Now THAT'S the Spirit

Ho-Ho-Ho Yuk-Yuk

'Tis the season and that time of year to be merry and joyous, and have lots of fun. Although some grinches still do their road rage and people too often forget to do random acts of kindness, the Christmas season is a great time to try to remember to be joyous and jolly. BTW, women are almost always kinder than men with one glaring exception. Many is the time over the years that I've run into the super market for one or two items and all the lines are packed with people who have hundred dollar plus orders to check out. Almost without exception if I begin my two items to a cashier with a man shopper ahead of me he will say, "Go ahead of me." But if there is a woman with a big purchase order she will almost never do the same. Score one small victory for the guys.

But the best Holiday Season Celebration Award goes to some clever person at one Las Vegas Washington Mutual bank branch. Not sure if it was a creative guy or brilliant gal who thought up the promotion but they named it the "Goofiest, Most Unusual, or Otherwise Unwanted Holiday Gifts" promotion. The object was to get people to come to the bank, obviously, and bring in a gift as described above. The first 100 donors received a $ 100 in exchange for their "donation." Gifts exchanged ranged from a plastic pancreas (first donor) to a "World Champion Beer Drinker" trophy. Other gifts included the obligatory fruitcake and even a decorated bedpan. The gifts will be given to charity, although I"m not sure which charity organization will opt to take the pancreas. Kudos to the WAMU crew with a creative mind and great sense of humor.

That got us to thinking about other gifts that might be turned in by people in the news: many political candidates who had been less than discreet in their younger years might want to turn in their resumes. President Bush would have several gifts to choose from but might select the protocol he was given to follow after the Katrina disaster since he seems to be standing firm on Eye-rock. Hillary should keep her style consultant as they have done wonders for her appearance, but she might want to dump the campaign plan. Nevada's governor would probably be happy to dump the current tax structure that put the state in an $ 80 million shortfall, and Nevada's casinos would love to get rid of the plan to raise gaming taxes.

Others throughout history might simply want to take back words they've said, like the construction boss building the tower Pisa who said, "Let's just cheat a little on the cement. Who will know?" Or the genius at ford who said, "We really need another model. Let's call it Edsel." Or even the spotter on the Titanic who said, "No, stupid! That isn't an iceberg, its just fog." Even some of Santa's reindeer might want to change their positions on the sleigh - aside from Rudolph, all the others have the same view! A little blogging music maestro... how about "I'm Gettin' Nothin' For Christmas."

Dr. Forgot