I heard a funny ad on the radio a couple of times. Radio Shack didn't mean it to be funny, but it is so much a sign of the times that it is funny to my way of thinking. They are shouting and making a big deal that they won't be asking for your name and address at the counter any more! This is their ad campaign? They openly state that it's something people hate, and they are great because they are stopping. Duh? They have been doing it for 10 years, and they only figured this out now?

Sort of like Microsoft announcing last year that the XP version of their Office products would not have that annoying stupid animated Clippie "help" feature that everybody hated. This was the focus of the whole introduction of the new product! They won't annoy you by default this year. (Of course you can choose to turn on that "feature" if you just have to be annoyed)

I have heard the motto,"Hit me real hard, since it will feel so much better when you stop". But I never expected companies would think that we will love them for stopping a bad practice that they shouldn't have done in the first place. Crazy times!

What's next. Dupont developing a public relations ploy that says,"We made Napalm and land mines in the past, but now we don't - aren't we great?"

Come to think of it, this "rehabilitation is great" theme has been shoved in our face by celebrities for years. If a big star has a hiatus in the career-itis, we just have to love them if they were at the Betty Ford clinic, or "had a cocaine problem, went to rehab, and now are better than ever. Certainly more worthy than the boring star who kept clean and sober for all that time.

This information is true. I used to lie all the time. Half the stuff I wrote was false, but I am not going to lie at all this year, so trust me!