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It's anyone's guess why we had to have them - they were phenomenally ugly - but the late 1960-s-1970's fashion statement for both men and women was bell-bottomed pants. They began (with a gentle flare) in the realm of jeans then fanned out wider and into polyester in the disco years. Two small dogs...

Note- Two of bloggers shared a passion for this It product, so we asked both of them to share their memories. One My Little Pony wasn't nearly enough. One little pony could not be stabled all by itself in the pink and purple Crystal Rainbow Castle. How many of these acutely feminine, pastel,...

If you were a baby boomer - or the parents of one - then you remember the old-time telephones. You remember the 1930's classic -form follows function - desk phone, clunky, black and squat. You remember when colors arrived and the appearance of the wall phone. If you were a girl, what you remember...

Picture this: Classes of Japanese students practicing English, reading aloud. What they're reading, with apparent enthusiasm, are the speeches of the new American president. And now picture this: In Aichi, central Japan, a Buddhist monk has been playing the speeches during his temple service. "The...

The fee for entering your child in a beauty pageant may not seem like much of an investment, $40 may be all that's involved in the basic entry. Think twice (or twenty times) before you add your child to the 300,00 who stroll down the child beauty pageant aisle each year. Beauty pageants appear to...

It seems a logical place to cut the budget. Why spend $100 for professional hair coloring when you can do it yourself for $8? Certainly in tough times, Americans could spend less than 60 billion dollars/year on beauty.If you've tried or are considering the "do it yourself" route to hair coloring,...

Now that my children are grown up and periodically independent, I have a new set of problems. I can't seem to get control of my rewards cards. If three is the break point when it comes to offspring (three being the point when there are more of them than there are of us), then I can tell you for...

I bought myself a treadmill for Christmas. For once, I didn't make the purchase on the secondary market. I didn't even do my usual due diligence and check with Consumer Reports. I'm half-embarrassed to say that I went out and bought a Gold's Gym treadmill at Walmart. I'll tell you in a year or two...

Everywhere you turn, it seems that the economic news is dismal. As foreclosures and college tuition costs skyrocket, while jobs and 401K's evaporate, what are Americans doing about it? The answer may surprise you: they're checking in with psychics.The reason is simple on the face of it. Lots of...

Nearly two decades after Sears discontinued its layaway plan, the pre-payment service will be available again starting Sunday for customers who want to put money down on items and get them later. Where Layaway Reigns Sears did away with layaway nearly twenty years ago (at least for...