h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, it may be easy and convenient to call it Bush's America because there are just too many people who have influenced him and who are pulling his strings whose names we will probably never know (others we do), and if we tried to include them in the subject line it would end up looking like an old T Rex album name... you know - 'My People Were fair and Had Sky in Their Hair etc, etc, etc'. And I recall that although there was no internet at the time, there were several places in the UK media where you could find out about 'Life in Thatcher's Britain' - sometimes from journalist, sometimes from the likes of Ben Elton and Harry Enfield, sometimes from people such as Steve Bell. How history repeats itself Anyhoo... instalment 1.

I heard an analyst on NPR this morning explaining that the big winners on Black Friday this year were the discount stores and the highest of the up-market shops. Wal*Mart for instance did 1.5 *billion* dollars-worth of business on Friday alone. No wonder that five out of the top 10 richest people in the world are Waltons (goodnight John Boy).

Shoppers this year were either looking to save or spend as much as they possibly can. That seems to me to be a strong indication of the polarisation and division of society which is occuring in America right now under this President, just as happened in Britain under Thatcher. The rich are becoming fantastically wealthy, the poor are becoming ever more desperate to make ends meet.

count me in with those out to save as much as possible this year. many of the gifts we're giving this year are homemade

...i have a busy month ahead of me, what on earth am i doing here and not in my workshop?

Me and my mates made a great rule about Christmas presents at University - what you gave had to be either:

bought from anywhere for less than a fiver
or home-made
or bought from a Charity Shop

I can't remember what any of them were, but I think I enjoyed those presents as much as anything I've ever received.

A similar variant of this rule I've since read in a book is that you can't spend more than a fiver and it has to be bought from a 24-hour petrol station.

that sounds like great fun for an organized gift exchange

Most of my presents are home-made.

One year, everyone got scarves knitted from hand-dyed wool bought at a street market. $5=one skein=one scarf.

Sometimes, instead of presents, I buy something like childrens mittens for the Snowsuit Fund or to take to the Children's Hospital to give to kids who need them.

Their stock must be going down, the Waltons are currently only 4 out of the top 10, and the bottom 4 at that:

1) William H Gates III
2) Warren E Buffett
3) Karl & Theo Albrecht
4) Paul G Allen
5) Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud
6) Lawrence J Ellison
7) Alice L Walton
8) Helen R Walton
9) Jim C Walton
10)John T Walton

*completely and utterly fails to rush out and aid the cause*

Me too!

I haven't had the heart to ask My sister how her gift store did on the day after Thanksgiving. Business is way off lately, and Christmas shopping is the only possible thing that will keep the business afloat. Her store is in a college town, and the students are affected by the local recession, so they don't have as much to spend, assuming that they aren't buying everything they want/need at the local Wal-Mart.

Anyway, my family is not going to be spending much for Christmas presents this year. I bought a fruitcake from a handicapped benefit, and that will be the Yankee Swap gift. My home-made gift will be a long story that I am writing, about a superhero who has to save the world from destruction during his coffee break. It's called "Fifteen-Minute Rescue." By the way, it should take more than fifteen minutes to read the story.