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Holly Jolly Folly

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I got an enthusiastic e-mail this morning from dealmaker and visionary Spin Williams

I’m writing from the meeting that never ends to tell you we are all totally pumped about the beginning of the Christmas shopping season! Yes, of course it is already underway!

Things are changing. Long, long ago the heavy-duty holiday marketing didn’t start until after Turkey Day. But every year the start of the season moves up, and now we are going to consider Election Day Turkey Day and will start in earnest on November 3rd. It’s virtually impossible to get any TV ad time during the week before Election Day anyway! This day marks our first real chance in months to cut loose!

I predict that eventually we will have a Christmas that is just like our idea meeting here at Spin Williams Strategies – it goes on and on and while it may occasionally ebb and sometimes drag, it never ends!

“Year round Christmas”, you ask? Yes! And we will get there someday. It’s not simply a matter of pushing the beginning of the season earlier and earlier. We’re also trying to extend it. Here’s a great quote from the New York Times:

“Our challenge is to keep Christmas going,” said Shay Drohan, senior vice president for sparkling brands at Coca-Cola, so “it goes the whole way through the first week in January” and takes in New Year’s Eve, school holidays and Twelfth Night.

I don’t know what I love more about that – the idea of prolonging Christmas into January, or the fact that somebody actually holds the job title “Senior Vice President for Sparkling Brands”. Having a business card that says that would be … well, it would be like having Christmas every day!

Naturally Spin would find this trend exciting. Personally, I’m interested in avoiding all advertising. I don’t believe I saw a single political ad in its entirety at all this year. Shouldn’t I get an award for that? I suspect that once Christmas goes full time, the campaign season is sure to follow.

If something never begins or ends, does it exist?

119 thoughts on “Holly Jolly Folly”

  1. Rise and Shine Babooners:

    I did not know that ole Spin is a philosopher. I love this blog because it reveals characters in multifaceted layers — and here is a new layer of Spin. Who knew?
    I believe that if something never begins or ends it does exist, however, it changes the relationship with the humans who experience it. For example the infinite cycle of political races might engender cynicism and rebellion.

    Meanwhile, I will be away for the next five days. I doubt that I will be on the site much due to lack of internet access. I should be back next Wednesday. Happy Trails!

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  2. happy cold, windy day All
    so that’s why there were all those shopping ads everywhere already. thanks, Spin, for explaining that!
    i’ll be crabby for a moment here – i’m very tired of hearing that the economy is bad because consumers aren’t consuming enough.
    ok
    out to a much easier to figure out social structure – it’s breeding season. T advertises all day, every day (in ways you probably don’t want to hear about) and the Girls listen and respond. then it’s over and everyone goes back to chewing cud.

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    1. Gosh, I never thought about the parallels between holiday shopping and breeding season for goats. They are both an advertising / response / relax / repeat sequence, no?

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      1. Dale,
        Dangerous things happen to folks who reveal the truth in our society. The link between advertising and goat courtship needs to remain unexplored!

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      3. I’m sure there is research money out there waiting for you to explore this further Dale. Perhaps we could form a research trip to Blackhoof to do the preliminary work necessary to write up the grant proposals.

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  3. Um, I thought Christmas shopping and the campaign season already were non-stop. Spin, you may be closer to your dream than you realize.

    Like you, Dale, I managed not to hear an ad that was not part of a news clip this go around-I think not having to hear that stuff is probably reward enough.

    Joanne, you are probably not going to see this until tonight, but I join the rest of the trail in wishing you well!

    To answer the question, if something has no beginning or ending, you can’t very well call it “seasonal”, so then “The Holiday Shopping Season” becomes “Holiday Shopping”. I guess it comes down to grammar-is holiday shopping a noun or a verb? If something is a verb, does it exist or do you just (horrors) use the verb as a noun. There are theologians who state that God is a verb for this reason(existing as action, not a “thing”).

    Feel free to pick that all apart, oh Sages of the Trail. not even sure what exactly I mean this morning.

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    1. oh dear, I probably should not have tried to italicize-Dale, can you please fix that before it becomes an embarassment?

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    2. I shudder to think of non-stop campaigning and holiday ads. But here’s the thing for me. It’s not so much that I don’t like campaign ads, it’s that I don’t like what campaign ads have become these days. When I was about 10, I was complaining bitterly about a girl in my grade who was, with hindsight mind you, only sucking up all the limelight in class that I clearly thought was mine. My grandmother very calmly said to me that it sounded like there wasn’t anything good to be said about my behavior if all I could do was point out her bad behavior (she said it much more gracefully than this, I’m sure). I think about her words ALOT during campaign seasons. It doesn’t say much for all our candidates these days that they can’t think of any good things to say about themselves, only bad things to say about their opponents. At least most toy/holiday shopping ads don’t trash the competition!

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      1. There are several speech markers that identify people we ought to admire, just as there are markers that pinpoint people who deserve our contempt. When someone says “I can’t understand people who . . . ” he is confessing to his intellectual limitations, for it is true he cannot understand such people, and that reflects badly on him. When someone in a partisan conflict speaks well of a person on the other side, we should instinctively respect him for having the humanity and sophistication to see an opponent as a fellow human being, albeit one with ideas we don’t share.

        I’ve read that all through the Civil War, Robert E Lee did not refer to the Union armies as “the enemy.” He apparently said “those people over there” when referring to the armies arrayed to kill his soldiers and take control of his beloved state of Virginia.

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      2. Usually when I say I can’t understand something or some one, I really mean I do understand and I think there is a problem with the thinking that I say I don’t understand. I think we should show respect for every one, even those that offend us. I guess I could just say I don’t agree instead of I don’t understand.

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      3. Jim, I wasn’t very clear. I have no problems with someone who admits they can’t understand other groups, for that seems like harmless honesty. The crabby comment that deserves less respect is “I don’t understand how anybody can think that . . . .” That bespeaks so much certitude in one’s own opinions that you can’t even imagine there are people who think otherwise.

        To say “I don’t understand people who . . . ” seems honest.

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      1. When you think about it, “holiday shopping” sounds like you’re out looking at all the different holidays. “Hmmm, I think I take a small Easter and then I’ll take that large 4th of July…. if I have room in my basket.”

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  4. i was just asking what the heck the deal was with the new xbox tv accessory ad running the moment the political tv ads clear and my wife informed me after needing to stop in at wal mart yesterday for something, that the switch over from halloween only took a second. the aisles are full of christmas cheer and ads are already in the mailbox and daily papers. it will be an interesting christmas season with no money to buy presents in the average american family. should be a season of closeout sales and ads for products that were committed for before the jobless rate was condsidered. the closeouts will be plentiful and the closeout sales could well go into the fourth of july gala. if a tree falls and no one hears it does it make a sound? if an ad runs so long and the sound is no longer heard by anyone does it really count. why don’t we see if we can just run an ad channel on some turner network 24/7 variation on a theme. why be bothered with those awful tv shows. just run those wonderful ads. vp of sparkling ads will be proud.

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  5. Spin is so silly. If something doesn’t begin and doesn’t stop, is it real? I might ask in reply: is anything as real as work that never actually begins and never ends. That’s the most real thing of all, and I think in particular of the work of a mother or the work of a goat rancher. In particular, I honor the work of a single mother working in today’s economy to sustain life for herself and her children. Is there ever a night when her head hits the pillow and she sleeps in the sweet comfort of knowing that she has done enough that day?

    By contrast, a Christmas selling season that never begins and ends is as unreal as the great “mandate” the Republican Party thinks it just won. Nothin’ real there, nothin’ at all. It’s all just spin, baby, spin. Pass the eggnog and wake me when it is over.

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    2. well, thanks, steve! this single mom (who got her foster son back in August–yay) does occasionally feel she’s done enough when head hits pillow 🙂

      congrats to joanne!

      now let’s all focus on finding a job for me, eh? am applying like mad…

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  6. I don’t have cable or a digital box for the old analog TV, so I was blissfully free of political ads all campaign season. However, my roommate and I did go down to Madison last weekend and turn on the cable in the hotel room. I swear it was 10 minutes of program, half a dozen (or more) commercials, 10 minutes of program…We looked at each other and said, “We were thinking of paying $40 a month for THAT?” No one in my circle is working retail this holiday season, so we are all looking forward to enjoying the holidays for once, free of sales targets, chintzy decorations, promotional items (imagine spending 40 hours a week for 2 solid months breathing Pumpkin Spice flavored coffee, bleah!) and relentless christmas carol muzak. Joy!

    There’s a school of thought that the universe didn’t have a true beginning, that it’s experienced a series of expansions and contractions for all of time, so we don’t have a provable example of something that has no end or beginning (leaving certain theological concepts aside, since that’s not my trad). Intuitively I’d say no to Dale’s question, but I’ve had only one cup of coffee so I can barely spell “infinity” much less muster a decent argument. Have fun, Babooners!

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    1. Crow Girl, because I taught writing at the U of MN for six years, I have a little badge (which never expires) that authorizes me to comment on good writing when I find it. I hope it doesn’t sound patronizing if I notice out loud that you write very well.

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      1. you noticed that too. maybe you should analize the one cup brain two cup brain etc. one cup may be right for you crowgirl. so what are you doing if not being a barista?

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    2. We have a TV just like yours, CG; I’ve begun to call it a cathode ray tube, but is that still what they are?

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  7. Good morning and seasons greetings,

    In the catalog sales world, the first catalogs featuring holiday items were sent out weeks ago. I don’t know if the catalog sales businesses will find a way to have year around hoilday sales, but I guess it could happen. That would be the end of holiday Christmas catgalog sales season. You can’t have a season for something if it never ends, right? I guess seasonal Christmas shoping could come to an end without bringing Christmas season completly to an end if gifts continue to be given out at or near Christmas. There are some people who have been accused of thinking every day is Christmas and I guess these people, if they do think every day is Christmas, have eliminate Christmas as a seasonal event. In Spin’s world it seems that anything is possible and there is no end to anything. I’m sure Spin has no thoughts about something dropping out of existence if it has no end or begining.

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    1. if it has no begining and no end how would it drop out of existance? well done. jim i hadn’t thought that through all the way. or can you produce a phenomena that from this point on has no begining and no end. kind of like leave it to beaver, andy griffith and lucy reruns.

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      1. I know that something can’t be seasonal if it can happen at any time of the year. I guess things that are in a loop with no end and begining have an existance. Does a loop have a begining because some how the loop was created at some particular time. Are there any loops running that have no time of creation?

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    2. Jim, thought of you when we were at Seed Savers this weekend.

      You mentioned catalog sales which now has me thinking of the post-Christmas bounty of garden porn that comes through the mail slot in the form of garden catalogs.

      Garden season is never-ending too. Haven’t even got the garlic in for the winter and am already thinking about how I will “do better” next spring!

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      1. madislandgirl, you can still plant that garlic. I am always behind on my gardening and I am also hoping to do better next year. Yes, seed catalog season is coming before long.

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      2. Thanks for the affirmation on that, Jim. It’s on my list to get that garlic in this weekend-it was such a kick to pull it up a couple of months ago.

        I also get a real charge out of digging up potatoes I have planted, go figure.

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  8. I’m not that excited about Christmas shopping, but I love Christmas music of all genres, and I wanted to start playing some of our Christmas discs on Monday, but my husband politely requested I wait at least until the middle of the month. It’s so hard to wait though, and the season for that music is so short. I feel silly playing it in January or February.

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    1. now is a great time to get the hoilday discs from the library. its early enough they are there. load them into your itunes and hit the shuffle button. if i could figure out how to separate them out so you just shuffle christmas and not the jimi hendrix and frank zappa at the same time i would be a happy itunes guy.

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    2. I just assigned the “sort out all the cds” task to the teenager today, as she is off school. This means that the holidays cds (of which there are MANY) will be in one pile and I will have the same problem with temptation! I try hard every year to not play any until the morning after Thanksgiving. Some years I make it, some I don’t!

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    3. I simply cannot STAND Christmas music… don’t know why. Will go out of my way to avoid it. Bah. Love Christmas; love the holidays and family getting together and all that… just the music sends me right off the edge. Especially when I get an ear worm of ‘Deck the Halls’…
      I’ll have a week of it with Christmas concerts here; plus the guy who designs the concert scenery LOVES the music and will play it daily for another week or two. Turning my stomach even talking about it this much… gotta go find some Deep Purple or something anti-holiday music!

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      1. even Christmas at Ground Zero?

        Still, that much over-exposure would probably bring me to the verge of Scroogitude as well.

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      5. barb you are beyond compare on the glossary alert. i notice it has not made dales to do list.
        i hereby anoint you keeper of the list.
        we can add it on the corner with the poems recipes and book club. good stuff.
        dale and anna can answer any questions about how to post it (i ‘ll bet)

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      6. It would be pretty easy to add it to the book club blog…but someone else is going to have to do the actual work of adding words to the dictionary. I’m happy to get our glossary maven set up and running.

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  9. holiday shopping, eh? i just got done with birthday shopping; the kid turned 10 last weekend. he was very happy with a low-cost mp3 player, his requested “5 books,” some legos (star wars variety), a pair of warm flip mittens, and some silly bands. shopping is sort of fun when it’s for him….

    but i am not at all ready to begin again!

    thinking this year it will be a solstice celebration and skip the xmas thing…

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      1. tim is this an original quote? This may be my quote of the week. (I thought I had one last night, but someone gave me a Caesar — Bloody Mary made with Clamato — and I promptly forgot it.)

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    2. Just be careful what you wish for Kay> We do Solstice at our house and presents are still involved! We just open them up on Solstice night, while burning our annual yule log, instead of Christmas morning. Of course, we also still believe in Santa at our house (the motto around here is “if you believe in Santa, he believes in you”) so we still do stockings on Christmas morning. And since we also burn the candles for Hannukah, we have the best of all possible worlds. Haven’t added fasting for Ramadan or anything special for Divali yet. Give us time though!

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      3. that is a good thought.

        we also do the feasts of St. Nicholas and Santa Lucia (and Solstice and Epiphany-winter is too grim without all the candles and feasting)-not so big on gifts, we just like celebrating

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      6. It’s from Seinfeld…
        “Festivus for the rest of us” and it features the ‘Festivus Pole’ and ‘The Airing of Grievances’ and ‘The Feats of Strength’…

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  10. two more things about goat breeding and then quiet:
    last week we had two does here that were T babies, so could not go to him; but he was the advertising for another buck. he worked and worked and they got the message and i took them to Kettle River to the lucky one who benefited from all of T’s posturing. so he was, unknowingly, giving to the competition. what a Gentleman.
    today he will reap what he sows, though. Kona is ready.

    Dale, i remember the day (Jan. 15, 2009) that Desiree (one of the visiting does last week) was conceived (Dream x T – his first love 🙂 and you played Barry White “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” for the happy couple. well, when we had Desi in the back of the RAV4 Goatmobile, just leaving our farm to take her to Kettle River to be bred, we were listening to WMOZ (“the Moose” – oldies from Moose Lake) and guess what played??!! Barry White, the same. spoooooky. but no Dale announcing the happy union. thanks for those memories.

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      1. and Lassi today too – to Dodger’s “Mischief” in Kettle River. (this may be a serious mistake, breeding an already hyperactive, weird little doe to a buck from the notorious Dodger. but then, we could get a doe as beautiful and fun-loving as Dodger and that would be great. or maybe a strong, handsome buck)

        i am sure Steve will update the blog soon with pictures.

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  11. anna—i’m not getting it re your email address (perhaps am being somewhat dim-witted here)…pls add me to bookclub mailing list at ksimonsenhong at gmail….okey-dokey?

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  12. Morning–

    Well, if it really is a ‘circle of life’ then there shouldn’t be a beginning or ending, anyway, right? Just the ebb and flow… and if I believe then I exist.
    Sort of like it’s harvest time but the TV commercials are for seed corn.

    A loose end I feel I should share with the group regarding our giant protective Mother Chicken from a few weeks back.
    I’m sorry to say we’ve lost two of the three babies.
    The Momma Hen started off OK, but then one night she was in one nest box and the babies were all together in another… all huddled up together. Few days later there was only two babies. And Momma seemed to deal with them during the day, but at night… they’re on their own. And now there’s only one. It’s growing up; pigeon size now but still… alone in the nest box. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for it.

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  13. completely off topic but on my mind–
    my new macbook is so cool! i can scroll through comments very quickly with a flick of two fingers on the pad. really, it doesn’t take much to cheer me up!

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      1. ha, i wish. my other computer (now the lad’s) was so old that i was starting not to be able to open documents from people and couldn’t update any software….sigh. hooray for VISA–it’s the first time i’ve had a big visa bill for a long time….but it’s worth it. just got home wireless, too, on a pretty good deal from comcast ($25 a month!), which is why i can rejoin the blog–now that i’m sort of over the loss of hearing dale’s voice and having the music/radio interaction as part of the experience.

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  14. Yo Dale! A comment of Sherrilee’s got me thinking about a simple idea for daily blog topic. How about we set a day aside to let baboons recommend favorite Christmas CDs? I have about a dozen that I think are superb. My all-time favorite is one I can just about guarantee is not in any other baboon’s collection. The only downer in this is that we’d miss a day of your wonderful wit.

    For that matter, there are some excellent Thanksgiving songs (not whole albums) too, starting with Bob Franke’s classic.

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    2. we could just do it. i have a christmas collection of hundreds of albums (love that vinyl) and cds. we could throw it on blevens as was done with word girl. invite dale to ad his favorites on our blog if he happens to be aware of any god music. ( i think that was mostly mike)

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  15. Yesterday, all technology failed me: cable TV; land line phone; and internet. This presented me with the prospect of how to fill a whole day & night with something else. I think it was a wake-up call to teach me that I’ve grown entirely too dependent on living a virtual life or something like it. Cut off from the world, I found myself acting like a pioneer, stuffing hydrangea blossoms in all the window boxes, blowing leaves out of the gutters, and ultimately clearing off half of my yard. I even started a book! Today’s sunshine brings with it a full return to my favorite preoccupations (including this new board!) and I couldn’t be more content.

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    2. Welcome back, Crystalbay! We missed you yesterday. You’ll need to catch up on posts from yesterday and the day before.

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  16. I remember sitting in church at age 12-13 listening to the pastor drone on about “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and suddenly I thought, but what happened before the beginning?? Still don’t know, of course, but I regard it as my first foray into real thinking. Um… what was the question, Dale?

    To counter Spin and his ilk, here’s a book I used to sell in my little shop: Unplug the Christmas Machine by Jo Robinson and Jean Staeheli. There’s a chapter called “Four things children want for Christmas (there may be a 5th one in the revised edition):
    1. Relaxed and loving time with the family
    2. Realistic expectations about gifts
    3. An evenly paced holiday season
    4. Strong family traditions

    Every year I try to downsize the whole thing one more notch…. hmmm, what should go this year?

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    1. It may not seem like downsizing to some, but the teenager and I make all our own gifts, with just the occasional Barnes & Noble giftcard thrown in. It really cuts down on my stress to know that I never have to wade out into the shopping circus that has become December!

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      1. I used to make it my challenge to shop for all the gifts I was obliged to give without setting foot in a shopping mall. Now, with the internet, that is too easy to be a challenge.

        My former wife practices Christmas shopping all year long in the best way possible. She always thinks of the people she cares about and gives to, so that if she sees a great gift for her son-in-law in July, she buys it. That, I would argue, is not the same as hype and advertising pushing consumerism before Thanksgiving.

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      2. Indeed not. My mom shops all year around and especially when they are travelling-she has given up on trying to fit it all into stockings, so now you get to unpack your cloth shopping bag.

        Practical stuff and little exotic treats and who knows what else. Also a great way for her to tell us about the trip.

        We love it!

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  17. We like to celebrate St. Nicholas Day. He brings gifts and chocolate coins when you place your shoes outside your bedroom door. My adolescent and young adult child really love it, and it takes the pressure and focus off gifts on Christmas Eve, so that there is more calm on the 24th and 25th. I also really recommend observing Boxing Day (St. Thomas Day) on the 26th. It is just so civilized to stay home that day and regroup. My daughter and I love David Sedaris’ essay 6 to 8 Black Men about St. Nicholas Day.

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  18. I currently work for one of the local retail giants at the corporate offices. “Holiday” planning has been happening here for months…so in a way Spin’s desire to have Christmas never stop is already in action, at least at select corporate offices. We finish one Holiday shopping season, analyze it, and then start planning for the next year. Today’s task for me in the march towards 12/25: create an announcement for the stores outlining how they can use online tools at their disposal to get people into the stores to buy more stuff. (Some days I can’t think too much about what it is that I do to make a living…)

    As to the philosophical question regarding whether things that do not end continue to exist, I believe they do. While individual items, people, plants, things, cultures may come and go, ideas and connections and and the atoms of the universe continue on. There may be change, but some things do seem to exist in perpetuity (your great aunt’s fruit cake, for example, or the need for music and art in our lives).

    Happy Thursday all.

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  19. I’m so impressed with all of you! Just two days out from a political bloodbath, and no one’s talking about it. I love it. Not having any access to the national news yesterday (after 9AM), I’m now feeling like the technical breakdown saved me from a whole lotta aggravation. I did read a very interesting AP article, however: 55,000,000 Americans
    have applied for Canadian citizenship just since Tuesday night. Now then, either the reporter added a couple zeros or we’re witnessing a mass exodus to a land of real health care coverage?

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      1. My son was born in Canada and we did all the “US Citizen from Birth” stuff you do for a US birth abroad. The US doesn’t recognize dual citizenship, but Canada seems to, so all he needs to do to activate his Canadian citizenship is send in his birth certificate and 75$. He retains US citizenship as long as he doesn’t vote in Canada or join the Canadian armed services.

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      2. Renee – I was referring to Crystalbay’s quote about applying for citizenship 🙂 And I heartily approve of options. I don’t know anything about the dual-citizenship route.

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    3. hey crystal bay i will find out about sd33 and get back to you. the downer of an unparty at district headquarters was not the palce to get then info tuesday. i should have it tomorrow.

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  20. You are all such wise people. I don’t even know if I should try to tackle this one. If something never begins, how can it ever end? I’m troubled by the terms “begin” and “end” because they imply time. I’m also thinking about symbology: ouroboros and the infinity symbol. Ouroborus is the snake eating its own tail. The infinity symbol is well-known. I tried to insert a couple of images but it didn’t work.

    I wanted to wish Joanne lots of luck and remember to come back and let us all know how it’s going!

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  21. God, am I embarrassed! This morning’s topic of Christmas triggered me to email Dale a photo of how I made last year’s shopping tolerable. I donned a skimpy little Mrs. Santa Clause outfit from a Halloween party, posed for a picture on Santa’s lap, and shopped merrily for hours. Unfortunately, I sent this to the wrong Dale Connelly! Could someone please provide Dale’s real email address to me?

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  24. Hey Tim: I’m looking for help myself! Just don’t have the stamina to pull together 70 yard bags full of leaves this year. It could be an old-fashioned barn-raising kind of deal. A dozen folks could do in less than a day what takes me two weeks of intensive labor. Or I could maybe pay $10/hr to anyone unemployed?

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  25. warning: this message contains explicit material (not too explicit, so don’t be disappointed) well, this may be a first for me in goat behaviors. Lassi prefers Alba to the buck we took her to in Kettle River. she has chased Alba since this morning. Alba is now standing on a bench. Lassi butted and bit the buck. she wasn’t happy with our choice at all. then we took her to T’s fenceline and she was not interested in him either. wanted to follow and nose Alba. so there. genetics. and she wasn’t recruited, she was born. i explained to her that we needed her to get pg so we can milk her, since that is her lot in life. i think she’s ok with that. hope she settles so we don’t have to take her back. she bites hard. 🙂

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      1. hmmm. actually, her mother rejected her at birth – butted and banged on her. she was bottle fed from the beginning. her mother never was kind to her; she hung out with Kona, her sister, and mostly stayed out of the way of her mom. (this is what her owner told me before i bought the two)
        maybe she thinks Alba is the mother she never had….

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  26. Greetings! I don’t feel like philosophizing about the answer to Dale’s question now that I’m back at the grind. But it was a good day — all went well. My co-workers seem like a nice, convivial bunch and it feels like I’m back in the saddle in a nice office environment. My own office, computer, office supplies, etc. Sure beats pounding the cement floor in a grocery store — I was so bored there. We’ll see how it goes — it’s always easy at first until you know what you’re doing — then the real work begins. Bring it!

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