Good Morning,
Well besides the overstuffed addspaper (not a lot of news), seasonal music everywhere you turn, and holiday decorations abound, the real harbingers of Christmas have started to appear. Just like the first robin of spring, swallows returning to Capistrano, right on time are the have to have gifts for Christmas. You know what they are as well as I do unless you have spent the last 20 years in an Afghan cave. It is the annual return of the cult gifts… Chia Pet® and Clapper®. This has to be the biggest sales time of the year for Joseph Enterprises, since these products and many others come from them.
Nothing appears to be sacred when it comes to growing of the Chia. I have never had a Chia Pet® although it will probably be just a matter of time till someone gives me one.
I did have a Pet Rock, which didn’t last as long as the Chia Pet® has. Not the rock, I’m sure that is still around somewhere
and in the original cage, but the fad that was created around it. I guess there are just so many different kinds of pet rocks one can come up with. I must admit that the “Rock” was certainly one of the easiest pets I have ever had to take care of. No vet bills, no cleanup and I didn’t have to worry about the day when the little guy would die on me. That doesn’t seem to be the case with Chia Pet® which must have contributed to the longevity of the product.
Now these little guys wouldn’t be around for so long if no one bought them. And you know…there has to be someone out there who has COLLECTED THEM ALL. Disconcerting thought that. A couple thousand years from now when someone digs one of these up, I wonder what they will think. Since Chia dates back to the Incas and Aztecs, I am surprised that they did not think of this. Humm.
Now the Clapper® (now Clapper® Plus) is another story all together. While it is difficult for me to get the thought of a guy with STD out of my head when I hear the name, (we will save that one for another day) it is a rather clever “low tech” solution to a common problem. Fortunately, it tends to only work with one zone of light at a time or we may be put out of the lighting control business by a bunch of people sounding like they are at a revival. I think I had a keychain fob years ago that would respond when you clapped. 
Never could take it to a concert though, it just wouldn’t behave.
The commercials are retro-unmistakable, as you have heard them before. Was it last year, the year before, or maybe the year before that? I’m pretty sure that the granny, (Thelma Goodwin) in the original 1990 Clapper® commercial, has gone to greener pastures by now and is probably conversing the Clara Peller of “Where’s the Beef” fame. If so, she can now enjoy immortality through the media. It was clever also to have a Chia Pet commercial on TV during the ‘Clap” scene. Two birds with one stone as they say.
So if you run out of ideas and want a traditional gift…
Love, Dad