Rooney's Christmas Catalogs
The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.
I get a lot of catalogs at this time of year. I never buy anything in any of them but that doesn't seem to discourage the people who send them to me because I keep getting catalogs from the same companies year after year.
There's one word that's never mentioned though - not once in any of these. You know what the word is? The word "Christmas" is nowhere in any of these 27 catalogs I have. The word they use to replace "Christmas" is "Holiday."
It's funny you never hear anyone say "Merry Holiday."
The "Circuit City" catalog looks as if it wants to sell you a car for Christmas but the ad isn't for cars - it's for a television set. You save $300 instantly, the ad says. Does anyone really believe they save $300 instantly on anything?
All the prices in a lot of ads still end in 99 cents. $29.99, $49.99, $129.99. They've been doing that for years. Do you think that 99 cents stuff still works? Are we really that dumb?
We don't realize that $129.99 is really $130?
"The Sharper Image" offers 50 percent off on two units. What they don't tell you until down here is that one unit costs $499.95.
I wonder how much they paid this nice-looking woman to stand here in her underwear while they took her picture? She probably got more this guy got for lying there in bed, pretending to be asleep.
"Solutions" has 162 gifts for under for under $30, in case you want 162 gifts for under $30. I personally like a present better than I like a gift. A gift is apt to be something I take back.
"Monitor The Weather From Your Own Backyard." Well, I do that all the time. I stick my hand out and if it gets wet, I know its raining.
"1,001 Movies You Should See Before You Die." The average movie is around two hours long so I multiplied it out. It would take you about 83 24-hour days to watch all of these. That's without ever getting up to go to the bathroom, too.
I don't want to sound negative about all the catalogs I get though. I look through them and really enjoy all the money I save by not buying anything from any of them.
Written By Andy Rooney