Consuming passion

Since we’re heading into the holiday season, which means we’re also into the turbo-charged consumer and culinary frenzy season. So I think we should start it off with this: The Hater’s Guide to the Williams-Sonoma Catalog.

When I was a child I occasionally wondered what parents would say when their kids asked, “Mom/Dad—what is it that you do?” and the answer was something like “Make dishmops.”

And I also wondered what people in the Korean or Indian factories thought of Americans as they packed cases of Smurf dolls for shipment over here.

But we’ve clearly moved way, way beyond Smurfs and dishmops to polished Italian alderwood acorn-shaped twine holders and Hungarian grain-sack stockings and potato scrubbing gloves.

Ah, look—you just can’t make this stuff up.