It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Christmas

Honking in the streets, bitter complaints in the paper about rude clerks. And this little gem from a co-worker.

My office, like many others--too many--is sponsoring a "Christmas family" of (we assume) deserving poor people. They were encouraged to write down their Christmas wishes, and the older boy (shoe size 9, shirt size large, waist 29 ...) expressed a desire for an MP3 player.

Shoes were also on that list, and I wanted to donate specifically to that cause, it being an article of what little faith I have that most human conflict in the world is caused by economic inequality, followed by people being crabby from having to wear uncomfortable footwear.

However, there seems no mechanism by which I can assure that my donation will go towards a decent, strong, comfy pair of shoes for each kid (and the FSM knows I'm not going to pop for a pair by myself--not on my salary).

So I was looking at ideas for making a $20 donation go farther, and ran into a 512 Mb MP3 player, complete with speakers, at my local Canadian Tire. For $40. I pointed this out to one of the ladies at work, hoping she might suggest splitting the cost or inviting several others to pitch in.

"Oh," she said, peering at the flyer, "Only 512 meg? He won't be able to put many songs on that ..."

Perhaps I am the one missing the point? I feel that anyone who receives a free MP3 player and feels hard-done-by because it will only store 30 songs instead of 60 qualifies as a whingy bludger.

Mme Metro bought me, at considerable expense shortly after we met, a 256-Mb player/recorder. I still use it. It holds up to 20 songs or so.