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May 13, 2013
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Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
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The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
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Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
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Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
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US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer
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Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama's visit to Israel had no impact on public opinion or government policy
Morgan Housel: Gold collapse: The start of something big?
Pete Spotts: Livable super-Earths? Two candidates among Kepler's latest finds
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Morgan Housel: BAD NEWS: EVERYONE IS RIGHT!
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Marcy Darnovsky and Karuna Jaggar: High Court to decide if you should own your DNA
Howard LaFranchi: US bracing for more Russian blowback after taking action against 18 more human rights violators
April 12, 2013
Mark Clayton: New cybersecurity bill: Privacy threat or crucial band-aid?
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jackie Robinson's Friend, Hank Greenberg; CNN's Jake Tapper; Texas County in the News is named for 19thC. Jewish soldier and Congressman
The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: FRUITY QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS: A flavorful, colorful and edible vessel of delicately fluffy, mildly nutty filling combined with chewy apricots, tangy cherries, and crunchy pistachios
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Peter Grier: North Korean missiles: Could US shoot them down?
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April 8, 2013
Jonathan Tobin: What Part of No Preconditions Do American Jews Not Get?
Fred Weir: Is Putin finally trading his own party for a new power base?
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Jewish World Review
More like wack Friday
By
Jim Mullen
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
For some reason, Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. What have people got to buy that is so important that it can't wait until Saturday? Or next Tuesday? Or two weeks from now? Or until, say, late afternoon of Christmas Eve, the way I do? I save hours of shopping because all the good stuff is gone and there aren't so many choices to make. What's left is stuff nobody really wants or the stuff that's really expensive. Do you really think the stores are going to run out of iPods or Xboxes? They aren't. But no one on my list is going to get one.
Oh, they say, there are good deals to be had on Black Friday. Hmmm. Maybe. But you know when there are really good deals on things? A few weeks after Christmas. That's when a gift certificate, or better yet, cash would come in handy. A lot of people think giving cash is tacky. None of those people are teenagers. And let's say two or three people give you cash, then you can combine it to buy whatever you like, instead of that crappy hand-knit sweater Aunt Eileen gave you. How can you return that? I'll have to put it on eBay to get any money out of it. I mean "you'll" have to put it on eBay, of course.
People say it's the thought that counts. Here's a thought -- give me cash.
There's no line to buy cash on Black Friday. Just go to any ATM, they usually have the newest bills. Or don't even leave the house, just write a check. Besides, cash money is one of the few things we still manufacture in this country. So giving money isn't just smart, it's patriotic.
Some stores are going to open at 5 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. If you're going shopping that fearfully early, what time do you get up? Zero dark hundred? Oreo o'clock? 4 a.m.? At 4 a.m. on Black Friday I am going to be under the covers dreaming of sugar plum fairies. Well, maybe not, since I haven't the foggiest idea of what a sugar plum fairy is. Are they the ones that leave cash under your pillow, or are they more like Tinker Bell?
As much as I would love to spend my day off jockeying for a parking space in a crowded lot, I'm going to skip all the Black Friday festivities -- the fistfights, the screaming babies, the screaming adults, catching swine flu, the fender benders, the crowded food courts, the long lines at the wrapping desk and the cash register. One woman told me she does it so she's sure the stores won't run out of the gifts she "needs" to get.
I wonder who is out shopping for the real gift she needs -- a second job to pay for all the gifts she bought on Black Friday.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
Jim Mullen is the author of "It Takes a Village Idiot: Complicating the Simple Life" and "Baby's First Tattoo."
Previously:
The good, the ad and the ugly
The desert of the real
Let books be large and in charge
I was insulting people way before the Internet
GPS drill sergeant: Left, right, left!
Butterfly in the sky, you make winds go twice as high
Music to my ears it's not
You don't light up my life
Fair or not: Country living is far from Little House
A parable for the ages
Top 100 Cable news stories of the century
Green dumb
A developing story
Thinking outside the lunch box
What's good for the goose is good for the scanner
Newspapers will survive, but network TV?
A really big show of generation gaps
When pigs flu
The reports of our decline have been greatly exaggerated
Mergers and admonitions
Invest in gold: little, yellow, different
Stuck in Folsom Penthouse
Collecting karma
Setting loose the creative juice
It's all in the numbers
You're damaging your brain with practical skills
The real rat pack
The unspeakable luxury of the Park-O-Matic
Gross-ery shopping
© 2009, NEA
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