There are three words that always make me feel sad, frightened and angry when I see them. These three words are symbolic of much of the poverty and unhappiness in America. They represent the coldest, greediest members of our society. They are often associated with danger and corruption and vile deception. They have been related to many deaths of people and animals. Most people don't notice these words or don't appreciate just how much they adversely affect their lives. If you haven't already guessed those hideous words are "Made in China". It is almost impossible to purchase anything today that hasn't been made in China by cheaper labor working for companies that used to be here in America. But I think, and I hope, that that is going to change. Recently ABC News with Diane Sawyer did an entire series on seeking out goods that are "Made in America" which I absolutely plan to do even if means being inconvenienced or going without. Today I purchased a new WaterPic at Walgreens which was naturally overpriced at $64.00. But I needed a new one. When I got home I noticed it is made in China, so it goes back today regardless of how much I need a new WaterPic. I think we all have to start doing that. Ask for products made in America. Return products made in China. If you do, you will encourage thousands of companies to reconsider foreign facilities and move back here, thus giving Americans work and hope again. This weekend is Halloween. Every costume, wig, item of makeup and scary novelty was more than likely made in China. Made in China for our holliday in America. I don't know why this doesn't infuriate more people as much as it does me, especially now that we are on to these billionaires who are happy to sell us out for bigger bonuses. I was recently determined to start wearing T-shirts that proclaimed "Made in America" or encouraged consumers to "Buy American" but most of the shirts I saw were "Made in China". Check everything you buy, and you'll realize why we're in a recession why people are out of work and why those who care are in sit-ins all over this counry. If you want to see American strong again, buy products "Made in America" not in China.

It's amazing to me that everyone isn't an atheist. How can anyone believe that after you die and rot and are absolutely nothing but dirt, someone reassembles you, reactivates your mind, and lets your prance around some blissful paradise forever? It's absurd. And more than that, it's incredibly arrogant. To believe that you are so important in the universe that you can't just vanish into oblivion like and an ant or butterfly is absolutely the height of conceit. And talk about illogical. Do believers in afterlife also think that everyone who was ever born are candidates for heaven and hell? Does that include cavemen? Does it include Biafran children who starved to death at six and never had any worldly life to speak of? And what age would you be? And if none, just a kind of spiritual noneness, then what's the point of being there? Plus, even Paris would get boring after six million years. There is no logic to religion. It is so obviously the creation of generations of mortals afraid to die who had to come up with some escape clause and heaven was it. Hate to tell you this, but this is all you get. You check out, people cry and moan, they bury you. In a decade or so you are forgotten and you,my dear friend, will never be seen again. You have no awareness of the billions of years that occurred before you were born, and you will have no idea of the eternity that will follow your demise.I know, it's annoying. But c'est la vie. Or c'est la mort. So if it makes you happy to go to church and sing hymns and imagine all the fun you're going to have once they hand you that golden key on Judgement Day, then go for it.

Less goo-goo and more meow.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think those responsible for creating this commercial are confusing a baby with a cat. I'm seen lots of tots in my life and have never experience one who eschewed a costly, well-designed toy for a cardboard box. Cats, on the other hand, are notorious for not having any interest in the proffered gift, preferring instead a box or bag it came in. So, while this commercial is cute it's not believable.

Huh?

"If no one ever challenged the status quo the world would still be flat." That is the dopey line that opens a supposedly creative commercial for Infiniti. The spot goes on to make equally illogical statements about Einstein's theory and Elvis Presley as related to rock music. Then, like so many commercials, Infiniti tries to equate the great discoveries, revolutions and icons of the past centuries with their own me-too innovations. This spot has some of the tritest, most illogical and highly pretentious writing I have been exposed to lately (and there's a lot out there). I can't show you the spot because Infiniti doesn't have it on YouTube. I think that was a wise move.

There are a lot of stupid campaigns out there. This is one of the dumbest. How far do we have to stretch our credibility to buy into some of these supposedly creative concepts. The idea that someone has to justify eating a lousy bowl of cereal by rationalizing that it's morning somewhere is about as idiotic as commercials get. For one thing Americans have been eating cereal for lunch and dinner for decades. Add to that that the price Kelloggs charges for air and grain is so excessive, you should feel free to eat it whenever you like since it costs more per ounce than the costliest steak. I don't think ad agencies have even been as piss poor creatively as they are right now.

Note: From a personal point of view I will state that as much as I like any cereal, I get really tired of having it more than two days in a row. And I never have it in the morning. Morning is for pastries, donuts, ham and eggs, and other foods of which you never get tired.

Another poorly crafted Kraft commercial.

I hate this commercial. But then I hate most Kraft commercials. Whatever agency does them has no understanding of real people. In this spot the kid is an obnoxious cliche, the parents cartoons, the inlaws tedious stereotypes we've seen a million times. The supposed baby in this husband's harness is so obviously a doll and if I were creating a commercial for a starchy product I wouldn't have such a chunky child. But the most ridiculous aspect of this commercial is the suggestion that a family eager to impress snooty inlaws would clean the house, and then prepare macaroni and cheese. We all love it, but let's face: It's one of the most pedestrian and cheapest meals you can make. Hardly the entree you would ever prepare to impress a couple of critical old cranks. Also, as long as I'm being critical myself, why does the baking dish change three times. First it's small and white with cut-out handles, in the oven it's larger with rolled handles, and finally it's smaller with no apparent handles.

Today's Uriah Heep

This is James O'Keefe. James is a weasel. He looks like a weasel. He behaves like a weasel. Of all the creepy people in the news today Jimmy is one of the creepiest. He's the slime ball that lied about Acorn and bought it down. He's the turd who made a wildly edited videotape to shame PBS. His politics seem to be Republican, but I don't think he has allegiance to any person or party. He's one of those soulless, amoral drifters who, like one Shakespearean character, only lives to create venomous plots. He calls himself a journalist, which is absurd. Others call him a muckraker, which is perfectly apt. He fancies himself an actor though he has very little skill in that area. (Notably hilarious is seeing this effete anemic, impotent cretin posing as a pimp.) Among his many proud achievements is leading a campaign to have Lucky Charms removed from a cafeteria because it stereotypes the Irish. James is another desperate-for-attention nobody who will always be a nobody even with media recognition. And considering how duplicitous and careless he is, I feel certain his final fame will be when they find him in some alley or landfill having vilified the wrong person.

Right now the Syfi station is showing another of its low-budget horror films. So far some of the victims have been split in half, had their eyes eaten and one person had a huge spear thrust through his head. Needless to say all of these horrors were shown without editing. What was edited was the word "fucking" as in "I cut off his fucking finger". Isn't it great that kids growing up today can see this incredible violence without any of that namby pamby editing so many parents would like to have, but at least they won't be subjected to vulgar swear words which could harm their young minds in all kinds of unpredictable ways. I know if I had a child I would much rather expose him or her to rape, dismemberment, sadism, torture and emotional torment than corrupt a young mind with swear words or—god forbid—any kind of sexual act. Isn't it wonderful to live in a country that has clear priorities.

Note: The man about to hack his viictim to death is not from a movie but from a video game. Well at least he's not planning to have sex with him. That would be so disgusting as to be unwatchable. You've got to admit we Americans have a very weird sense of values.

The horror of it.

Stop it. Stop it. If you are one of those people who say Holloween instead of the correct Halloween, please stop it. You wouldn't say you like peanut butter and marshmollow, or that a field is follow, or one's skin is sollow, so why are you saying Holloween? I know I can't stop it. I will just have to cringe every time someone says it until Halloween is over. And in no time at all people will be saying that other thing that drives me nuts. "Sanna Claus."

Did they or didn't they?

I don't get this. Did Nissan actually do a demonstration of a jet liner landing on the back of a truck to prove this could be done? Or is it completely sham demonstration? And if it is, what does it prove? A commercial like this is of no value unless it's real, but I don't see any legend on the screen saying, "This is an actual demonstration."One could make any product look strong and powerful if you didn't have to prove that it was.

Venom.

It should be obvious to anyone who watched the CBS 48-Hour special, Amanda Knox, the Untold Story, that she's innocent. It clearly showed how she was railroaded by an obsessive prosecutor and further persecuted by a lazy and callous international press. So now she's free and home in Seattle after four years of false imprisonment. But she still has a prosecutor as eager as the one in Italy to ignore the facts and cling to their own personal and unfounded theory of what happened: Nancy Grace. This nipple-bearing harridan is insisting that Amanda is guilty and that Nancy Grace and only Nancy Grace, has the proof. One has only to look at this TV personality's scrunched up face to realize that she is a vindictive shrew eager to always have someone in her sights. It should be amusing to see what kind of case she can manufacture if, in fact, she can come up with any.

W, as in What a ripoff!

Think of this as a public service announcement. Every now and then I like to remind readers that Walgreen's pharmacies are outrageously expensive. Every time I have compared the price of a health and beauty aid at Walgreen's with the same product at Publix (which is not an inexpensive chain) the Publix product is far less costly. Today I foolishly made a purchase at Walgreen's of a product that cost $9.49 only to find the same product in Publix for $8.34. $1.05 is a big difference. So unless you're rich, I suggest you check prices before you buy anything at Walgreen's.

Note: This morning when I reurned an overpriced product to Walgreen's I complained that they charge too much. The clerk said, "Yes, but we're a convenience store." I said, "You;re not a convenience store; you're a drug store. And drugs should cost less in a drugstore than they do in a supermarket." Naturally I got no response.

Giving no quarter.

Recently I found myself totally offended by this situation that several other friends found perfectly acceptable. Recently I took my sickly cat Chance to a new Coral Gables vet. I thought they might find a cure that my regular vet couldn't. Anyway, I liked the doctor right away, though I was surprised that she looked more like a model than the the capable vet she is and the facilities were fine except that the waiting room is small for such a busy practice. Another annoyance is that there is no parking lot so one must park on the street at the costly Coral Gables meters. This hasn't been a problem till the other morning when I forgot to bring change. When I asked those at the front desk if they could change a dollar, they both said, "We don't have any change." Later I learned this was complete lie and that, in fact, they refuse to provide change to their customers. While this might be an acceptable practice at other businesses, I find this extremely petty of this successful practice. How difficult can it be to maintain a supply of quarters to make change for perhaps six customers at the most on any given day? Especially when each is unlikely to leave without having spent at least $75.00. No problem at all. When I suggested this to the once-friendly receptionist she became pissy and rude. At any rate, after three weeks of visits to this office and subjecting Chance to many costly tests, I was told his case was hopeless since they had just discovered he had a weak heart. On arriving home, he went into a coma. With great sadness I had him euthanized today by an independent doctor who came to the house. I don't feel any animosity to the clinic for not being able to save a cat I loved a great deal but I feel tremendous anger for having needlessly spent $1,600.00 to a facillity that didn't even have the common courtesy to provide change for a dollar.

I went into a graphics store today to buy a poster. I was the only customer there and the salesperson on duty started to listen to my needs. Then the phone rang. He answered it. It was obviously another possible customer. He immediately began to answer the questions of the person on the phone and provide details of what would be involved in fulfilling his request. After a minute or so I l just walked out. I will never understand why so many merchants seem to think that the customer on the phone is more important than the customer standing right in front of them. This is not rare. It is epidemic. It happens at supply houses, bakeries, department stores, practically every retail outlet. I don't get it. But I never wait around till the inconsiderate clerk is finished with the telephone call, and I hope you don't either.

Justice.

The verdict is in. After four years in prison for the death of her roommate Meredith Kercher, Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are free. And I, for one, am thrilled. Having read two books on the subject, I could never accept for a minute that this couple had anything to do with Meredith's death. Today's verdict seemed like the only just conclusion to this shameful case. I find it very depressing that the Kercher family were eager for the court to uphold the original verdict. I feel sorry for their loss, but unsympathetic at how vengeful this family is with so little evidence. Amanda, to my mind, was a victim of a nearly psychotic prosecutor who creates scenarios then tries to make the facts fit the fantasy. (When an American author came to Italy to write about the serial killer known as the Monster of Florence, this nutcase prosecutor accused him of being the Monster of Florence because he knew so many facts about the case, which he had, of course, gleaned in his research.) We will never really knew what happened in Perugia but the idea that Amanda and Raffaele murdered her when she wouldn't participate in an orgy with them and drug dealer and petty thief Rudy Hermann Guede is absurd. Guede is now serving a 16-year prison term, a mild sentence for someone who I feel certain committed the murder and allowed two innocent young people to serve time so he could get a lighter sentence. Amazingly the crowd outside the courthouse chanted "Shame" at the release of Amanda and Raffaele. I can't imagine why. Yes, I can. Amanda's sister said in a speech shortly after the verdict thanked all the people around the world who "took the time to research the case". I can only assume those who cried "Shame" never made that effort.

I'll never say that again!

Today my partner, who is always smarter than I am, pointed out an error we have all make and nobody has ever noticed that it's wrong. When we say something like, "She wears fabulous clothes and never repeats the same outfit twice." we mean she never repeats an outfit. But that's incorrect. She could repeat it once. But that's never what we mean, is it? What we should say is, "She never wears the same outfit twice". But we don't.

This used to be so appealing.

If you're as neurotic and phobic as I am, you will never feel the same about cantaloupe again. Not even if they say it's perfectly safe. I'm still nervous about an article a read in Readers Digest twenty years ago about deadly olive oil. Now I'm afraid if we have too many of these scares, I won't be able to eat anything. We've already been panicked by tomatoes, broccoli, spinach. I got deathly sick from a single shrimp, one of my favorite foods, and haven't felt totally at ease eating shrimp since. But then, of course, the news loves to put us into states of fear. They feed us constant trigger words: Listeria, Ecoli, Ptomaine, Hepatitis a, b, c, d, whatever. And if food scares aren't enough, this week's news told us all about the new horrors that can be inflicted by mosquitoes, not to mention the killer bees and vampire bats heading this way from—where else?—South America. I wonder what new fear I can expect when I put on tomorrow's news. I hope it's not infected ice cream. In that case, I would have to risk death.

Note; Well I wasn't disappointed. This is the first paragraph of a story that greeted me this morning on Huffington Post. Apparently we should soon expect marauding, hairy, biting ants.

NEW ORLEANS -- It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper's metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes.