Is it just me or are there a whole lot of those infomercials on at all times of the day and night? Not the full 30 or 60 minute ones that are generally on in the middle of the night, but 2 or 3 or 4 minute commercials on the cable channels.

There’s Billy (Mom, why does that man yell all the time?) Mays hawking a few “Mighty” products Mighty Mendit with Mighty Gemit, Mighty Putty, Hercules Hooks, the Awesome Auger and it’s accessories, OxyClean in all it’s versions and even health insurance. Now there’s the Big City Slider Station. If you believe the commercial as it stands, you just put 5 balls of ground meat on the pan, put the lid on, take it off and there’s 5 mini burgers steaming and ready to eat. That’s the problem with the mini-infomercial format I guess. In a half hour format Billy would be able to actually take the 5 or 10 minutes that the burgers need to cook on the stove to show how it works.

There’s Debbie Meyer and all her bags. First there were Green Bags, then Bread Bags, and now cheese bags and cold cuts bags.

Cathy Mitchell pitches all sorts of handy kitchen gadgets: folding colanders, the Pasta N More, GT Express, Gemagic (not kitchen, this one), and more.

Vince Offer uses his headset microphone to help him show us his ShamWows (you following me camera guy?) and now the new Slapshot and Graty (You’re gonna love my nuts!).

Anthony Sullivan does the swivel sweeper and the one sweep and stick up bulbs. Now he’s doing the point n paint. But I noticed on the commercial that it says, in writing, that it’s got a “built in poll [sic] adapter” at the end of the commercial.

Then, of course, there are the many mini-infomercials for all sorts of products like the Clever Clasp, the Listen-up, the My Lil Reminder, the Snuggy, and their clones. The same woman in the Aqua Globes commercial is in the Handy Hangers commercial. The little girl who is fascinated by the Lord’s Prayer in the necklace is also nice and cozy in her Snuggy. The old lady with the bluetooth like hearing enhancer (Bingo!) is also cozy knitting in the Snuggy, while the old lady who couldn’t remember where she parked in the My Lil Reminder commercial also can’t get her necklace on without a Clever Clasp.

I think all those commercials have the same female narrator too.

But you have to go to Volokh to see what it is…

were two women wearing silver metallic footwear.

One was wearing boots like these but they were more vinyl-ey looking

The Silver Boots

She was also carrying a huge silver bag (also more vinyl-ey)

The Silver Bag

And another lady was wearing sandals like these – but a bit more “gladiator” with a vertical strap up the middle and a little more space between the horizontal straps. Also vinyl-ey. And she’s wearing these with bare feet with temperatures in the teens outside.

The Silver Sandals

My cousin Dana is getting married in May and she and her fiance are finalists in a Green Wedding contest at Trees Instead.

That’s her, over in the sidebar – The Broke-Ass Bride.

Go to her post on the subject and follow the simple directions.

You can also vote on Facebook and Twitter:

Join the Facebook Group Trees Instead and write that you’re voting for Dana LaRue and Hunter Stiebel (May 24th, 2009) on their wall. (you can do this once a day through the 29th of January!)

Follow TreesInstead on Twitter and send a direct message or an @reply with your vote for Dana LaRue and Hunter Stiebel (May 24th, 2009). You can do this once a day too!

Thanks in advance!

This one is Patterico’s Los Angeles Dog Trainer Year in Review 2008.

For a very little girl with methicillin-resistant Staph aureus, a frequently lethal skin infection more commonly known as MRSA.

See Kate’s post for a picture of this adorable little girl who needs lots of prayers right now.

Well, not really resolutions, but goals I’ll set for myself:

In no particular order:

Better time management
Plan meals for the week instead of winging it everyday
Work on eating healthy

Others as I think of them.

What are your goals for 2009?

Wishing a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year to all two or three of my readers!

Please leave a comment so we can see how many there actually are!

Please go visit Take Back Our Seat.

The US Senate seat from Illinois belongs to the people and is not for sale.

I have an appointment I have to go to and will come back later with video and a transcript.

I am looking for other contributors from both sides of the aisle. And you don’t have to be from Illinois. New York’s Junior Senate seat should be filled by the people as well.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to Sissy Willis and Tuck on the loss of their Baby Cakes. “Just a cat”, is never the proper response. Our companions are more than just a cat, or a dog, or a bird, or a ferret or any other animal that shares our home. Baby was, and his sister Tiny is, a member of the household just as much as their humans are.

Our companions know when we aren’t feeling well, be it physically or psychically, and they try to make us feel better. Poor Tiny doesn’t know why her brother is gone or why her “Mom” and “Dad” are feeling so bad. But she’ll try to make them feel better.

Please go ahead and read the other posts Sissy has posted as well.

We have three cats, our tiny little Bitsy; 11 years old and the size of a six month old kitten, Liath (pronounced Leah – Gaelic for gray) who is our own Tiny and Baby look-alike although she’s short haired, and Duncan Idaho; our silly boy who kept climbing the Christmas tree when he was a baby. We call him Mini-Me because he looks a bit like our other boy, Nikita the Siberian Husky. And we can’t forget our Shih-Tzu Raven or the newest adoptee Sunshine the Cockatiel who showed up on our doorstep in early September.

Sissy and Tuck, our heartfelt condolences are sent to you with hugs.