Community Coffee.  There are huge numbers who prefer one flavor or another of the Starbucks coffees.  Community Coffee has been made in Baton Rouge by the Saurage family for more than seventy-five years.  And I've been drinking their New Orleans Blend since I was a college student in New Orleans almost fifty years ago.  In stores or by the web. Community Coffee.

Santa Claus.  The image we have of Santa Claus was created by the Coca- Cola Bottling Company, and it proves the importance of reinforcement adver- tising. 

For the very first time ever, I have seen the God created image of the Coca-Cola Santa.  He is in his home just out of the second floor mall entrance of Neiman Marcus at North Park.

Every last piece of this Santa is real - bald head; white fringe, moustache, beard and eyebrows, and sixty inch girth.  He's seeing children daily.

The Salvation Army. This fellow, who was too busy dancing and singing to stop and tell me his name, is the Dallas Salvation Army's highest dollar bell ringer, and he has been for years.  Dapper but teeny, he dances and sings the time away all the while ringing his chimes to the music he hears in his head.  By the way, Patty and I simply don't shop at stores that have refused the Christmas appearances of the Salvation Army bell ringers. 

Store Fronts.  Store windows like the front of your real estate office play an important part in telling the public what you do and suggesting the quality at which you do it.  In the old days, Woolworth, Kress and McCrory's used to fill their storefront windows with at least one each of every product they sold.  Their message?  They sold a lot of stuff and they sold it cheap.

Neiman-Marcus, on the other hand, would put one of their courtier pieces in a window.  Their message?  We have just one of these, and it's for you.  Both approaches worked well for these merchandisers.

 <<===Neiman-Marcus Window

Today, Barney's, formerly an up-scale New York men's store, is trying to compete as a high fashion, high quality family clothier.  Here's their major window for the Christmas Season.  Exactly what does it say is inside of the store?  As suspected, inside the store there are very few shoppers.

<<===Barney's Window

Christmas Present.  For the next few days, Ann Taylor stores are featuring nice cashmere wool women's sweaters in a swell array of colors and shades, and they are marked down fifty percent.

Plato and the Platypus.  Authors Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein have written a "hilarious yet profound tour de farce through Western philosophy" book titled Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar.  Using jokes, they give the cursory views of the famous philosophers.  It's very clever.

Shrimp.  Our friends Victor and Judy Damiani come up from the Texas coast to visit us a few times each year, and they always bring us fresh shrimp from the dock.  They put about twenty in each plastic container, fill it with water and freeze it.  What a treat!

Last evening we made a nice green salad, adding some black olives, artichoke hearts and strips of grilled chicken and some sautéed shrimp.  Patty said I should share with you how to sauté shrimp.  Here goes.  First peel and devain the raw shrimp.  In a skillet, melt one stick of butter (more if needed) and add a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, the juice of a lemon, some freshly ground black pepper and a teaspoon or so of minced garlic.  Then add the shrimp and cook until pink on each side.  Then please immediately remove them from the pan.  (By the way, this butter sauce on pasta with the shrimp on top is delicious, too.)

Most people, including restaurant chefs, cook shrimp too long.  For an example, here's how to boil them.  Bring to a boil a big pot of water with the seasoning already in the water.  Add the peeled, raw shrimp and let the water return to boiling.  Immediately take the pot off of the stove and let the whole shebang sit until you can comfortably put a finger in the water.  At that point, throw the cooked shrimp in a colander so they can thoroughly drain and then refrigerate them.

Thanks for joining me this Sunday in the Park.  What a delightful visit.  Advent is here and Christmas and Hanukkah now within easy reach of the horizon.  It is the time to renew our Love for the LORD and for one another.

GOD Blesses!

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