end up getting sucked into buying so much other stuff as part of the consumer fever, that you spend way more than you can afford and wind up with stuff you don't really want or need. Plus you get filled with rage at the crowds, the lines, people's behavior, the hassled sales assistants, the empty shelves when you finally find the thing you went for (or where it used to be).

Have you ever noticed how on the Super Nanny (Jo Frost US version), the families always live in these McMansions and the kids have rooms full to overflowing with toys? Lots of times the mountains of toys are so high that the kids can't even access the ones at the base and they forget they even have them. (I will not get into the fact that the kids are way more in need of a little attention and discipline than they are another action figure.) Why oh why do we keep buying STUFF? What empty holes does it fill, and for how long? Why do we need to be surrounded by this stuff? What does it symbolize? These days, when I see somebody walking down Ermou, laden with shopping bags, I just assume they've maxed out their credit cards, and certainly don't envy the fact that the lipstick will be long gone when they've paid off the 12th "interest-free installment".

Don't get me wrong. I don't believe we should live in undecorated hovels and wear crappy, torn clothes. But there are limits.

Another semi-related thing I want to mention about shopping, fashion and economics: Here, over the past few/several years, a lot of Chinese-owned discount clothing stores have cropped up. There are some issues regarding their legality, but since I don't know anything about this, I'll let it slide. Their clothing is very cheap in price; also in quality, but a lot of people shop there because they can't afford anything better. If you've ever been poor, you know that sometimes it feels good to have something new, even if it's not going to last very long. My beef is that all the styles LOOK cheap. Jeans with lots of writing on the back pockets and over-the-top "wear and tear" markings. Women's shirts with stupid and incorrect English sayings and sequins. Dresses with super ugly patterns (when you're dying a piece of fabric, it doesn't cost any more to use tasteful colors). Announcement: Just because somebody is poor and forced to shop at your store does not mean that they have no fashion-related discretion. As a result, however, I feel like the difference between social strata is quite obvious (at a glance!). Next Thanksgiving, give thanks if you live within fifty miles of a T.J. Maxx or a Ross Dress Best for Less. Never paid more than ten bucks for CK and BCBG jeans.

PS: Rest in peace VALUE CITY. I will never forget you. All the ignorant people who didn't shop at you and allowed you to go out of business can bite me.

*I know Thanksgiving is about being thankful, not just about sweet potato casserole and Indians and pilgrims. I am thankful that I am still alive because I was told a few months ago that I might not be. I am thankful that my new treatment seems at least to be stabilizing the tumor. I'm thankful that my family will be all together soon even if King Arfur, Prince Jimmy, Princess Kazzie and Sir Lou Reese have to declare martial law on the perch. I'm thankful for absolutely brilliant life-long friends, loving and supportive relatives, and doctors that give way more than a damn. I am thankful that living in this country means that every day includes some sunshine, despite our many problems.