...This Thanksgiving, which was a wonderful one by the way, I went through the newspaper. It was fun seeing the two different bags of my newspaper on the driveway. One was small and thin - that was the paper. The other was as large as a Sunday paper with everything in it - those were the sales flyers.

DH and I cruised through all of them to see when stores were opening and if there really was anything that we would be interested in. I mentally categorized stores as toys, electronics, office supplies, department stores and figured out how they're all opening at the same time depending on who the competition is. Kohl's, Mervyn's and JC Penney were all opening at 4am. Target and Walmart at 5am. Everyone else around 6am. The knitting store at 6:30am (but that was via email and not newspaper flyer).

I found computer ads, and toy ads, and then I found the most disgusting jewelry ad of all. It was a nice glossy cardstock and on one side it was done up beautifully, greyscale against white background, with a photo of a lovely diamond necklace. Then I flipped it over.

Stark gorgeous solitaire loose diamond on a black glossy background. In white roman text at the top to the upper right of the diamond which was slightly offset of center: "WIFE"... and diagonally from that, under the diamond: "Insurance".

DH saw it and instantly said "Now that's bloggable." (We need bloggable to become an actual word in the lexicon, but that's beside the point.) Wife Insurance. As if a diamond is going to perfectly insure that one's wife is going to be happy. That's about as ludicrous as the marriage insurance idea that some intern at my company came up with (thinking that reminders about birthdays and emails to send random "just because" gifts would keep a marriage healthy, but then he thinks that interns should make $80K annually in salary).

I think that wife insurance ad is about as sexist as they come. It's insulting to women, and demeaning to men - especially those who have managed to have perfectly healthy and wonderful marriages without springing diamonds on their wives (other than the ones originally given in an engagement ring, if applicable).

So folks, according to some jewelry store out here in Silly.com Valley, a diamond is wife insurance. What next? A Ferrari as husband insurance...

...no, DH, I'm not buying you a Ferrari.