A Little of This, A Little of That

Happy Feet, the movie, starts today. How wouldn't enjoy a tap-dancing penguin with an environmental message? That's entertainment.

The Easy Bake Oven was inducted into the Toy Hall Of Fame. I am quite pleased with this choice. The Easy Bake Oven was my all time favorite childhood toy. It replaced my Chatty Cathy, which is saying something.

Today's toy of choice, if you are to believe the news reports, is the PlayStation 3. So bizarre, the ruckus it causes. My son is asking for the other system coming out, the Nintendo Wii. This is not my area of expertise, I just purchase what I am told, and my son has been kind enough to tell me the prices to expect so I don't get ripped off.

I knew from an initial gut reaction to John Edwards as he jumped onto the national scene last presidential run, that he was not to be trusted. First clue, of course, is that he is a multimillionaire trial lawyer still claiming to be just one of the folks. Why he and Elizabeth go to Wendy's to celebrate their anniversary every year to remind them of their poor days as newlyweds. And, you heard his father was a factory worker, right?

Well, now he is on a tear against WalMart and seems this only applies when toys aren't involved. He sent a young, volunteer (read unpaid) off to find a PlayStation 3 for his younger children and the volunteer asked WalMart to help him out. Didn't want to wait in line like everyone else and not paying his flunkies but, that evil WalMart better shape up.

During his speech before the union upper eschelon Edwards brought out of story using his young son, Jack, who is about 6 years old now, I think. He claims Jack berated a young classmate for buying and wearing sneakers from WalMart. The moral of the story being if young Jack knew better than to shop at WalMart, then surely his classmates must learn the lesson, too.

Now, for those of us in the real world, I can say when my son was 6 years old he no more gave a flip about sneakers or stores than the man in the moon. I am proud to say my son to this days shuns name brands whenever possible and doesn't care what store things come from, whether it is Target or Neiman Marcus. I don't happen to shop at WalMart as it isn't as close by as Target and I prefer Target as it is a little more upscale for a bargain store.

My son is on the cynical side and thinks people blindly follow advertisers and all that. He has always been his own person, thank goodness.

Anyway, it is shameful to drag your own child into a speech for brownie points. Remember when Jimma Carter told a reporter that he was speaking with young Amy one day and she told him her biggest fear was nuclear proliferation?

They think we are idiots.

"There is no such thing as a free lunch". - Milton Friedman, Economist, Noble Prize recipient, brilliant thinker