By the Pricking of My Thumbs ...

You know that Halloween is still a few weeks away when stores begin to fill their shelves with the first wave of Christmas item-alia. (This is a new word that I have coined: 'item-alia'. It denotes any of the decorations, greeting cards, and objets of the knickknackia or brick-a-brack sort that are ubiquitous at various times of the year. Easter, for example, with its endless parade of bunnies, or Halloween with the pumpkins and bats and witches and ghosts. Christmas brings an equal infinity of snowmen, Santas, and Christmas trees. These are all 'item-alia' and collectively serve little or no purpose but to increase impulse sales in the check-out line of your local pharmacy/supermarket.)

In spite of the craze to string fake spider webs from the rafters and place fully articulated human skeletons in windows, I love this time of year. The warm glow of jack-o-lanterns is always a welcome sight, and there is nothing like a throng of children racing from door to door in search of candy booty that can fill your heart with glee.

After this it's a quiet slip into Thanksgiving time. I have heard not a few Americans lament the arrival of Thanksgiving, calling it the "un-holiday" because it has no specific religious ties nor is gift-giving a part of its traditions. Somehow - perhaps not surprisingly - most American holidays have evolved to include the pressure of giving a gift. Consider the list of usual suspects. There is Valentine's Day: men are expected to give flowers and candies to their sweethearts. Easter, where good children wake to baskets overflowing with brightly coloured fake grass and coloured eggs, as well as chocolates and candies and sundry little fun gifts. It is my understanding that one traditionally sports new clothes at this time of year (in the christian world). Mother's Day and Father's Day: more cards, gifts, and dinners. Even Halloween holds the threat of nasty tricks played if you don't give the gift of treats. And, of course, there's the granddaddy of them all: Christmas. And throughout the year lies the precarious field mined with the sundry hazards of birthdays, bridal showers, and the occasional house-warming.

The few exceptions to the gift-giving melee are Independence Day (a.k.a. the 4th of July) and Thanksgiving.

One wonders what state of the American economy would be without the Spirit of Capitalism Future.