Skip to main content

F ³: Congratulations! It’s Your Month!


 

Computers and social media have given us many gifts although, on some days, it’s easier to see the downside. One of the gifts which I find more amusing than appalling is the creation of something called The Birthday Month. 

For example, my birthday is March 23rd. But, beginning on March 1st, I will be deluged with offers from businesses wishing to help me celebrate my Birthday Month by providing me a coupon for service or a freebie to be used in conjunction with other purchases…you get the picture. You’re having a birthday - - let’s monetize it!

The Social Security Administration wants to help me celebrate by getting me to start thinking about Medicare. (There's always that one friend, am I right?)

At the same time, all over social media I am being solicited to purchase products and services that are for “someone my age.” At the moment I am being bombarded with adverts for women with gray hair. I don’t have gray hair, but the assumption is that I do. Data collection. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Over at Amazon my birthday wish list has three things so far

  • A set of 15 brightly colored erasable gel pens
  • The 152 Crayola Crayon Assortment
  • A book by Mo Willems about his famous Pigeon called “Be the Bus”
This is not a solicitation for gifts. It’s a suggestion that, while trying to get potential customers to celebrate their birthdays all month long might be commercially savvy, assuming that they’ll want to act their age may not be.

Journalist and novelist Connie Schultz shared a piece from the Atlantic that I just might sign up for the free trial to read:


I’m 53 years old. I’m 36 in my head. There are good reasons you always feel 20 percent younger than your actual age.

(If I read it I’ll let you know what I found out.)

I don’t know what age I am in my head but my birthday wish list is about twelve. Who knows?

Perhaps I am old simply because I grew up in a time before people had a Birthday Month. You got one day and a box mix cake and a few presents. Yes, I know how old that sounds - - “In my day…” I won’t dwell on it.

How about you? Do you reject the notion or embrace it? Do you find ways to celebrate your birthday all month long? Maybe I’m missing something.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more