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Whether you are shopping for yourself, your children or siblings back to school is pure mayhem!!I have been paying attention to ads, flyers, etc.. for "Back to School" sales and promos. The only problem is there are only flyers for major department stores. The newest fad in fashion seems to be aimed at "skaterwear". What I mean by that is clothing that skaters wear (like Tony Hawk). When watching X games and so on kids see the participants wearing expensive clothing(surely they did not buy it, the clothes are given to them to advertise to the viewers and get people shopping for their brands). I am sorry but a backpack for back to school should not cost $50.00 to 60.00 dollars plus taxes!! That's insane! I can understand certain brand names cost more but it seems the pricing is a bit Hollywood. What parents can afford to buy that? Ok, I guess if both parents work $80,000/year jobs and only have 1 child, then that's not too bad. However, with 3 children, that comes to 150.00 dollars before taxes for BACKPACKS????I don't think so!! If I allow this I am only looking at a future of $200/jeans per child as well!! So I guess this year will be the last year I buy back to school clothes for the teens. If they want the expensive clothes, I GUESS THEY WILL NEED TO GET A JOB TO BUY THEM!!As for my youngest child, they do not seem to mind the name brands(or lack of) on their clothing. So for now I leave you with this. I will continue to find the deals on the name brands and put away for Birthdays and holidays. I guess this is the end of my rant….for now.

Tags: Back to school, back to school Fool., Brand names, department stores, endorsements, high prices clothing/accesories, major department chains, X-games

OMG!!! This morning I heard on the news that my local channel CHCH news was no longer E! Network. As of midnight August 31, 2009 E network no longer will air, EVER!!! At first I thought there was a mistake, so I did some research. Online, I was able to find 1 article about it. The E! Network airs all the reality shows and most of them I am totally addicted to. OMG! Now, I need to go online and disect the listings for my satellite and find each program again. It was great, all in one channel and my local news and weather.How did this happen? The CRTC on Friday sealed the fate of Canwest Global Communications’ secondary E! network by okaying the transfer of ownership of CHCH in Hamilton and CJNT in Montreal to Channel Zero. Channel zero is news almost all day long and two blockbuster movies at 7 and 9 pm, leading into what…more news, you guessed it! I am glad that everyone there still gets to keep there jobs but not everyone was so lucky. Around the same timeframe, the E! station in Red Deer, Alberta, CHCA, will sign off, and Kelowna, B.C.’s CHBC will morph into a Global Television station. CHEK , in Victoria announced on the 11:00 news that they have until tommorw. CHEK will be airing their morning, noon and evening news.Will their fate lead them to remaining on air or to close shop like the others?

Here is the Good news, as a rebrand of CH, Canwest will hang onto its E! Entertainment Networks program pipeline from Comcast as part of a multi-year deal. The E! programming is expected to air on the Global Television network and Canwest’s cable channels.(Yeah for me, I can still watch Kendra and Chelsea Lately, while keeping up with the Kardashians as I am eating the daily dish with side of Craig Ferguson Soup.(LOL) This past Friday, Canwest faced another deadline with US bondholders and senior lenders as they attempt to make 4 billion dollars to avoid bankruptcy protection. Talks of restructuring different divisions of the company in order to get bail out money or avoid bancrupsy. Does this not sound ridicullosly familiar?I see a pattern here.

Good Bye E! Network, I will miss you!!!

Till Next Time