Month: November 2003

True Value commercial – wherein Santa, the elf, Frosty, and some girl who looks like she’s the Tooth Fairy, are all on a road trip in an SUV. True Value says buy stuff from us. The elf says, “Read the map, Santa.” They see some plastic Santa up ahead and the real Santa says, “Am I that fat?” Uh… (funny commercial; but still wouldn’t know what True Value wants from me).

Target’s post-Thanksgiving weekend sale commercial – great. Bespectacled man plays a rockin’ drum beat; a young woman next to him plays along with her identical drum set. They look like they’re having loads of fun and yell, “Let’s go!” and played even more. Yeah, Target’s trying to get some energy into you to go out there and shop.

Not bad; right on message. Extra credit to Target.

Thanksgiving on tv involves: parade and football. I seemed to have been watching an excess of food shows (Jacques Pepin on PBS a lot this week), not to mention the Kennedy documentaries. The National Dog Show, on right now, after the parade on NBC – it’s a beauty contest without the swimsuit and question segments. Cute dogs.

Have a happy Thanksgiving. Try not to overeat, but live well.

Yes, Thanksgiving is coming. Check out the article on slate.com where they sample the turkeys and determine what’s the best. Look’s like Butterball beats the organic turkeys. Oh, well, big corporations have to be good at something, right?

If turkey is not your thing, consider an evaluation on Slate of “healthy” fast food (the new McDonald’s salad; the Burger King chicken baguette sandwich; and Taco Bell’s al fresco/salsa menu). I had liked the NY Times’ article about the subject, so I thought this complete contrast was a nice perspective. Personally, I’d go with Wendy’s, but I guess it’s not for everyone.

If you like more serious reading than what I’ve referred above, consider reading John Dean’s fascinating articles (Part 1 and Part 2 ) on Findlaw.com, where he’s analyzing the book, The George W. Bush Presidency: An Early Assessment, a collection of essays on the current administration. Yes, it’s that John Dean, the one of the Nixon/Watergate fame, who has been a contributor on Findlaw.com’s legal commentaries. Usually he’s extremely critical about the current administration, but he seemed very open to what sounded like a relatively balanced anthology. Even though the current administration can be very polarizing, it doesn’t hurt to consider something… less polarizing.