The Yearly Complaint

It's Valentine's Day and the jewelry commercials are in full swing.

You know it's one thing if MS (male sweetheart) asks FS (female sweetheart) what she would like for Valentine's Day and she says "Oh, I'd love that little diamond pendant we saw at the jewelry store."

It's another thing for a commercial to imply that unless you buy FS a diamond, she will not know your love for you is eternal. Oh, good God. Oh, and that your love is proven by how much you spend on this bauble. I read somewhere that a woman's engagement ring is traditionally supposed to cost the equivalent of the man's monthly salary for two months. I believe the average works out to something like $4000. $4000 for a piece of pressurized coal? Are you mad? Do you know how many really useful and/or fun things you could do with $4000? My God, for that money I could get at least some of the horrid wall-to-wall carpeting out of the house and have real wood or laminate floors. Or we could have a nice vacation and even stay in NYC. And you want to waste this on jewelry?

I'm also amused by the fact that between the months of November and December, every facet of display was urging to people bake or cook something delicious (that is, when they weren't sitting down producing fifty "charming" craft projects). Wham! Walk into the bookstores on January 1 and everything's covered with dieting books and now articles are telling you how to lose weight. Lo February appears and the aisles of everywhere fill up with candy containers. (We'll have more dieting for Lent and then another chocolate surge for Easter.) No wonder people have weight problems...