My friend Linda sent me a link to this Baltimore Sun report, another take on “Christmas in July” sales that are now overtaking a lot of stores. But wait, what’s this? A summer breeze of sanity from Williams-Sonoma/Pottery Barn! >>But other retailers think it best to leave Christmas where it is. A spokesman for Williams-Sonoma,…

Believe it or not, I’m only slightly embarrassed to dig this up and show you: It’s been 20 years this summer since I was an intern at the Washington Post. This was the summer between my junior and senior years of college, the same summer I turned 21. In some ways, it feels like five…

Deadline, that is. This morning, an editor at the Post‘s Sunday magazine was supposed to have a lovely, clean draft of a 4,000-word article by me, from me, in her basket. I’m only about half done. Blog’s going to have drift. Keep trying to clone myself so I can do my job _and_ everything else.…

I’m late finishing my hard copy of the Washington Post today and missed this excellent explainer by Ylan Mui and David Cho about this whole CIT bankruptcy thing that looms large. If CIT goes under (the government so far won’t help out) it could really screw the Christmas pooch. All the stuff you see on…

Frisco, Texas, the setting of Tinsel,  is going to get a new Wal-Mart, but not without some debate angst. The store will be a 24-hour, 185,000-square-foot “supercenter” with a big parking lot. The developer apparently worked overtime to make it purdy enough to quell some complaints, but not all. It’s rare for people in Frisco…

Note: Between now and the end of the year, I’m going to tell the story of how Tinsel got made. Mostly for myself, literary jackoff stuff, I guess, and before I forget it all. But I hope it’s interesting to others too. If not, skip it. Today’s episode is about the Idea. Episode 1: Lunch…

Between Conan and Jimmy last night I got swallowed in a bit to Home Shopping Network’s Christmas in July, a marathon sales event on the channel this week, featuring the latest ornaments and all that. I love listening to the callers, of course. Meemaw Nation is ready for Christmas, y’all! One caller cooed about a…