Buy Buy Buy Ay Ay Ay

Only another couple of shopping days left! Borrowing from an article I wrote about this time last year, I'm thinking gadgets again. Not that I'm going to buy any myself. This year for inspiration, I looked to three local advertising inserts, accompanied by web searches. This article can serve as a mini-shopping list to keep shoppers out of the malls, which I imagine are crowded. If you're cybershopping, it's another matter. If you're bricks-and-mortar shopping, get thee out there!

To provide some mystery and also avoid appearances that I'm pushing specific b&m places, I'm omitting store names. Let's say two of them are drugstores (pharmacies, apothecaries, mini-marts that coincidentally also dispense prescription drugs in teeny corners, …}. The third b&m place is a stand-alone electronics store that seems to have gotten on the holiday-gadget bandwagon. My table format has a heading row for places identified as "A", "B", and "C"—followed by rows for items and prices. To view images of items, copy and paste the item names in Google image searches.

The price focus is for items priced $19.99, $14.99, and $9.99. I listed one notable exception because the item looks so cute. The 99¢ price ending is no accident. My article "The 99¢ Effect and Other Saver Thoughts" includes discussion about the psychology of the pricing something just under the next dollar threshold.

One electronics store that I patronize places those impulse-buy snacks near the bank of cash registers (typical merchandise location). The price signs show the dollar and cents values with different type size. Not that I can recall at this moment, but it seems the cents value is about one-fourth the size of the dollar value. Anyway, happy celebrations of whatever you're celebrating!

	A	B	C
Pillow Pets	$19.99		19.99
34" Jumbo Teddy (bear)		19.99
Fushigi Magic Gravity Ball	19.99	19.99	14.99
Big Box of Fuzzoodles	19.99
Homedics Neck and Shoulder Massager	19.99
Dr. Scholl's Full Cushion Massager	19.99
Homedics Hand Sanitizer Dispenser	19.99
EnviraScape Home Fragrance	19.99
Dr. Scholl's Foot Spa	19.99
Paper Jamz Guitar	19.99
Paper Jamz Drums	19.99
Shake Weight	19.99
Belly Burner	19.99
Discovery Kids Motorized Pottery Wheel		19.99
Discovery Kids Adventure Play Tent		19.99
Mister Steamy (dryer ball that you put water into)	14.99		14.99
Yoshi Blade (Looks like successor to Ginsu knife)	14.99	19.99	14.99
Amazing Wand	14.99		14.99
Total Pillow	14.99
Chef Basket	14.99
Snuggle	14.99	14.99	9.99
Pet Zoom	9.99
Finishing Touch Personal Hair Remover	9.99
Handy Caddy	9.99
Cami Secret	9.99
Might Fix It	9.99
Pasta Boat	9.99
Dropps Detergent	9.99
Voice Recording Photo Frame	9.99
13 in 1 Pocket Tool	9.99
Golfer's Tool	9.99
2 Pack LED Book Lights	9.99
Open It! Any Package	9.99
Sara Peyton Wand	9.99
Sarah Peyton Two Headed Massager (!!)	9.99
Homedics Foot Massage Pillow	9.99
Homedics Mini Bath	9.99
Homedics Exfoliating Shower Massager	9.99
Wexford Glass Personal Scale	9.99
Emerson Triple-head shaver		9.99
Emerson wet/dry shaver		9.99
Soft-Sided Pet House		9.99
Doggy Stairs		9.99
Discovery Kids moon lamp		9.99
Money Farm piggy bank		9.99
Slap Chop			9.99
Anti Static Dryer Balls			9.99
Wonder Hanger			9.99
HD Vision Ultra Sun Glasses			9.99
Slippers	9.99
Rainbow toe socks	3pr/10

A Convenient Ganachey Icing

I don't have a good name for my hybrid icing, so I'll refer to it as ganachey icing. Ganache is a term for a chocolate icing with two main ingredients—chocolate (squares, chips, candies, etc.) and heavy cream. The white icing equivalent is white chocolate and heavy cream. A typical ganache to me is the chocolate icing on Hostess cupcakes.

My alternative to heavy cream is canned frosting. The convenience is microwaving two items and not having to boil cream. Anyway, the ratio is typically half "candy" and half frosting, by weight. For cupcakes, I tend to use 8 ounces of candy (Wilton, chocolate or other flavor chips, candy bars, "bark", ...) and 8 ounces of frosting for a batch of cupcakes cut into 48 halves.

You can be as flexible and adventuresome with icing flavors and cake shapes as you want. For that matter, the ganachey icing is good also on cookies and rice crispy bars/squares. I have not ever tried icing a whole cake because I tend to make bite-size desserts.

Melt the candy in a microwave. Follow instructions for melting if the package has them. Otherwise, microwave a minute at a time, using a spoon to test for meltedness each time. When it's melted, spoon in the frosting, stir, and microwave the mixture until it's a syrupy texture. Spread or dip items as desired.

• The first batch of images show icing one mini-cupcake. Coverage should be about 60 (one cake mix box recipe). YMMV for how many bite-sizers you ice.
• The second batch of images show icing a sheet of chocolate rice crispy treats, then cutting and arranging the squares into a container. Yes, that's a squeegie handle I use for spreading the warm ganachey icing—clean!

In case mentioning Hostess cupcakes triggers a Pavlovian response and you want to try making your own, do a Google search for "homemade hostess cupcakes recipe". Of several recipes I've viewed, these bakers are serious scratch-recipe people! One recipe that is particularly eye-catching for details and pictures is Faux Hostess Cupcakes - Childhood Lunchbox Memories. A secondary source for reasonable information is Homemade Hostess Cupcakes.

I myself would probably just be casual enough to bake from a box cake mix recipe, squirt in canned frosting, pour and spread my ganache recipe, and draw the squiggle with more canned frosting. Wouldn't these cupcakes look cute as mini versions?

Visit my other baking recipe articles:

• A Convenient Triple-dose Pnutty Butter Cooky Batch
  Cookies using PB cookie mix, turbocharged w/chopped peanuts & Wilton PB flavor candies
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--German Chocochip Bites
  Cookies using cake mix—German chocolate cake taste with predominance of chocolate, coconut, and pecans
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch--Easter
  For Easter, cookies using cake mix, decorated with color sugars, then imprinted with small cooky cutters.
• A Convenient Cake Mix Cooky Batch
  Easy cooky recipe using cake mix for making red cookies for Valentine's Day. Includes a strip of images at the top of the article.

Post-TDay Travel--Part 3 of 3

YouTube playlists for this article (1, 2),
playlist compilation article

This article is the third of three parts of the Thanksgiving week travel theme. In the first article, I wrote about songs about planes, trains, and cars, based on the movie title Trains, Planes, and Automobiles. As I dove into writing about other travel modes, I wandered around from song to song. I concluded I have enough material for three parts. Part 2 is about water travel songs—boats, surfboards, submarines, ….

This article covers the rest of the travel modes I can think of. I've listed songs, artists, lyrics sites, and video sites (if possible). Take another trip down memory lane.

One Foot in Front of the Other

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Walk, Don't Run	Ventures	NA	V
25 Miles	Edwin Starr	Click	ES
Stroll	Diamonds	Click	D
Hitch Hike	Marvin Gaye	Click	MG

Non-car Wheelies

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Surrey with the Fringe on Top	Various	Click	BD, GM to SJ	from Oklahoma play
Bicycle Song	Red Hot Chlit Peppers	Click	RHCP
Bicycle Race	Queen	Click	Q
Bicycle Built for Two	Various	Click	Chipmunks, computer
Acoustic Motorbike	Luka Bloom	Click	LB
Little Honda	Hondells	Click	H, [imagery]	2nd video—montage
Highway In The Wind	Arlo Guthrie	Click	AG
Motorcycle Song	Arlo Guthrie	Click	AG	Significance

Mass Transit (of Sorts)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Bus Stop	Hollies	Click	H
Magic Bus	The Who	Click	Who
Another One Rides the Bus	Weird Al	Click	AY	parody of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust"
Promised Land	Chuck Berry	Click	CB	Prominent in MIB w/Tommy Lee Jones singing with radio while driving upside down
Convoy	C.W. McCall	Click	CWM, [imagery]	1st video—movie trailer w/complete song, 2nd video—montage w/twist on lyrics

Clippity Cloppity

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Over the River and Through the Woods	Various	1, 2	Chipmunks	Lyrics for Thanksgiving, Christmas refs
Horse with No Name	America	Click	A
El Paso	Marty Robbins	Click	MR	Performance from father, then son
Ghost Riders in the Sky	Johnny Cash, Pukipu/Ramrods	Click	JC, P/R	1st video—Johnny Cash 2nd video—Pukipu/Ramrods

Up in the Sky (Not Planes)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Superman/Can You Read My Mind	John Williams composer	Click	JW
Up, Up, and Away	5th Dimension	Click	5D
Yellow Balloon	Yellow Balloon	Click	YB
Magic Carpet Ride	Steppenwolf	Click	S
Whole New World	Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle	Click	PB&RB

Up in the Stratosphere (Also Not Planes)

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Rocket Man	Elton John	Click	EJ
Fly Me to the Moon	Frank Sinatra	Click	FS
Star Wars	John Williams composer	NA	JW
Star Trek	Various	NA	classic, Next Generation
Telstar	Tornados	NA	T	Trivia: Band member George Bellamy is father of Muse’s Matt Bellamy.
Martian Hop	Ran-Dells	Click	RD
Bennie and the Jets	Elton John	Click	EJ	All these years, I never knew it was Bennie, and Bennie’ a she. ("She's got electric boots a mohair suit")

Just Moving On

Song	Artist(s)	Lyrics	Video	Comment(s)
Wayward Wind	Gogi Grant	Click	GG
Travelin' Man	Rick Nelson	Click	RN
Ramblin’ Man	Allman Brothers	Click	AB
The Wanderer	Dion	Click	Dion
Different Drum	Linda Ronstadt, Michael Nesmith	Click	LR, MN	Lyrics link plays LR's song immediately. 1st video—LR, as part of Stone Poneys 2nd video—MN (ex-Monkee), DD writer
Me and You and a Dog Named Boo	Lobo	Click	Lobo
On the Road Again	Willie Nelson	Click	WN
On the Road Again	Canned Heat	Click	CH