Money, money, money

A story in Monday’s Globe and Mail life section considers the notion of financial honesty and looks at why people are reluctant to talk about money matters:

We live in a culture of money. Its power is among the first lessons we learn about the world. Those seductive, colourful toys, displayed for our pleasure and consumption, cannot be ours without money. Education is sold as a way to earn more money in better jobs. We invent verbs like “monetize” to describe how to turn every endeavour, even those we do for amusement, into profit. And yet we don’t talk about it – not easily anyway.

I think, though, the author may have missed something. You see, in my experience – and after doing research for an article for This Magazine – talking about money seems very much a generational thing. From an article I wrote for This Magazine (that’s what the magazine is called) last year:

University of British Columbia business professor Nancy Langton, meanwhile, sees young workers’ willingness to talk about income as part of a trend toward greater openness, something that social networking websites such as Facebook have facilitated.

“I think people in their 40s and older were raised to be somewhat more private and discreet,” she explains. “We see much less emphasis by today’s teens and twentysomethings on protecting privacy.”

All I don’t want for Christmas

The thing about Christmas time is that for every one gift you want, or could use, there are 10,000 potential gifts that you do not want, would never use and would rather not think about. A Britney Spears CD, for instance.

In a world where there are so many presents not to want, it’s hard to put one’s finger on what, exactly, you don’t want for Christmas. This year, though, I know.

I. Do. Not. Want. Shoelaces.

“Huh?”

Yes, shoelaces. In Poland shoelaces are quite the commodity. Outside metro stations, in crowded markets, wherever, shoelace vendors are as common as those who sell mittons and used books. These vendors line the streets outside the metro stations or group together in large sprawling outdoor malls and generally offer stuff at low, low prices. The strangest individual vendor we have seen was a woman, probably in her late 50s, standing outside the Wilanowska metro station holding a single, small, pink knitted sweater up in her two hands. She didn’t seem to be selling anything else except for this one small pink sweater. It was weird. When we returned later that day, she and the sweater were gone.

Yet while that was probably weird even for Polish commuters, the sight of shoelace vendors are a common feature of the morning trip to the office.

I don’t get it. The only laces I have ever bought are for ice skates. The shoelaces I’ve used have always come, conveniently, attached to my shoes. Of course, I’m not your average shopper, which brings us to why I particularly don’t want shoelaces.

A year and a half ago I splurged and bought some fancy hiking boots before heading to the Juan de Fuca trail on Vancouver Island. Eighteen months later I’m still wearing the same pair of shoes. Usually, I buy crappy shoes which wear out in a matter of months and are rat food by the time the shoelaces start to give. Not this time, though. The hikers are fine but the laces on one pair are decaying, the outside peeling off leaving the stringy inside of the multi-layered shoelace (who knew they made such a thing?)

That means they lack the normal levels of friction that keep shoes tied. Thus, every now and then, when we’re walking down the street my shoelace will give out. We’ll stop. I’ll bend down to tie it. We’ll move on 10 yards or so, then we’ll stop again. I can’t stand one shoe being quite tight and the other a little loose. So I have to retie the other shoe. Sometimes this annoys Magda (although it should be noted that with my other pair of shoes, good laces and all, the same process often occurs, the new laces on that pair of new shoes being, apparently, not worn in enough.) But buy a new pair of shoelaces? For Christmas? Never!

And thus, I don’t want shoelaces for Christmas.

Update: Magda says “every now and then” does not properly reflect the frequency at which I retie my shoes. Or at least that’s what I assume she meant when she said “every now and then, my ass.” It would also seem like I have more persuading to do…

Bah Humbug#1

I’m not known as the most festive person around the holiday season. This year, I think I’ll try and diagnose why. Item number one, and it’s a doozy, is the never ending scandal over Christmas terminology. Every year there are a million stories about one business or another foregoing the word “Christmas” in favour of “holiday” or some other mild version.

For example:

Via Instapundit comes the news that Amazon has now banned the term “Christmas” from one of its advertising campaigns. It is now, on Amazon, “12 Days of Holiday,” rather than “12 Days of Christmas.”

Well, this Jew objects. I mean, for Christ’s sake, it’s Christmas. Can’t we call a thing by its name? Hannukah is a minor holiday of a minority religion. New Year’s Day is merely a day on the calendar. It’s a holiday season because it’s Christmas.

I agree. Christmas is only fun to a point and it can be annoying and, for god’s sake, I hate the bloody music. But it is Christmas. I have two problems with this whole issue.

Number one: People take one or two or even three company’s dimwitted initiative as a cue that Christmas, religious values, etc. are going to be destroyed in a blaze of flaming hellfire. That’s not going to happen because most people who can afford to buy presents for their 46 closest relatives and friends, particularly in the United States, are Christmas and businesses are not going to want to piss off their customers. Still, people get outraged and listening to outraged, unreasoning people with Jingle Bells playing in the background is my idea of hell.

Number two: The whole Christmas boycott damages secularism because it forces religious, traditional and, heck, just plain rational folks to think that secularists are crazed on killing Christmas. It basically turns secularists into scrooges when, in fact, individual decisions by individual businesses are merely the result of some stupid executive who thinks the word Christmas doesn’t play to their customer base. But really, he’s just being stupid.

People need to start asking themselves, “Who hates Christmas?”

Nobody.

I joke I hate Christmas when in fact, I just hate this never-ending stupid debate. (Maybe that and the million different versions of the four Christmas carols malls play over and over).

D-I-V-O-R-C-E

For some people, a good work day means getting a raise, finishing a project or getting praise from the boss. Not me. Today, my day was made when Magda uttered the word “divorce.” Actually, it was when Magda told me that, while she was scouring the net for things to do, she happened upon a Warsaw exhibition centre that, in January, will host a divorce fair. It’s kind of like a wedding fair. But with less joy and more lawyers. Like at a wedding expo (which I had to shoot two years running for The Morning Star), there will be caterers and a fashion show. But there are differences. Wedding shows have photographers. Divorce shows have private detectives.

The fact Warsaw is hosting a divorce show is itself a sign of the times, it seems. There have been a handful of similar shows around the globe in the past year and while some seem to have been more succesful than others, at first glance it would seem like expo organizers are looking for a new market to target and divorce attorneys are ready to try new strategies to sink that lucrative client. Also, the divorce rate in Poland has dramatically risen in recent years, although statistics vary.

Needless to say, you’ll be hearing more about this, with any luck on my part.

More of those adverts

Warsaw, like I’ve previously documented in Prague and Zagreb, is flush with ads. Wherever you look billboards are shilling bras, movies, soaps, you name it. It seems I’m not the only one to notice the predilection to advertising. This is a translated article from a Warsaw newspaper, plus photos.

Ad hoc

If you thought the Americans had the world cornered when it comes to advertising, think again. The hundreds of historic buildings in Europe are regularly clouded by scaffolding for touch-ups and repaired. When that happens, ads aren’t far behind. In Zagreb, scaffolding in the main square was dominated by two huge advertisements (see photo below) – which weren’t that out of character for the square, which boasted dozens of other electronic billboards atop the various historic buildings.

In Prague, the Charles Bridge is one of the dominant tourist attractions. At the foot of the bridge rests a huge statue of King Charles IV, the most famous monarch of the Czech lands. Directly behind him (photo below) is a huge ad for Pilsner-Urquell, one of the country’s two dominant brands of beer. The ad directly connects Charles’ supremacy as a ruler and Pilser’s dominance among beers.

Pilser-Urquell, it should be noted, is the original Pilsner and brewed in Plzen. The other big beer in the Czech Republic is Budweiser Budvar, which again is the original Budweiser and brewed in Ceske Budejovice. Or it is kind of the original Budweiser. Apparently the American brand was given its name in 1874 by its German brewmaster who thought it reminded him of his home lagers and wanted it to reflect its heritage with a German sounding name. The Budejovice beer had been brewed there for hundreds of year, but was given its name in 1895. Unsurprisingly there has been a long-running legal battle over the name.