The first clue came when I got my hair cut．The stylist offered not just the usual coffee or tea but a complimentary nail—polish change while I waited for my hair to dry．Maybe she hoped this little amenity would slow the growing inclination of women to stretch each haircut to last four months while nursing our hair back to whatever natural colour we long ago forgot．

Then there was the appliance salesman who offered to carry my bags as we toured the microwave aisle．When I called my husband to ask him to check some specs online，the salesman offered a pre-emptive discount，lest the surfing turn up the same model cheaper in another store．That night，for the first time，I saw the Hyundai ad promising shoppers that if they buy a car and then lose their job in the next year，they can return it．

Suddenly everything’s on sale．The upside to the economic downturn is the immense incentive it gives retailers to treat you like a queen for a day．During the flush times, salespeople were surly, waiters snobby．But now the customer rules，just for showing up. There’s more room to stretch out on the flight，even in a coach．The malls have that serene aura of undisturbed wilderness, with scarcely a shopper in sight．Every conversation with anyone selling anything is a pantomime of pain and bluff．Finger the scarf, then start to walk away, and its price floats silkily downward．When the mechanic calls to tell you that brakes and a timing belt and other services will run close to $2,000，it's time to break out the newly perfected art of the considered pause．You really don't even have to say anything pitiful before he'll offer to knock a few hundred dollars off．

Restaurants are also caught in a fit of ardent hospitality, especially around Wall Street: Trinity Place offers $3 drinks at happy hour any day the market goes down, with the slogan “Market tanked? Get tanked!”--which ensures a lively crowd for the closing bell．The "21" Club has decided that men no longer need to wear ties，so long as they bring their wallets．Food itself is friendlier：you notice more comfort food，a truce between chef and patron that is easier to enjoy now that you can get a table practically anywhere．New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni characterizes the new restaurant demeanor as "extreme solicitousness tinged with outright desperation．"“You need to hug the customer,”one owner told him．

There's a chance that eventually we'll return all this kindness with the extravagant spending that was once decried but now everyone is hoping will restart the economy．But human nature is funny that way．In dangerous times，we clench and squint at the deal that looks too good to miss，suspecting that it must be too good to be true．Is the store with the super cheap flat screens going to go bust and thus not be there to honor the "free" extended warranty? Is there something wrong with that free cheese? Store owners will tell you horror stories about shoppers with attitude，who walk in demanding discounts and flaunt their new power at every turn．These store owners wince as they sense bad habit forming：Will people expect discounts forever? Will their hard-won brand luster be forever cheapened, especially for items whose allure depends on their being ridiculously priced?

There will surely come a day when things go back to“normal”；retail sales even inched up in January after sinking for the previous six months．But I wonder what it will take for US to see those $545 Sigerson

Morrison studded toe-ring sandals as reasonable? Bargain-hunting can be addictive regardless of the state of the markets，and haggling is a low-risk，high-value contact sport．Trauma digs deep into habit，like my 85-year—old mother still calling her canned-goods cabinet “the bomb shelter." The children of the First Depression were saving string and preaching sacrifice long after the skies cleared．They came to be called the “greatest generation." As we learn to be decent stewards of our resources，who knows what might come of it? We have lived in an age of wanton waste，and there is value in practicing conservation that goes far beyond our own bottom line．

 

The past ages of man have all been carefully labeled by anthropologists. Descriptions like 'Palaeolithic Man', 'Neolithic Man', etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely choose the label'Legless Man'. Histories of the time will go something like this: 'in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from walking. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks.'

The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel gives you a bird's-eye view of the world – or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: 'I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea.' The typical twentieth-century traveler is the man who always says 'I've been there.'You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say 'I've been there'– meaning, 'I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. '

When you travel at high speeds, the present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him traveling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound. Satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers.

Vicious and Dangerrous Sports Should Be Banned By Law

When you think of the tremendous technological progress we have made, it' s amazing how little we have developed in other respects. We may speak contemptuously of the poor old Romans because they relished the orgies of slaughter that went on in their arenas. We may despise them because they mistook these goings on for entertainment. We may forgive them condescendingly because they lived 2000 years ago and obviously knew no better. But are our feelings of superiority really justified? Are we any

less blood-thirsty? Why do boxing matches, for instance, attract such universal interest? Don' t the spectators who attend them hope they will see some violence? Human beings remains as bloodthirsty as ever they were. The only difference between ourselves and the Romans is that while they were honest enough to admit that they enjoyed watching hungey lions tearing people apart and eating them alive, we find all sorts of sophisticated arguments to defend sports which should have been banned long age; sports which are quite as barbarous as, say, public hangings or bearbaiting.

It really is incredible that in this day and age we should still allow hunting or bull-fighting, that we should be prepared to sit back and watch two men batter each other to pulp in a boxing ring, that we should be relatively unmoved by the sight of one or a number of racing cars crashing and bursting into flames. Let us not deceive ourselves. Any talk of ithe sporting spirit' is sheer hypocrisy. People take part in violent sports because of the high rewards they bring. Spectators are willing to pay vast sums of money to see violence. A world heavyweight championship match, for instance, is front page news.

Millions of people are disappointed if a big fight is over in two rounds instead of fifteen. They feel disappointment because they have been deprived of the exquisite pleasure of witnessing prolonged torture and violence.

Why should we ban violent sports if people enjoy them so much? You may well ask. The answer is simple: they are uncivilized. For centuries man has been trying to improve himself spiritually and emotionally - admittedly with little success. But at least we no longer tolerate the sight madmen cooped up in cages, or public floggings of any of the countless other barbaric practices which were common in the past. Prisons are no longer the grim forbidding places they used to be. Social welfare systems are in operation in many parts of the world. Big efforts are being made to distribute wealth fairly. These changes have come about not because human beings have suddenly and unaccountably improved, but because positive steps were taken to change the law. The law is the biggest instrument ofsocial change that we have and it may exert great civilizing influence. If we banned dangerous and violent sports, we would be moving one step further to improving mankind. We would recognize that violence is degrading and unworthy of human beings.

Advertisers Perform a Useful Service to the Community

Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they're always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much money to throw around. It' s iniquitous,'they say, `that this entirely unproductive industry (if we can call it that) should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don' t they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it' s the consumer who paysw'The poor old consumer! He' d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn't create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are so cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read.

Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about. Supposing you wanted to buy a washing machine, it is more than likely you would obtain details regarding performance, price, etc., from an advertisement.

Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. And what fun they often are, too! Just think

what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway byelaws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.

We must not forget, either, that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pockets. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without this source of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price!

Another thing we mustn't forget is the'small ads.'which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage or death in what used to be called the `hatch, match and dispatch'column but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or `agony'column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature. It' s the best advertisement for advertising there is!