Retail Therapy

I'll start by assuming (a dangerous thing, I know) that my North American readers have not been living under rocks for the past month or so and know all about the Ellen Degeneres/J.C. Penney/One Million Moms thing. For those of you out of the know - U.S. retailer J.C Penney recently launched a new pricing policy. They hired out comedienne and America's favorite talk show host Ellen Degeneres to be their spokesperson. One Million Moms (a splinter group of SPLC listed hate group, American Family Association) announced a boycott of Penney's and demanded that the retailer fire Ellen, because she was gay. Thankfully, Penny's did not concede to the group's demands and stood by their choice to have Ellen represent them.

Anyway...

I know I posted about my car eating up much of my tax refund this year and I was rather depressed by that. But rather than wallow in the fact that I was out more than half of that refund, I used just under half of what remained today to indulge in some retail therapy. And what better place to do so, than J.C. Penney? They've always had a rather exceptional 'Big and Tall' department and since I qualify as both, I decided to spend my money at a retailer who not only offered fashionable clothing in my size, but also supported LGBT rights. Penney's new pricing policy allowed me to purchase 2 pairs of jeans, 4 shirts*, a belt and a pair of much-needed sunglasses for less than $200.00.

The cost of both gasoline and food may be on the rise, but I have to tout JCP for keeping the cost of fashionable, quality clothing affordable. If only as a political statement, spend your 'Pink Dollars' in a store that isn't afraid to be inclusive.

*BTW - 2 of those shirts were by well-known designers.

I urge you to keep supporting companies that support the LGBTQ community and keep raising your voices against the bigots and the haters. As they say, "The squeaky wheel gets the oil." Keep squeaking, loudly and proudly. 

More, anon.
Prospero

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A Trip to Hell?

Photo via People of Walmart

About three years ago, a Super Walmart opened on the site of what was once a lovely suburban shopping center, the Levittown Shop-a-Rama. The center had a Pomeroy's* department store; a Woolworth's Five and Dime; Lobel's Youth Center (where our mother bought both my sister and I our scouting apparel); Carvel; Western Wearhouse; McCrory's and other assorted long-gone stores. In the early '90's, Uncle P worked at Boscov's in the former Pomeroy's building. The center also housed a post-office and the headquarters of the LPRA (Levittown Public Recreation Association), which oversaw the half-dozen or so public swimming pools that once dotted the region. Only one still exists, now run by a private corporation. The rest have been filled in and plowed over to make way for public parks. Just across the street was the long-gone Towne movie theatre, where my sister and I saw many Disney films for the first time.

On the site of the old Shop-a-Rama, now sits a very generic strip mall, anchored by a Super Walmart. It was there that Uncle P ventured today to purchase new computer speakers, among a few other things. I brought with me a short list of six items: Mustard; vanilla Silk almond milk; fish oil supplements; Afrin; contact lens solution and the speakers. I ended up leaving with 19 items, including a box of much-needed gravel for Skye; some amazing lemon poppy-seed muffins; a 4-pack of Stewart's Black Cherry soda and bananas. I almost fainted when my total came to more than $90.00.

I have to ask myself if Walmart is so clever at marketing that they can trick me into spending more than double what I had intended to spend, or I'm just a sucker. I generally despise Walmart's business practices, but their prices are so seductive that I can't seem to resist. Grocery items are often half of what my favorite grocery chain charges and their selection of general goods is usually quite expansive. And while I link to the photos posted on PeopleofWalmart.com quite frequently on Facebook as a joke, I still find myself there once or twice a month. 

How did this happen? How did I become a -- gasp! -- Person of Walmart? Maybe I just need to move back to a big city, where the insidious retailer hasn't yet ensconced itself. Or maybe I should just stop complaining and reconcile myself to being an average suburbanite trying to save a buck or two wherever I can. Or maybe still, I need a trip to Barney's. 

At least I can take comfort in knowing that I will (hopefully) never appear in a video like this:

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Ramblings / Shopping / Walmart with the title Shopping. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2012/01/a-trip-to-hell.html. Thanks!

Stick a Fork in Me; I'm Done

I finally finished my Christmas shopping today. And while many of you may be cursing me because you haven't, I am kicking myself for letting it take so long.

Honestly, I am usually done by the first week of December. In fact, I often start with my annual trek to Florida in the spring to visit my sister and brother-in-law. While I did buy one or two things there in April and another one or two in Chicago this July, I let the bulk of it slide this year. The economy had a bit to do with that. I had to wait until the Fall/Winter O.T. kicked in at the day job, before I could actually afford to shop.

It's not like I have a huge list of people to buy gifts for. There's Mom; Sis & the BIL; Aunt Ev (whom you will eventually learn all about in a post dedicated to her special loonieness, I promise...); D; K; Q and Dale; my godson, his sister and parents and a few folks at work. I tried not to use plastic too much, though some things bought online or via catalog required it. And thank goodness for Amazon wishlists. They made holiday shopping a bit easier this year...

Still, I'm glad my list didn't include any of these items:



Or these:

And while I may actually know where to get "Daddy Butter," I'm not about to share that with a bunch of mostly strangers... ;-)

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Christmas / Holidays / Nonsense / Shopping with the title Shopping. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2011/12/stick-fork-in-me-i-done.html. Thanks!

Shoppin' 'til I'm Droppin'

If you haven't noticed, there are just 7 shopping days until Christmas. Uncle P still has a few gifts left to pick up, but I'm not panicking yet. My first gift exchange isn't until this Sunday when I visit Auntie. I have to wrap her gifts, but at least they're bought. 

And I actually braved my local mall tonight after leaving the day job and survived quite well, even though the Disney Store's computer system went down and gave me considerable agita. I have gifts I have to send to Florida tomorrow, dang it! (And don't think the irony of sending Disney Store gifts to Florida is lost on me.) I even bought myself a gift, though I will wrap it up and deprive myself of it until next week. Still, it was 40% off, and I just couldn't resist, especially since they had it in my size.

I have a total of 8 gifts left to buy, though I won't be seeing some of the folks with whom I exchange until after the 25th, so there's a bit of a safety net there. Still, I'm usually well done my shopping by this time and just picking up extras and incidentals as I come across them. Of course, this year I've cut back quite a bit (as has almost everyone, I think). A lot of that has to do with the money spent on my aging house earlier this year. And less O.T. at the day job. And the economy in general. 

I still have tomorrow and part of Sunday, as well as Monday; Tuesday; Wednesday and Thursday night (we exchange on Christmas Eve in my house). But I still have to clean the house for guests, prepare holiday goodies, etc., etc., etc. It will get done. It always does, somehow. It's very much like putting on a play -- just when it seems like nothing will be ready in time, suddenly it is. And I can sit back and breathe a little sigh of relief. Until next year.

I hope all your shopping; wrapping; decorating; cleaning; baking and cooking is done. I hate you if it is (not really), though doubt that is...You're all probably in the same boat (or worse) than I am.  (Unless  of course, you don't celebrate Christmas, even as a secular holiday, like Uncle P does). Don't worry - it will all be over soon. Just remember, it could be worse:

More, anon.
Prospero.

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Black Friday Bloat (or: Adventures in Holiday Shopping)

So yesterday, Uncle P cooked the entire Thanksgiving meal. It wasn't nearly as large a meal as in some households. It was just me and my mother for dinner. But it was certainly more food than I usually prepare for a single meal. I roasted a small turkey breast, made two kinds of dressing (my grandmother's Hungarian-style liver stuffing for me and more traditional stuffing for Mom); mashed potatoes; mashed turnips and carrots; candied sweet potatoes (which I actually tried and liked for the first time in my life); gravy and crescent rolls. Yes, there was canned cranberry sauce (my kitchen is small and I didn't have the time for anything fancier). For dessert, we had carrot cake (purchased from a day-job friend as part of a fund-raiser for her son's school) instead of the traditional pumpkin pie. Carrot cake is my personal favorite cake and this one, while a bit expensive, was exceptional. Everything turned out wonderfully, despite painfully bending back my thumbnail while attempting to open the tube of crescent rolls (which resulted in blood spoiling about half of them, but then there were only two of us, anyway). I worked off most of the calories in the clean-up, though I still have plenty of left-overs.

Of course, today was Black Friday. Unlike my sister, who left her house at 4AM in an attempt to catch some bargains, I slept in and didn't go out shopping until noon. No camping out, no stampedes, no lunatics. Well, some lunatics, but not many. My first stop was actually the grocery store to take advantage of a two-day sale on paper towels and toilet paper - practical, if nothing else. I then made stops at three other stores in search of specific items, most of which I found at reasonable prices. I came home, had a meal of reheated leftovers (which barely made a dent) and caught up on this week's DVR'd programs. Of course, most of the rest of this weekend will be spent working out the final details of my upcoming show, though I do have a lunch scheduled with some very dear friends on Sunday.

My holiday shopping is about 50% done, which is late for me. Back in the day, when I worked in retail and went to Florida every October, I was 90% finished by this time of year. And while I buy gifts for less people now than I used to, it seems to be getting harder and harder to find the "perfect" gift for some folks, especially those I've known the longest.  Oh well. I still have 27 days to finish and plenty of stores and websites left to visit. 

I hope all my American friends and readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I want to wish everyone a fabulous Holiday season, no matter what holiday it is you may be celebrating in the upcoming month or so. This time of year always seems to turn Uncle P into more of a sentimental old fool than he usually is. Maybe a trip to a spa is order. At least I wasn't part of something like this (via):

More, anon.

Prospero

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Turkey Month Turkey of the Month: "Blood Freak"

Yes, that is a turkey-headed monster on the poster for Blood Freak, a 1972 anti-drug picture made by religious nutjobs to warn against the dangers of marijuana.

Blood Freak is the story of Herschel (Steve Hawkes), a Vietnam vet who picks up a hitchhiker named Angel (Heather Hughes) on his hog and takes her home. Angel is a religious good girl, who invites Herschel to crash at her pad for a while. Angel's sister Ann (Dana Cullivan) is a bad girl and she turns Herschel onto pot, to which he immediately becomes maniacally addicted. To support his habit, Herschel gets a job at a local turkey processing plant, testing turkey meat. Of course, the turkey place is run by a mad scientist who is trying to create a turkey that's as addictive as pot. When Herschel eats some contaminated turkey - his head turns into a papier mache turkey head!

And if having a papier mache turkey head isn't bad enough, Herschel is now a turkey-vampire who can only survive by drinking the blood of other pot addicts. Naturally, he goes on a killing spree, draining blood from his victims and slurping it up through his papier mache beak from his hands (I guess he couldn't find a straw). Finally, Jesus shows up to teach Herschel the error of his ways and he is saved, upon which he wakes up to discover the whole thing was just a drug-fueled nightmare. 

I wish I was making this one up, but I'm not. Here:

Wow. Poppers, wine and pot. Yep, these are some bad people. Not only does Blood Freak make absolutely no sense, it features some of the worst acting ever committed to celluloid; special effects that would make H.G. Lewis laugh at their amateurishness and several brief appearances by director Brad F. Grintner as the Narrator/Herschel's conscience, who occasionally breaks out into a coughing fit so bad, you wish he'd swallow some codeine-laced cough syrup already:

And mind you, the trailer below was intended to make you want to see this movie:

 

Why do I think the maker's of V8 are indebted to the makers of this film?

Thus endeth the Turkey Month Turkeys. I hope you and yours had a wonderful and delicious Thanksgiving. As always, I have loads to be thankful for, not the least of which are you, my readers. I don't have nearly as many followers as some bloggers, but I am very thankful for the ones I do have. 

Tomorrow is known as Black Friday in the U.S. (presumably because it's the day when retailers' books go into the black ink, rather than the red) and Uncle P will be out looking for holiday bargains (though not at 3 or 4 AM, as many will be). I've already done some Christmas shopping online and have just a few more things to pick up. If they're good enough to share, I'll recount my shopping adventures tomorrow. If not, expect more of the usual nonsense.

More, anon.
Prospero

You have read this article Bad / Clips / Holiday Wishes / Movies / Nonsense / Shopping / Trailers / Turkeys with the title Shopping. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2010/11/turkey-month-turkey-of-month-freak.html. Thanks!

Christmas Shopping

I know it says Sunday, but I've been up since 6AM , so it's still Saturday to me. I worked my one mandatory Saturday morning a year today, and afterwards met with some friends for lunch and holiday shopping in a nearby artsy community about halfway between our homes. I managed to buy a few small things for several people, but am still vexed by the need for a few more major gifts, and was ultimately disappointed in my efforts (though happily surprised with the small, funny things I did manage to pick up).

Now, I start my Christmas shopping every year in May in Florida. I hit the huge outlet malls and the Disney and Universal Studios Stores; I scour the old beachfront gift malls and the odd places along International Drive in Orlando. I probably manage to score about 40% of my gifts there, 7 months early! And trust me, I'm not one of those people who buys gifts and then forgets where he put them. I can smell a bargain at ten paces and outshop any straight woman (or gay man, for that matter) without batting an eye. This past summer, I also bought a few things at the JTMF silent auction. And last November, I was in San Francisco and Napa for four days, and bought quite a few things out there. This year I was in Chicago for two days in October and bought none. Still, i need only something for my brother-in-law and my very dearest friend.

The real trouble is, it seems that there's nothing terribly exciting in any stores this year. The malls and department stores are always the same old crap; and even the specialty and gift stores have nothing new to offer. Last year, I found the perfect things for so many people. This year... some. So, with only a few weeks left before I start exchanging, I am unusually late in completing my list.

So how is your holiday shopping going? And more importantly, wha'ja get me?

More of this, anon.

Prospero

You have read this article Christmas / Gifts / Holidays / Ramblings / Shopping with the title Shopping. You can bookmark this page URL https://tammycross.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-shopping.html. Thanks!