What a great idea for an advertisement! I am glad I don't have a cable any more so I can see the commercials aired on the US network. I am looking forward to seeing this one. Anne

Thanks for the birthday wishes. It has been a wonderful day for me and I'm sure for Sophie too. ivamae

Well, when moms all had to go back to work in the 80's recession days, if they weren't working already, then stores started being open on Sundays because with everyone working, there was not as much time to do shopping errands during the week. I tried to institute the tradition of Sunday dinner with grandpa at least even once a month with SO's son and grandson and got a polite, "No Thanks." There is a certain civility in learning to get along and be considerate with all kinds of folks, and for kids to have to suck it up and entertain themselves, and taking a chill pill on Sundays. I still do, to most extent. And I hate shopping any day of the weeks, so I certainly don't want to do it as holiday entertainment. Although I have shopped over Thanksgiving weekend to some limited extent, and enjoyed it. But it was more along the lines of, "Let's walk around town, window shop and maybe pick up a bite to eat" or something like that, not an event in and of itself. Most downtown areas are vacant and abandoned, the excitement of "going downtown" or even going to the mall has been replaced by a tortuous drive from strip mall to strip mall in most places. My landlady made Christmas cookies with her grandkids on "Black Friday" and there's no doubt that everyone had way more fun. If most of your economy is based on consumption of goods, then we shouldn't be surprised that it is hallowed and celebrated by our culture. But honestly, most of the folks I know don't get that into shopping, I think it is way overblown by the media to encourage us to do more of it. Who wants to report that the Jones just went to the mall to see Santa and the train display, stopped off to get takeout pizza for dinner on the way home, and rented a movie and stayed in and ate popcorn. Or write articles about it or blah, blah blah about it. Not terribly different from when I was a kid, except that then we went "downtown" and I really miss that. IT was the place back then to see and be seen by all your friends and neighbors. Now I am just a nameless, faceless sheep milling around with all the others at the strip mall off the highway. My downtown has few stores even open, and few restaurants can stay open as well. I live in the rust belt, so to paraphrase Bruce Spingsteen "Those good ol' days are gone, and they aint never comin' back, to my hometown.."

I don't plant according to the moon but did look into it last year when we topped off our very VERY old and incredibly big mango tree. It made sense to me that if moon phases affects the tide, it may also affect where in the plant moisture and perhaps nutrients are. So not really knowing much about it but needing to deal with a huge (super productive tree) that was overtaking our and our neighbors property we decided to top it off during the waning moon hoping that nutrients will be in the lower part of the tree and therefore more likely to bounce back. We had one arborist and one tree cutting company advise against cutting back as much as we wanted to, in fact both thought that tree will not come back at all from it. We did it in November last year and although we will not have any fruit this year the tree is already incredibly lush with lots of new growth.