Skip to main content

The Happiness Business



There’s an article in the Sun (which I couldn’t read) about a gentleman named Craig Casterella. His company, American Christmas, makes the Merriweather Disctrict look merry and bright for the season.

Screenshot of article from Baltimore Sun, article by Kiersten Hacker


Yes, I tried to find this article through the Howard County Library website. I failed. I guess I wasn’t looking under the right rock.

Seeing an article about a company that will do one’s holiday decorating put me in mind of the variety of businesses available to provide seasonal services. You can hire someone to:

  • Hang your Christmas lights
  • Clean your house in preparation for holiday guests
  • Cater your holiday meals and/or parties
  • Decorate the interior of your house.
  • You probably can hire someone to do your gift shopping, too.
It seems as if there is a service for almost anything one might be willing to pay for. Or, if there isn’t, there soon will be once a savvy entrepreneur figures out how to monetize it successfully. It wasn’t that long ago that you either washed your own car or took it to the car wash. Now you can have someone come to your home and do more than wash it. They will engage in high-level, luxury detailing services.

But where are the people who will detail my kitchen appliances? Why is that not a thing? I’m not sure I could afford to pay for that kind of work but I might contemplate saving up. Would you?

Are there some services you’d be willing to pay for but no one has created a business for them yet? For example,  I know I’d be willing to hire someone to take our bins down for trash and recycling days and bring them back each week. 

Dream big. Or small. Perhaps you need someone to drive you to dental appointments so you don’t chicken out. Someone to show up and put fresh sheets on all the beds once a week like clockwork. Someone to be in charge of your children’s school and activity schedules. 

Is there a business for that? 

There are dog walking services. Are there services that will get your sedentary relative off the couch and take them for a walk?  I mean, I can see where that might be beneficial.

One last note: if you reread this piece you’ll see that many of the services I mention are things that we just expect women to do without assistance or compensation. Hmm…

Send me your business/service ideas. This could be fun. And we might think up something viable!



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

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
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