If there is one upside to the economic downturn, it is the downfall of what was once assumed to be the resilient market for luxury pet goods. Dog and cat lovers are used to having ridiculous, often useless products foisted upon us. But in the last few years we have also had to endure a parade of come-ons for a keeping up with the Jones' dog approach to pet ownership. Happily, that may end.

In 2005, Paw Luxuries Magazine proudly launched as "the only magazine devoted to the world of high-end pet products and luxury pet services." Somehow before that us dog and cat people had to get along without "a stylish photographic essay, showcasing dazzling designs from the trendsetters of the pet world." And we'll have to find a way to get by without it; Paw Luxuries is gone. (Though The Pet Elite and Luxury Pet Living survive.)

No doubt, we're all spending more on our pets as they've become a bigger part of our families. When I was growing up, my dog Peanut was lucky to get an occasional rawhide stick. Now my dog Jolly has an assortment of meat-based treats -- like Dr. Becker's Bison bites (which are like a meat Pringle). He's also a senior with arthritis, so he has coats and even beds for all weather.

But what sellers of luxury pet goods fail to understand is, I'm willing to spend a lot of money on something I think will make Jolly comfortable or happy or even amused. I'm not interested in spending money to get a dog status symbol or fashion statement or piece of dog cuteness.

When I switched over to Netflix, I chose the three-at-a-time plan because my wife and I love to watch movies and catch up on TV series we have missed. We were already saving over our Blockbuster plan, and with the addition of Netflix's Watch Instantly feature, it seemed like the best choice.

After a few months, I decided to check out my renting habits using Feedflix.com, which calculated my cost per rental and other statistics about my Netflix subscription.

I knew I had been lax about watching and returning DVDs but I didn't realize that my cost per rental is an astonishing $8.49! More than double what I would pay at any local rental store. Thankfully my per-rental price drops to a more reasonable $2.55 after you take into account my new-found obsession with the Watch Instantly feature.

While I could cut back my subscription like my colleague Tom Barlow did, I am going to try to maximize my value using the alerts that FeedFlix provides. Now, I'll get an email every Tuesday if I have kept a movie more than five days. This will help me stay on top of rentals and make sure that I have something good for the weekend. If my cost per rental is still too high next month, I'll drop my subscription plan down a notch until I find a good balance.

FeedFlix is free and easy to try out, making it an excellent tool for any Netflix subscriber. Taking a closer look at one of my subscriptions has only reinforced the notion that we often overestimate the value of our subscription plans. I wish I could get a similar tool for my Gamefly subscription, since I have a tendency to keep games too long as well.



Via Lifehacker

According to the AP, the ranks of the Scouts of America is only half the size it was a generation ago. The organization, which has only 3% Hispanic participation in a country, has undertaken a new initiative to appeal to this demographic in hopes of regaining its prominence.

Since one in four Americans under five is of Hispanic descent, this seems like a logical move. To this end, the Niño Scouts is taking a two pronged approach: a rebranding campaign and revised programming that speaks to this population.

To lead the rebranding effort, the BSA has hired the PR firm of Fleishmann Hilliard, and created its own branding and marketing departments. (A snarky journalist might suggest these groups are tasked with the BS of the the BSA.) Expect to see radio and TV ads for the organization later this year.

Programs will also be overhauled. Look for bilingual leadership and materials, and more emphasis on the urban and the family experience. The BSA is launching pilot programs this year in several towns with large Latino populations, and has already translated a great deal of leadership material into Spanish.

Don't expect outreach to gay or atheist youth, however. Leaders in these minorities are still no deseados in the Scouts.

And now for the most ridiculous item of the day:

Gawker reports on an Onion staff writer who is selling a joke on eBay. What joke? You'll have to buy it to find out! The bidding is already up to $370. From the auction description:

My name is John Harris, and I am a staff writer at The Onion, America's Finest News Source. I am selling a joke that I can't find a contextual home for. To be fair, it's less of a joke and more of a dated, Capote-esque cocktail party bon mot, but decidedly more feeble. The best one can reasonably expect from this item is a self-satisfied chuckle, such as can be observed issuing from someone wearing a turtleneck while reading the Harper's Index. If that didn't make you barf, please continue reading.

Not quite sure what to make of it? Neither am I.

But wait, there's more! If you win the auction, you will have full ownership of the joke and, according to Mr. Harris in the Q&A section of the listing (which is hysterical and worth reading), the buyer is free to resell the joke if he wishes. You can even tell people that you wrote it! So it could be a better investment than the stock market or real estate.

My office is around the corner from a branch of the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Every day, I see "creatively" dressed youngsters dragging massive black portfolios to and from class. Sometimes they do photo shoots on my street, doing closeups of eggs splattered on the pavement or scantily-clad models slithering around on tinfoil. "How are they ever going to make a living when they get out of school?" I always wondered, shaking my head and clucking like a grandma.

Then one night while walking to the train station, I passed by the school, which featured student artwork in the windows. Dramatic black-and-white photographs of the countryside, colorful still-life of tropical fruit, muslin ballgowns draped on mannequins. This was college students' work? To me, it was wonderful stuff that looked like it could be displayed not only in art galleries but also in my place of honor, above the fireplace mantle. That's when I decided I wanted to help those students down the street earn a living.

I'll never have the budget to buy a Picasso or a Pollock, but I could be buying work from the next art-world sensation. That's why I think buying works from art schools is way better than buying them at art galleries and auctions. Not only are you giving students and alumni a mental and financial boost, you're also buying up-and-coming works that could appreciate later on if the artist gains fame.

Word comes today that the blog The Consumerist, which plays on the same swing set as WalletPop, has been bought by the Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports. I find this a curious union.

Consumer Reports is, to my mind, the best source for non-biased, data-driven comparisons and recommendations for consumer goods. The degree to which it attempts to quantify the attributes of goods from washing machines to life insurance has aided immeasurably in helping consumers see through advertising hype.

The Consumerist, formerly part of the Gawker empire, has, like many popular blogs, featured a blend of fact and opinion with more than a soupçon of attitude.

The curiosity I see, then, is that Consumer Reports defines the pole labeled objectivity as much as The Consumerist labels the opposite pole, subjectivity. I find it hard to understand how The Consumerist, in its present incarnation, can fit within the Consumer Reports brand. And if the blog is pulled in the direction of objectivity and reliance on test results, it can't help but lose some of the snarky attitude that makes it fun to read.

Also, while Consumer Reports may have thousands of dollars with which to test products before making its conclusions, bloggers are usually working for very little money, certainly too little to fund testing. Will The Consumerist be forced to abandon the 'regurgitate with attitude' model?

Perhaps this marriage can work, but from where I sit, it seems like a case of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir recruiting Brittany Spears. There's a good chance somebody's going to lose their shorts.

As France's champagne producers have endlessly reminded us, to be a true champagne, a sparkling wine must originate in the Champagne region of France. Unfortunately, "real" champagne doesn't come cheap, and the inflated dollar has driven the price up even further. On the bright side, even if you don't want to spend a small fortune on carbonated wine from France, there are numerous other options for welcoming the New Year. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions for the perfect drink for beginning a fun and thrifty 2009!

Prosecco: A dry, carbonated Italian wine, Prosecco combines the fizz of champagne with the fresher flavors of summer. With its clear overtones of melon, lemon, almonds, and honey, it offers a bright, sunny taste that contrasts nicely with falling temperatures. Best of all, it is not nearly as well known as champagne, which translates into a lot more holiday cheer for a lot less money.

Lambic: Although officially a beer, lambics use natural yeasts to produce a clean, slightly tart flavor that is far more reminiscent of wine. While basic lambics have a rich, exciting taste, the ones flavored with fruits are far more intense and festive. Regardless of whether you choose raspberry, peach, blackcurrent or cherry, it is sort of like a slightly more sophisticated Kier Royale. Best of all, at under $10 per bottle, it is a delicious and reasonably priced tipple!

It's tradition that stretches back probably to the year 1. Every year people make New Year's Resolutions, and by February, if not sooner, they're long forgotten.

But it doesn't have to be that way. I may not be an expert at keeping all of my resolutions -- if I were, I'd be a millionaire sipping a pina colada on a beach somewhere -- but I consider myself something of an expert at remembering them, and so I thought I'd offer a few tips for those who are thinking of making resolutions but wondering if it's worth the trouble.

1) Don't call them New Year's Resolutions. The resolutions part is fine. The "New Year" isn't. Instead, I always write up a "goal" list. If you think of the habits you want to achieve as attached to January 1, even if you're looking ahead to January 1, 2010, by the time you get into February and March, anything you've mentally attached "New Year" to won't feel new at all, and if you had planned to contribute more to your IRA, spend less at the grocery store or lose weight or whatever, chances are, you'll have forgotten all about your bold ideas. But if you call your list something like, "Goals: 2009," you might have a better shot at keeping your resolutions at the forefront of your mind.

In the best of times, it's easy to imagine that commodities and currencies are stable, unchanging things. After all, if gold was worth $400 an ounce yesterday, there is no reason to imagine that it will be worth a great deal more or less tomorrow. Similarly, if the dollar was able to buy a certain amount of goods or services last week, then one can be forgiven for imagining that it will be able to buy a comparable amount of goods or services next month. In good times, prices don't fluctuate all that much, and we can make long term plans, secure in the belief that the economy or the markets won't leave us holding the bag.

Unfortunately, the past few months have been a long, painful lesson in the pitfalls of currencies and commodities. When the value of gas skyrocketed and the value of the dollar plummeted, prices that had long been stable began to bounce up and down. Stocks that were once worth a fortune were suddenly devalued, while gold that was once worth a reasonable amount was suddenly worth a whole lot more. In the midst of this crisis, some necessities began to look like luxuries and thrift once again became a virtue.

Everywhere you turn, it seems that the economic news is dismal. As foreclosures and college tuition costs skyrocket, while jobs and 401K's evaporate, what are Americans doing about it? The answer may surprise you: they're checking in with psychics.

The reason is simple on the face of it. Lots of people want someone to tell them what to do. Should I sell my house, downsize and relocate, cash in the remnants of my stock portfolio? Should I tell me daughter that she will have to start at a community college because I'm not sure that I can pay the mortgage and still help her with tuition?

Here's what a legitimate psychic will tell you: "I don't know. I can't tell you what you should do. I can only tell you what you're going to do."

I've been a psychotherapist for 35 years. Most of that time, I've been fascinated by the paranormal. I've worked with psychics and mediums in the United States, England and Israel. I travel nationally doing seminars about psychic events in the lives of clinicians and clients. Here's what I know.

When one hears the term "mystery meat," it's hard not to think of Spam. After all, although the ingredients -- pork shoulder, ham, water, sugar, salt, sodium nitrite, and potato starch -- are clearly marked on every package, there still remains a question about its origins. Maybe it's the mysterious can, with its old-fashioned illustrations and rounded corners, or maybe its just the fact that the meat doesn't really look like anything that occurs in nature; regardless, Spam carries with it a tinge of strangeness, a touch of enigma.

One of the greatest mysteries in this most mysterious of meats lies in the question of who actually eats it. While Whole Foods seems notably lacking Spam, most grocery stores stock huge piles of the stuff. What's more, Spam cans always seem fresh, undented, and almost pristine, which would suggest that it doesn't spend much time in the store. Recent news reports back this observation up.

While Spam is popular across the United States, it is almost legendary in Hawaii, where every man, woman, and child consumes, on average, six cans a year. While most pundits claim that the canned snack gained popularity during World War II, when U.S. soldiers gave it to natives, Christopher Moore cites a more entertaining explanation. In Island of the Sequined Love-Nun, he claims that Spam actually is code for "Shaped Protein Approximating Man," and that it was used to wean cannibals off of long pork.

On a recent CBS News Sunday Morning, an intelligent but little-known magazine show (which is sort of like NPR for your TV), contributor Nancy Giles set out to test a few of those old wives' tales about dishwashers. Like those nerdy goofs on Mythbusters, she put a few old saws to the test and found out that when it comes to cleaning up after meals, most of us are doing more work than we have to.

With the advice of an appliance expert at the Good Housekeeping Institute (yes, it exists -- it's the place that issues that famous seal of approval), Giles reversed a few bits of conventional wisdom about your dishwasher. To do less pre-washing and re-washing, it turns out you just have to use the machine the way it was designed to be used, and not load it the way you usually do.

The biggest revelation is that you don't have to pre-rinse anything. Just dump the big scraps in the garbage and go. To test that one, Giles sent a casserole dish of caked-on mac and cheese and an oatmeal-crusted saucepan into the dishwasher with no preamble. She set the dishwasher to high heat and let loose. Two hours later, they came out fine -- at least, they do in Giles' piece for CBS. What other dishwasher magic tricks are revealed?

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been waging an ongoing war against small-time pirates for half a decade now. By initiating large numbers of lawsuits, even against people who have illegally downloaded 10, 20, 30 copyrighted songs, the RIAA had essentially terrorized scofflaws into spending money on the big labels.

All in all, about 35,000 people got sued, but the RIAA never won a single case. Most were settled for an average of $3,500 because small-time users couldn't afford the mountain of legal expenses that the RIAA would send tumbling upon them. Downloading copies of songs through file-sharing software is outside the law, even if you just happen to be "trying out" some music and, conveniently, never get around to buying your legal copy. Still, just before the Christmas break, the RIAA announced it would end its campaign against mom-and-pop pirates.

The practice of suing individual downloaders, many impoverished students, was intended to make the world aware of of the damage of illegal downloading, but it quickly backfired and became a public relations nightmare for the music industry. Take the mentally ill 19-year-old girl who lost an $8,000 judgment against her because she was too sick to show up at court. Or the 65-year-old Massachusetts grandmother accused of downloading hi-hop tunes. (The RIAA dropped that one, but not before Granny totally lost her street cred.)

But did the RIAA halt the lawsuits because they made the industry look petty and unreasonable or because it never scored in front of a judge? Neither. The lawsuits were simply costing more money than they were bringing in. That's right -- -this sue-the-little-guy policy ended up costing the ailing recording industry even more money.

The dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats, Igor Panarin, is getting plenty of airtime with his prediction that the United States will disintegrate in 2010. He says this will be the result of our collapsing economy and morals, which will cause a civil war and the end of our country as we know it.

Panarin says that after the split occurs, California will be the base of a group of states under China's rule. Texas will be the base of a group of states under the control of Mexico. Canada will rule a group of northern Midwest states, and the European Union will control a group of east coast states.

Dollar General's Secret Flawless Diamond Sweepstakes started on September 27, 2008 and runs until June 30, 2009, which means you still have plenty of time to win a 1-Carat diamond worth approximately $15,000.

Procter and Gamble is sponsoring the contest which is open to all U.S. residents who are at least 13 years old at the time of entry.

There are two methods of entry. The first is to visit a Dollar General store and purchase a specially-marked Secret Flawless 1.6 oz. "Invisible Solid" product. If the product contains a diamond game piece, you are a potential Grand Prize Winner. Then you must send the original game piece, along with your name and address to Winner! Secret Flawless Diamond Sweepstakes - Dollar General - Prize Claim, c/o e-Prize Fulfillment Services, One ePrize Drive, MI 48069. Your entry must be received by July 8, 2009 or you will forfeit the prize and it will remain un-awarded.

However, having found the diamond game piece does not guarantee you the diamond because there is a second method of entry that requires no purchase. Entrants simply hand print their name, address, day and evening telephone numbers, email address and age on a 3" x 5" piece of paper and mail it to Secret Flawless Diamond Sweepstakes - Dollar General - Sweepstakes Entry, c/o e-Prize, LLC, P.O. Box 2408, Grand Rapids, MI 49501-2408. You're allowed one entry, which must be handwritten, postmarked by July 1, 2009 and received by July 8, 2009.

The all-powerful Administrator will apply an algorithm to determine whether the Grand Prize will be awarded through product purchase or free method of entry. If it is to be awarded via the free entry method, the Administrator will select the winner in a random drawing from amongst all eligible entries received.

See the Secret Diamond Flawless Diamond Sweepstakes Official Rules for full details.

Marlene Alexander is a freelance writer and dollar store diva. She writes tips and ideas for decorating using only items from the dollar store.