As many of you know, Im not much of a philosopher. (In fact, as Carol delights in pointing out I probably cant even spell the word without Spell-check!) I generally accept life as it comes and deal with it according “to Charles.” Nothing too deep, nothing a new camera wont solve, lets just get the job done sort of a Monty Python outlook without the coconuts.
So for this months Publishers Note, Im faced with a conundrum (another gift from Spell-check). Do I bore you with my business worries or bore you with my latest exploits? Well, lucky for you Id much rather tell you about my latest run-in with the law specifically Carols Law of Gift Cards!
Carol (a.k.a Scrooge) believes that when you get a gift card, you only purchase something for the value of the card without additional cash upgrades. Have you ever tried to go to Circuit City (May they rest in peace!) or Best Buy with a $25 gift card? Short of buying a pack of batteries (of which I already have a years supply), its almost impossible. So then I decided to TRY to engineer a trade with her. I would swap her a $25 Macys gift card Id gotten for Fathers Day for $25 in cash, which I could then add to my $25 Circuit City card, leaving me with the $50 I needed for my new camera gadget. Some might call this a no-brainer. Well welcome to my world Carols response was that we would then be OUT $25 in cash for a frivolous purchase, thus defeating the purpose of using a gift card
(This is where I usually think about riding off into the sunset on one of those fake Spamalot horses!) So then I tried the old, “Theyre going to go out of business
,” line. To which Carol replied, “If you keep spending $25 here or there, we will be joining them!”
But back to Monty Python
the holidays are approaching and while they might not be the perfect season we would all like (free of rampant layoffs and dire predictions)
if youre reading this youre still kicking and breathing! So my holiday gift to all of you is this suggestion: rent a copy of a Monty Python movie, pop some popcorn and for Carols sake, dont go adding cash to those gift card purchases!
Happy Holidays to one and all!
Charles Felix, Publisher
