Well, it's the official start to the holiday season today as millions of people are on their way to see family and engage in a month-long tradition of gluttonous behavior. I am going to break that tradition this year, however, by reinvigorating my passion for losing weight beginning on Friday. Those of you who know me know that I lost an enormous amount of weight earlier this year, only to see some of it return. Well, I want to stop the madness by returning to common sense eating practices. Hopefully, my surgeon will allow me to do some exercise again too, like riding on a stationary bicycle to get my heart rate up. I'll find out on December 3rd. But enough of that...
Does it seem like the holidays started a month ago? The day after Halloween, Christmas was in full bloom at every department store here in Maryland. I'm sure it was the same where you are too. I'm not sure if this is a sign of the times, or if it's always been this way. I don't remember it being so early in the past. It almost seems that merchants started early in order to make their Christmas numbers look so good. I guess if you have to post holiday numbers, the best way to make them look better is to increase the length of the holiday season. Don't you think the shareholders will figure that out?
Merchants are dropping prices faster than Madonna drops a husband, and that's going to cut into their profits. But I see they've countered that by doing the one thing that never fails to increase profits -- cut labor costs. Every store I go into seems way under-staffed. No wonder jobless claims are up.
OK, so this isn't an economic blog, but those are my thoughts on this day before Thanksgiving. I plan to take it easy this weekend and will use this time to read The Federalist Papers. I'm very serious about my plans to write a collection of essays about our government, along with my opinion as to how to best solve our problems. A lot of people believe you have to be an attorney or politician to engage in this kind of thought, but I disagree. That is not the principle this country was founded upon, and one need not have argued in court to be able to dissect governmental philosophy. Our forefathers were not all lawyers, and even if they were, they could have become a lawyer at 19 years of age with six months of training. Elitism proposes this mentality, and it does so in order to prevent anyone from having a say in government. In that way, I am attacking the status quo.
Fortunately, I have found some gentlemen on the west coast who are of like mind. We are engaging in a very stimulating conversation about this very issue, and it has continued to peak my interest in this project. Hamilton, too, was a prolific writer, and his words shaped the Constitution. I look forward to reading his essays and discovering how we have moved from the core principles this country was founded upon. I believe it will be a significant departure.
Anyway, enough of that. Have a happy Thanksgiving, a joyous Black Friday, and a safe trip home. I'll return on Monday with more literary musings!
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