Wednesday, December 8, 2010

'Tis the season

We went to town Tuesday, mostly doing some clean-up Christmas shopping. I was at the big mall around 11 that morning, and if I were subject to feelings of loneliness, I woulda felt lonely, because there weren't many people around. I have no idea how retail receipts are running this year, and I understand that it was a weekday. Still, things looked sparse, with clerks outnumbering customers. Whipped through Ross Dress for Less checking out the goods on the day of the Old Guy 10% Discount. Not much there ... they seem to have spaced out their merchandise to make it looked stocked but with much less actually on the racks. We ate lunch at the intermittent pizza joint - Melanzana, I think - next to Hastings, which joint I am happy to see is operative for the moment. It's a shrunken descendant of the lamented Toscana, but the food is top notch and service was good, not always true in the last go-round there. I bled out money at the customary rate of about $60 an hour, and was happy to get home. Truthfully, I've done most of my shopping this year on the Internet, as I imagine a lot of people have done.
More in anger than sorrow, this story from the Guardian about a bank in Ireland paying out outrageous bonuses while the people of that country are beat bloody by demands for austerity to bail things out. Wonder if there are any POed Paddies who remember how to build a bomb?

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