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What's in Store: Christmas decor galore and Gwen Stefani style

01.01.70

The progress of outdoor Christmas decorating has gone from big, colorful bulbs to icicle lights to innocent wire deer to inflatable characters and now to purple hippos, pink flamingos and risqu peacocks.

Whimsical lawn art is the "it" decor thing for outdoor Christmas displays this year.

"They've gone with new, fun crap," said Bryan Wilson, general foreman at Menards South in Rochester.

The lighted lawn art is made of lattice-covered wire and comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, including the colorful animals as well as strength boxes that look like they are filled with three-dimensional stars.

Optimistic LED lights are also lighting up the Christmas season.

Decorating with LED lights won't only mark down your electrical usage during a time of year when usage is typically peak, the bulbs are also cooler so they reduce fire hazards and qualify for rebates from Austin, Owatonna and Rochester utilities, Wilson said.

Source: Post-Bulletin

Letters -- Published Oct. 19, 2011

01.01.70

Pot shops will trigger misdeed

Out from underground and out of the shadows, the dope dealer is now a "bud tender" and wears a application as he sells his wares in a mahogany paneled waiting room with sympathetic music wafting through the air conditioned, nicely appointed duty protected by two security guards in case the environment turns hooligan.

Stockton has reached her milestone of attaining her first "cannabis canteen" or "medical pot dispensary" and with more franchises on the way. This "wellness ability" ain't no candy store, man. It's a dope score sure as shootin'.

Speaking of shooting, on Sept. 27 in Ione, five crowd members robbed a medical pot farm and murdered the manager. The gangsters were arrested upon leaving the shooting. Also, police discovered an east Stockton depot in the 1800 block of Vicki Lane full of marijuana plants at miscellaneous stages of growth and with 15 employees.

Is this growing management legal, and is it part of a local dispensary?

Source: Stockton Record

The great Indian gold obsession

01.01.70

Be dressed it, flaunt it, hoard it or eye it, this 24-carat of blinding, blingy effulgence is a 24-hour obsession with us. The West can rave about the treasure and sophistication of platinum and delight in the dazzle of diamonds, but we, oh boy, are sold on gold!

The gold model "Gold has an old history," says jewellery designer Poonam Soni. "The angel of gold is intrinsically rooted in our psyche. In the earlier days, women were brought up with the paradigm of male chauvinism. Families gave their daughters gold ornaments as surveillance to cash in during hard times. Also, one's social standing and glamour in the community depended on how much gold they had," explains Poonam. Aparna Kulkarni, a media whizz in her early 20s says, "While some from our generation see gold as flashy, our mothers are diligent stocking up on gold for our marriages! "

With gold leading the metal away, it's no surprise, then, that many of us look at international jewellery with disdain and even abhorrence. "Whereas we value gold, internationally, fine jewellery is about diamond and silvery, and gold is mostly pink," says Poonam, who's presently busy putting together joining jewellery collection for a couple of "ultra-savvy and aromatic clients". " The wedding collection that I'm working on now has everything, from matapatti to maang tikka, the works! No expenditure rise can ever dampen the demand for gold in our country. "

Source: Times of India