Wednesday, December 29, 2004

36,000+ Mugs & 38,000+ Candles

Mugs and Candles, Candles and Mugs - the ubiquitous gifts of the new millennium. Stationary, Thank you Cards and Note paper used to be the "token gift" of choice, but since nobody writes letters (and precious few write thank you notes) any longer replacements were in order. And they multiply - store 2 mugs in a dark cabinet and hey, presto there are 30 of them. 2 candles can easily morph into 40 in the blink of an eye.

Heeding the advice FlyLady I did a 27 fling boogie of our cabinets and discarded mugs with abandon. Yet the cabinets are still full. They overflow the thrift shops. A search for "mugs" on E-Bay yielded over 36,000 hits. Where do they come from? Why do people still continue to buy them, give them and keep them. Just how much coffee can one drink in a day anyway?

And then there are the candles. Yankee Candles , PartyLite candles, Hallmark Candles. Type in "candles" on E-bay and you'll find yourself with some 38,000+ listings to peruse. People actually collect them. There are "retired" candles, never burnt candles, rare candles, common candles, big candles, little candles, pretty candles and tacky candles. People don't burn their candles, there seems to be some "unwritten rule" against this. Must be related to the rule about never removing tags from pillows and mattresses.

And sometimes you get really lucky and receive a basket containing both candles and mugs. And if you are really lucky the mugs will be filled with cheap, flavored "gourmet" coffee or "herb" teas that taste of chemicals.

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