SL Sex, Lies, and Mind Games

ooooh the Santas......My husband tells a funny story of how he learned there was no 'real' Santa. It was at Sears too, interestingly. He was there with his mom and saw Santa. He was shocked and appalled, and knew in that moment that Santa was not 'real'.......because the Sears Santa where he was....was black. LMAO. (Keep in mind, he is black too, but that wasn't the point, the point is that in his child's mind, Santa was white and NO WAY was this guy Santa. He's still mad about it, today......on the other hand, my son believed in Santa til he was gee, about 10, and then came home from school demanding to know 'the truth', as someone at school told him there was no Santa. I went into a spiel about how 'Santa lives in your heart, and blah blah.' He didn't buy it, said MOM! Tell me the truth! So I had to fess up....I don't think anyone I know, ever learned in a good, or positive way that there was no one actually coming down the chimney leaving gifties, not that we had a chimney to begin with.

I started putting the pieces together when the neighbor kid told me that their Santa liked Schlitz beer....because my Santa liked Stag beer. We figured it out.

i do miss the JCPenney catalog's jewelry section. *sigh* Do they still have Toys R Us? I haven't seen one in years.

Spiegel: http://www.spiegel.com/

Yes, Toys R Us are very big here in California.

Yes, Spiegel. Thanks

Well, we do here; it's where I ended up eventually going (because I refuse to spend money at Walmart unless I have no other choices).

My parents never actually "lied" to me about Santa: their policy, I think, was that I was "permitted" to believe in him, but, that they would respond honestly if I asked a straight-forward question about it. So I don't actually remember when I stopped "believing": there was no moment of epiphany that I can recall, but it must have been when I was pretty young. I don't think it ever bothered me much -- not more, I would imagine, than it might bother a Jewish child -- and I still quite cheerful climbed onto his lap every year to give him my Xmas list without noting any apparent logical contradiction.

really? i haven't seen one in a long time. maybe i just need to pack up the horses and wagon and head into town more often.

Toys"R"Us store locator:
http://www5.toysrus.com/store/index.cfm?tru=1&sa_referral=http://www.toysrusinc.com/tstorelocator

Sorry if that offended - it wasn't meant to be mean.

Sorry to split hairs Mickey, but he didn't - my reply was directed to Jenshae, just as this reply is directed to you. Talking ABOUT the preferred response to a person's behaviour, which was the focus of the shared observation between Jenshae and myself, is not the same as engaging directly with the object of the observation, however much anyone might wish to interpret it as such

I believed in Santa until I was about 6 or so. It began when my Mom took me to the local department store and all the kids were in line waiting for a turn on Santa's lap. I recall that all I wanted to do was make a good enough impression to ensure the receipt of most of the toys on my Christmas wish list. Anyway, on the way back from seeing Santa, we passed another store and there was another Santa there with a line of kids. I remember thinking something like "what's up with that" and more or less leaving it at that, you know, puzzled but not convinced. And then, about a year or two later, I remember recognizing that it was my Mom's handwriting on my gift from Santa, and then I knew. My reaction? No problem. A gift is a gift...

P.S. What's up with the aversion to WalMart? Do I detect a measure of elitism? Perhaps a misplaced notion of socioeconomic justice? And please don't burst my bubble and tell me that you are a Macy's girl...

(I appreciate Mickey's suggestion, but perhaps we can skip the coffee and go right to dinner and a movie...)

A very sensible response, I think. I probably should have been more upset, or might have been had I been a bit older: I tend to the ridiculously sentimental about things like this, much to my own chagrin.


No Macy's in Canada, I'm afraid. I'm not really a department store girl at all, but insofar as I will shop at one, I go mostly to the Hudson's Bay Company (or "the Bay," as it is usually abbreviated here).

With regard to Walmart, I'm afraid you were right in guessing "socioeconomic justice." I'm just "socially conscious" enough to object to their predatory marketting schemes and a variety of other issues related to things like employee benefits and so forth. This is not a "fun" state to assume: you have NO idea how guilty I feel sneaking occasionally into a Starbucks for a latte . . .


Better stick with the coffee. I don't wish to sound hard to get, but . . . well, actually, I *am* hard to get. Let's just not do Starbucks, ok?

...........sweet

Getting you may not be the problem...it's keeping you.

"Rrrrrriiiiiippppp!"

Amazing how you and I can diverge on so ,many things and then all of a sudden fall into step. I am an avowed anti WalMart person, I've never set foot in one of their stores in my life, for mostly the same reasons as you. I also won't patronize Starbucks, but this is mostly because I find them their product to be pretentiously overpriced and not especially good, as opposed to any political ideals.

Macy's on the other hand is a business who I gave way to much money to, especially at this time of year. I have 2 Macy's within a 5 Mile radius of where I live, both conveniently placed so I can drop in without going out of my way.

Penn & Teller on Wal-Mart hate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-o1fj1rX7A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSfSB51gcwo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LN50mJGSo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaYZ9uMXHRM

(videos NWS, language)

I find Starbucks coffee overpriced and mediocre. I can soothe my social conscience by using the money I save buying socks at Wal-Mart to buy some of that expensive fair trade coffee at the natural foods store down the street from my house.

If it weren't for Wal-Mart.....the people in my area would not be able to feed and clothe their children.

/me looks at my hands on the keyboard. DId I write this post and sign Brenda's name? This is exactly how I feel about these same places, except that, I HAVE unfortunately set foot in Walmart, which intensified my dislike. Plus, I made the mistake of 'running over there' one Christmas eve, because my can opener broke. I only wanted to grab a new can opener. Parked 10 miles away and finally got to the front door; to be told to go to the end of the line. Line? Why is there a line? Because the store was filled to capacity with people buying last minute bargain toys for their already overly gifted children for Christmas, they were letting in one person in as one person came out. All I wanted was a can opener. That was several years ago. I left, vowing to open the cans with my teeth before I"d ever go back. And I never have.

QFFT

I've read in the UK press that people who work at Wal-Mart can only feed and clothe their children if they hold down two jobs, so badly do Wal-Mart pay.

I'm referring to being able to purchase food and clothing. The alternative is Salvation Army or the food bank. As for jobs....currently, pulling that off with only two jobs is a blessing, and most are thankful for that.

Sorry; misinterpreted your posting.

No problem. I have friends who work at Wal-Mart. Their secretarial job or bank teller job pays less.....which is why they added another job. Fortunately, there were some available.

Walmart certainly IS cheap . . . but they use the advantages that their size gives them to deliberately undercut any potential competition in the neighbourhoods in which they locate, with the result that smaller stores invariably get plowed under. In Canada, neighbourhood associations frequently fight hard to prevent Walmart from opening stores in their area because it has been demonstrated that a single Walmart box store produces a "kill zone" for other businesses that extends for miles around.

Amongst their deliberate targets, and victims, have been a number of home-grown (i.e., Canadian) cut-rate chains that simply haven't had the scale of operations to be able to compete with them.

In some ways, they exemplify for me one of the ultimate paradoxes of capitalism, because they use their competitive edge to simply eliminate all other competition.

Well...there was no other competition. If there was....paying double at the only other alternatives....is more socially acceptable?