Only two days left in 2012!  It is Sunday, December 30.  There are only 360 days until Christmas and Swiss Colony is already putting the baskets together.  Today is the birthday of Rudyard Kipling, Barry Briggs and Matt Lauer.  On this day in 1817, the first coffee was planted in Kona, Hawaii, “Let’s Make A Deal” debuted on NBC-TV in 1963 and in 1988 the Canadian Senate okayed a free trade pact with the US.  It is a Bank Holiday in Chile and El Salvador and Rizal Day in the Philippines.

I did not realize until just recently that weather-wise we are relatively safe for the next 88 years.  According to what I read, Sandy was the “storm of the century.”  That means that, according to the person writing the article, there will not be a worse storm until sometime during the 22^nd century.  I guess I won’t need to get a larger snow blower after all.

I like when people make those distinctions.  Like when a new movie comes out in February and the promotions claim it is the movie of the year.  There are 10 months left.  Are we to assume that the balance of the year will offer nothing but mediocre movies?  Based on what we have seen in the past that is a reasonable assumption, but one likes to hope.  Or, they say this is “the movie you have been waiting for.”  Unless there is a lot of shooting, things blowing up and a fair amount of female nudity, it is not the one I have been waiting for.

Then you have the car companies.  Subaru would have us believe that owning their car is about love and family.  They push the whole idea that the car is part of your life.  No, it is not.  It is a means of getting me from one place to another without having to walk.  I want a car that is comfortable, has AC and Sirius radio, and is not the color of salmon.  It probably won’t be a Subaru, because I do not want to become emotionally attached to a car.

Ford pushes their line of trucks.  Maybe I am being juvenile, but I am not driving anything that is called “Super Duty.”  They couldn’t come up with anything better than that?  Take a minute and imagine yourself standing in Home Depot with a pile of stuff that needs to be carried back to your house for a major project.  You are wondering how you are going to fit this in your loving Subaru when along comes that guy Mike, the macho guy who does the Ford commercials.  He sees your predicament and says, “Don’t worry.  You can put this in my Super Duty.”  See, you’re smiling now just thinking about it.

Generally, companies are safe making superlative claims about their products, whether we are talking about movies, cars or hemorrhoid creams .  Most people are not going to purchase two or three brands of an item to see if the one claimed to be the best really is.  Aside from the fact that the claim is somewhat subjective based on the manufacturer’s idea of what the product should be doing, how many of us want to have inferior products laying around that we are not going to use?  Realistically, if you go to a movie in November, are you going to remember that the one in February was supposed to be the movie of the year, so you shouldn’t expect too much?

I would rather have advertising that is realistic.  Things like, “This movie was good, the script was well written, the acting was believable and you will probably stay for the whole thing.  Add some popcorn or goobers and you will enjoy the evening.”  Don’t give me things like “The Picayune Times says it is the best movie since the Harold and Kumar series.”  Or “you will laugh, you will cry, it will become a part of you,” states the Valley Advertising Supplement.

The time has come for truth in advertising.  Don’t try to sell anti-wrinkle cream by showing me young women in their twenties who only have the wrinkles in their blouses to worry about.  Show me the before and after of someone in her late 50’s and don’t photo shop the pictures.  If companies spent as much time and effort on making their product as they did on their misleading commercials, they would not have to lie to us in the first place.

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year!  I hope that 2013 will be better than 2012.  I hope everyone has a safe and exciting New Year’s Eve and I hope you all enjoy the parades and football games on January 1^st.  Peace, love, good health and happiness to everyone in the new year!