The Forgotten Holiday

In October, it's all about Halloween. Costumes, decorations and candy fill the stores. Then, as soon as Halloween is over, BANG! its Christmas! The trees are up, the music is playing, the decorations are out and the toys are on sale.

Now just wait a minute here!! What ever happened to Thanksgiving? It is now totally skipped over in the rush to the retail commercialized frenzy that originated with the birth of Jesus.

Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas. I love the music, the decorations, the gathering of families and the giving of presents. But everything in its own time, and let us not overlook Thanksgiving, which is an important holiday in and of itself.

Of course, Thanksgiving, like many other holidays, is all about food. But beyond that, it is about giving thanks. After all, that is the name of the holiday. In this day and age it is easy to skip over the act of giving thanks, or thinking of the things that we have to be thankful for. Most of us are more prone to complaining about what we don't have than being thankful for what we do. I blame the media for this, especially TV and the advertising that goes with it. Advertising makes us dissatisfied with what we have and who we are and leaves us yearning for the products that will make our lives so much better, whether we really need them or not. It doesn't take much TV-watching (aside from the news) to make you realize that your life sucks; that everybody else has more money, a nicer house, a nicer car, is better looking, and is getting way more sex than you are. On the other hand, watching the news can really bring you back to earth. My wife hates watching the news because it depresses her. I, on the other hand, see the problems of so many other people and I realize how good I have it. I might not have tons of money, a big house, a nice new car, the latest cell phone, etc. But I'm healthy, I have a decent job, a loving wife, two teenage kids that have done great in school and aren't into drugs or in jail....and I can come up with lots of other things. My life might be pretty mundane overall but there is plenty to be thankful for. And while each one of us is in a different situation, we all have something to be thankful for.


So Sayeth The Shack

A New Way To Fund Our Roads

Pennsylvania's roads and bridges are in bad shape, as are those in other states. They are in need of a great deal of repair work. A variety of ideas have been presented to pay for the needed work: leasing the turnpike, putting tolls on I-80, raising gas taxes and registration fees. Most of these will have a detrimental impact on the economy at a time when the economy is aready floundering. So it's time to think a new direction: corporate funding of our roads. We could have the "PNC Pennsylvania Turnpike", the "Capital One Keystone Shortway" and so forth. Companies would pay some amount of money in return for being able to advertise along the roadways. Rest areas and individual interchanges could also have their own sponsors. Maybe each bridge (at least the big ones) could have their own sponsors. Even construction areas could be sponsored" "road improvement next 10 miles, brought to you by (insert company name)." In a world where advertising is everywhere, why not our roads as well?

Some of the more comical ones might be "The Enzyte Expressway" and "The Viagra Viaduct Bridge"!!

So Sayeth The Shack

Nutrisystem Before & After

Every week in the Parade section of my Sunday paper there is an add from Nutrisystem. It features "before and after" pictures of a bunch of people who have supposedly lost tens or even hundreds of pounds. Come on now...who do these people think they are kidding? Most of those pictures look like they cannot possibly be the same person. Most of the time the hair is a different color or a different length; sometimes the skin is even a different shade. There is no way they can be the same person!

So Sayeth The Shack

The Forgotten Holiday

I love Christmas music and decorations, even if I am not a regular churchgoer. If they want to decorate and put the music on as soon as the Halloween candy has been handed out, that's fine with me.

The trouble is, there is something that is getting lost in the shuffle here, namely, Thanksgiving. With all the emphasis on Christmas already in the first and second week of November, Thanksgiving has been more or less plowed under. Guess I should sell my stock in Butterball.


So Sayeth The Shack

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