The Season Is Here!

It was a great weekend. The University of Florida Gators won the Southeastern Conference football championship Saturday by beating the previously unbeaten University of Alabama 31 to 20. Then Sunday, what everyone had both hoped for and expected came to pass. The Gators will meet the University of Oklahoma, the Big 12 Conference champions for the NCAA National championship, January 8, 2009. Both teams are 12 and 1 on the season. Go Gators!

The Christmas Season is really here. If you doubt me, take a look at the commercials on television. The first indication I recall seeing this season was the Clap On Clap Off ad. It may not have been the first that was on TV, but it was the first I recall seeing this year. Clap On Clap Off is an interesting way to turn various electrical units on and off in your home.

The ad hints it works great with Christmas trees. It has a new feature this year, a switch that can be used instead of the clapping. I’ve always thought the device is interesting, but I’ve never bought one. I’m not 100 years old just yet and the commercial seems to indicate one has to be rather ancient to need the use of one.

Another annual commercial has also hit the airwaves rather heavily. The Chia Pet. What would the Christmas season be without that adorable little pet that grows grass or weeds or something on a pre-molded chunk of clay? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Chia Pet up close and really have no desire to own one, but they’re a Christmas fixture. Like the Clap on Clap Off item, there’s a new Chia this season. It has a light for its new Christmas Tree.

And how about those dancing “We wish you a Merry Christmas” chocolate kisses from Hershey? That commercial doesn’t seem to change at all year after year. I have no desire for either of the other two I’ve mentioned today, but I must admit chocolate kisses are very good. I’ve never had one dance, though. (Right: Gator Golden would like a dancing chocolate!)

And we seem to be getting inundated with those “Not sold in stores” gadgets. I wonder just how virtually every company settled on that $19.95 plus shipping and handling price? Of course with each one, you can get many, many dollars worth of “free” stuff included. The total “worth” of the package often seems to be two or three times that $20 figure; and have you noticed that much of the “free” stuff also has shipping and handling charges? Don’t you just love “free?”

I’ve often wondered just how good those products are, but I’d never spend the money, or more importantly, I never give my credit card number out to one of those companies, on stuff I couldn’t get in a store after seeing, handling it, etc. I have seen some of the “not sold in stores” items in stores. I’ve bought a couple of them and sure enough, pure junk.

Not all things hawked by peddlers, however, are junk. More than 30 years ago when my children were just toddlers, I took them to Old Orchard Beach. Back then it was a great play place for families. There was a peddler on the pier selling kitchen knives. The kids’ mother was about to have a birthday and a knife was $3.00. We bought one for the youngsters to give Mommy for her birthday. It was just a long, serrated do-everything knife similar to the set Chef Tony sold on TV a while back.

That was more than 30 years ago. That knife is still today the most used and best knife we have in our kitchen. It has cut just about everything in those thirty years from every kind of food in the kitchen, to leather and plastic things elsewhere in the house. It is as sharp and works as well today as it has all along. A person installing a stone countertop a couple years back spotted the knife. He told us not to use it directly on the stone as it would cut it. (Left: The knife)

A few years ago, Gator Daughter saw the knife advertised on TV and bought one for herself. It came as a pair so she gave one to us. It is just as good as the original so now we have two. Whenever I see something that looks interesting on the TV, I am reminded that not all those inexpensive things are junk. I’d be lost without our OOB $3 knife.

I still don’t want a Clap On Clap Off or hairy pet.

GiM