In November, Laurelton Hall, the country house designed inside and out by Louis Comfort valentines jewelry, will be the subject of a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition. The son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, the company’s founder and his successor, Louis Comfort was also a leading figure in America’s Arts & Crafts movement, most famous now for his luminous stained glass windows and lamps.

Fernanda Kellogg, head of public relations at Tiffany says that, when the Met’s director Phillippe de Montebello suggested the company might be backers, “he said that for us to sponsor the show seemed the most natural thing in the world.” Tiffany thought so, too, to the tune of half a million dollars.

But even before that, another Tiffany-sponsored Tiffany exhibition opens in London. Bejewelled by Tiffany at the Gilbert Collection, traces the company’s history through its jewels. (Timothy Stevens, the collection’s director, chooses to not reveal the size of Tiffany’s donation, explaining that that is “the British way”.)

When a brand moves from shop to museum it is, as Kellogg freely admits, “enormously prestigious” for the brand. Whatever sponsors spend, they are getting a bargain. Suddenly their product is no longer merely merchandise, it’s art.

Bejewelled promises to be a dazzling and revealing show. And Tiffany certainly doesn’t donate only when its name appears in big letters. They contributed Dollars 100,000 to the American Folk Art Museum’s Masterpieces of American Jewellery for example.

But the rise of single-brand-sponsored shows raises the troubling question: what will happen to museums and galleries if they go on taking large amounts of corporate and private money? And such sponsorship is a growth industry. In Britain during the last 30 years, private investment in the arts has gone from Pounds 600,000 to Pounds 450m a year. Governments applaud. But should we?

Will museums become ever more tempted to mount only, or mainly, those shows that easily attract such sponsorship? Will donors start calling the shots, determining a show’s content – or interpretation? Have they already?

In 2001, the Smithsonian Institution accepted Dollars 38m from the Catherine B Reynolds valentines day jewelry to create a Hall of Achievers, giving the donor the contractual right to choose its advisory committee and much of its content. After 70 curators and scholars made public their outrage, Reynolds eventually withdrew her gift. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, bewildered by the carrying-on, explained his puzzlement: “The Smithsonian takes a lot of money from big corporations who have certain strings attached to their exhibitions,” he observed.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the lines between art and advertising (corporate and individual) are becoming blurred. Cartier has backed Cartier at the British Museum and the Met, Armani sponsored Armani at the Guggenheim and the Royal Academy (RA) in London, collector/dealer Charles Saatchi bankrolled Sensation, which promoted his artists, at the RA and the Brooklyn Museum.

Pressure is on museums from governments that measure an institution’s success by how many people visit. Museums, therefore, feel they have no choice but to pull in coachloads. Top brands and hot artists are a logical next step; like top fashion models and pop stars, they now have the kind of glamour that once belonged only to movie stars. But does this mean that such exhibitions are the best museums could offer?

An exhibition devoted to, say, French Belle Epoque Jewels rather than Cartier might have been just as popular. Ditto, A Millennial Survey of Great Italian Fashion Design. Such shows, in casting a wider net, might have greater aesthetic scope and had more to reveal about social history. But of course, those shows might never have been mounted – even if they had been dreamed of – because the museums might not have found the money to put them on.

“I’m old enough to remember when museum exhibitions were not sponsored and we didn’t look for sponsors,” says the Gilbert’s Timothy Stevens. But in those days, he continues, “exhibitions were publicly funded.”

His earlier experience of museums may have led Stevens to choose a cut-off date of 1987 (Tiffany’s 150th birthday), for Bejewelled. This cordon sanitaire is meant to act as a barrier between Tiffany’s historical production and its current output, keeping the show from looking like a retail promotion. But of course Bejewelled is very likely to lend an extra glow to current stock.

Were the Tiffany show to spark off renewed discussion and consideration of the problems, actual and potential, of single- brand exhibitions it would be enough reason to praise it. But while an exhibition focusing on, say, three great American business success stories (of which Tiffany is certainly one), might have given us more to think about, Bejewelled is both engaging and educational.

The exhibition is curated by the V&A’s esteemed jewellery historian Clare Phillips who, scrupulously, will talk Tiffany only on the days she is not working at the V&A.

The more than 180 pieces Phillips has chosen (all but half a dozen from the corporation archives) tell quite a story about American design, visual imagination and merchandising techniques too. On the second count alone it is a big plus. The National Gallery, after all, owns not a single American painting; the Louvre has only three.

When Tiffany opened its doors in 1837, it was a fancy-goods shop importing almost anything its clients desired, from yards of Canton silk to stacks of Guerlain soaps. Jewellery was only a small part of the business. But soon there was a representative in Paris shipping over fashionable jewels. Tiffany’s swiftly moved to making jewellery in New York, even opening its own training school, and by the end of the Civil War (1865), Tiffany-made jewels were decorating some of the Gilded Age’s richest necks and bosoms. The Tiffany diamond cut, created in 1886, released an extra degree of brilliance. To this day, Tiffany still means”diamond engagement rings” to many.

Phillips cites 1889 as a “landmark” for Tiffany. That year Le Figaro illustrated its story about the Paris Exposition with three Tiffany pieces, calling its 24 exquisite enamelled orchid brooches the exhibition’s “iconic” jewels. As visitors to this show will see, they are covetable still.

Once established as an international name in jewellery design, Tiffany chose to make the most of what set it apart. “By 1900,” Phillips says, “almost everything was from an American source. They were using Montana sapphires, turquoise and fire opals from Mexico, tourmaline from Maine, pearls from America’s rivers. Louis Comfort Tiffany was inspired by indigenous plants like Virginia Creeper and Boston Ivy.” (A whole section of Bejewelled is devoted to his sinuous pieces.)

It was gemologist George Frederick Kunz who led Tiffany out into the wider world once again. “Kunz travelled all over,” Phillips recounts. Demantoid garnets from Russia were only one of the stones Tiffany jewellers began to work with as a result. The Tiffany yellow diamond, cut in 1878, was another. At 128.54 carats it was the largest in the world.

Exhibitions of gems put together by Kunz won Tiffany a Gold Medal in 1889 at the International valentine’s day jewelry gifts for North American gemstones and another one for North American pearls, as well as the one for jewellery. Ever since, Tiffany has been known for its impressive gems as well as its jewellery.

There have been dips in creativity during its long history. During the deco years, for example, Cartier outshone Tiffany in the inventiveness and wit of its designs. But in 1956, Tiffany, under the direction of Walter Hoving (whose flamboyant son Thomas later became director of the Metropolitan Museum), had the inspired idea to give artist/designer Jean Schlumberger an in-house boutique. Schlumberger, who’d worked with Schiaparelli in Paris, was as bold as he was imaginative. On view in the exhibition is one of his brooches, which consists of a jaunty diamond-encrusted bird nonchalantly tip-toeing along the top of the legendary Tiffany yellow diamond..

One of the surprises in Bejewelled is evidence of the founder’s marketing strategy, which remains unchanged today. From the first, Tiffany catered not only for the very, or even the just plain, rich. On display is a length of steel and brass which was part of the first transatlantic cable successfully laid in 1858.

“Tiffany had the foresight to buy up the residue and get a signed affidavit saying he was the sole owner,” Phillips explains. “Then he chopped it in little pieces and sold it at 50 cents apiece.” Souvenir seekers mobbed the shop.

The group will take a total 70 per cent stake in L’Azurde, the world’s fourth largest gold and jewellery manufacturer, in a deal that values the company at more than $300m, financiers behind the deal told the Financial Times.

Investcorp – which has owned Tiffany, the jewellery chain, and Gucci, the luxury goods group – will take a 51 per cent stake in L’Azurde. Its partners – Eastgate Capital Group, the private equity arm of NCB, which is Saudi Arabia’s largest lender, and Abu Dhabi-based The National Investor – will take the remainder.

It is a bold move by Investcorp, which reported its first ever loss of $511m in the last six months of 2008. The company, which has specialised in investing Arab private and sovereign wealth in overseas private equity, hedge funds and other alternative assets, was downgraded to junk status by Standard & Poor’s in January, causing Investcorp to terminate its rating contract on what it saw as an “unjustified” downgrade.

While the credit crunch has hit demand for luxury goods, Investcorp executives are confident that the region’s social and demographic dynamics will allow the company to grow.

“Jewellery in general, and gold jewellery in particular, is almost a necessity in this region,” said Azmat Taufique, the co-head of Investcorp’s $1.1bn Gulf-focused private equity fund. “Sales are linked to social events, such as weddings, and with the Gulf’s positive demographics, we think these will increase.”

Half of the Middle East’s population is under 20 years old, and half a decade of oil-fuelled growth has swelled the size and affluence of the upper and middle classes.

L’Azurde produces 26 tonnes of gold jewellery a year and had revenues of $500m last year, selling its products through 4,200 wholesale accounts and 18 retail stores across the region. The Gulf makes up about 12 per cent of the global market for gold.

L’Azurde had implemented a pricing mechanism that would shield it from gold’s volatility, Investcorp’s executives said.

After a month of offering patrons the VirtualTrak system to guests in the 25-acre Kapolei waterpark, results cufflinks showed an increase in spending by patrons using a system that allows them to use cashless bracelets to make purchases over patrons who did not use the system.

Jason Reardon, director of finance and accounting for Hawaiian Waters, said he thinks the per caps may have increased even more than the 150% estimated by VirtualTrak. “It’s awesome. We’re very happy with it,” he said. “We’re very much locally driven, but with the locals you have to keep cutting ticket prices. So the best way to recoup that is on the in-park spending. There are not a lot of ways to do a per cap increase.”

Reardon plans to add the child locating capability next season.

The beta system was installed in Kapolei in March, and became fully operational in July.

The 52-acre Clovis waterpark mirrored those results.

This is the wave of the future, especially in waterparks, said Kent Lemasters, president and CEO of tiffany AmusementAquatic Management Group, based in Tustin, Calif., which manages Wild Water Adventures. “Long– term I think it’s a valuable asset. Short-term it’s a revenue generator,” Lemasters said.

Lemasters recently helped Wild Water Adventures in Clovis, Calif., out of bankruptcy reorganization using an aggressive revenue-generation strategy.

While the bracelet is the attractive aspect of the system for waterparks, whose patrons often have no pockets, other “bells and whistles” like group locator systems and line timing abilities will be valuable for amusement parks, Lemasters said.

Other companies have been coming out with similar cashless midway systems and child locator systems recently, bracelets but VirtualTrak is the only company that has combined all of these things into one computer chip in a bracelet, said Tom Land, VirtualTrak co-founder.

Wet’n Wild Waterworld in El Paso, Texas, is the third park to test the system this summer, and they also saw per cap increases in users, but there were fewer users overall than the other two parks, Land said. The chips were also installed in employee ID cards and will be installed in season passes in El Paso.

Mynhardt, from Botswana, was one semester away from graduating with a degree in business administration. He was known affectionately by his friends as “Botswana Lee.” His classmates decided they would collect donations from local businesses and from the community for their final project. The goal is help raise awareness for spinal cord injuries.

Elon University spokesman Dan Anderson said the students are selling rubber wrist bands for the fundraiser, called “Project Botswana.” Student Kevin Wellington said that all proceeds from the Botswana bracelets will aid Mynhardt and his family. The money will go toward his medical bills and his family’s housing costs.

“He is one of the nicest kids you’d ever meet,” Wellington said of Mynhardt. “He was always happy to see you.” “Even now he remains optimistic about everything.” Wellington hopes the fundraiser will draw awareness to the serious issue of spinal cord injuries. The students have been collecting money from a variety tiffany accessories of sources, Anderson said, and have organized on-campus booths and fundraisers throughout April.

LOCAL BUSINESSES HAVE also started chipping in to raise money for Mynhardt. On Thursday, 5 percent of all restaurant proceeds from Cantina Roble in Elon went to Project Botswana.

B. Christopher’s Restaurant, where Mynhardt worked as a bartender, will also be sponsoring a fundraiser for him next week.

The bracelets, which are being sold for $5 each, each read SCI (Spinal Cord Injury) Awareness.

They also are inscribed with “Cheers,” for the welcome that Mynhardt often used to greet both friends and strangers.

Last month, John Ferrell Cassady, 21, and Clinton Joseph Blackburn, 22, were indicted tffany keys on one count of felonious assault inflicting serious bodily injury. Cassady, an Elon student and Blackburn, a UNCG student, were arrested after turning themselves into the Elon Police Department.

Mynhardt is currently at the Carolina Rehab Center where he is in stable condition and undergoing treatment.

Kathy Stout did just that as she watched the larvae of caddisflies painstakingly build protective casings out of small stones.

“I thought they were incredible insects,” she said. “I thought, `Wow, they’re so beautiful.’”

Ms. Stout was introduced to the caddisfly by her former husband, Ben Stout, a biologist. As he studied the tiny fresh-water insect, her fascination with its masonry grew. Ms. Stout thought it would be interesting to see what the larvae would do with precious and semi-precious stones. She watched in awe as they created beautiful artwork that they discarded as they entered the adult stage of life.

Ms. Stout realized the casings were perfect natural ingredients for creating jewelry.

“I can’t leave the house without a piece of my jewelry on,” Ms. Stout remarked. “I have silver necklaces literally sold jewelry right off my body.”

Ms. Stout is just as committed to telling the story of the amazing caddisfly as she is to the jewelry she makes with their help. The presence of caddisflies in a river or stream is a sign of clean water.

Ms. Stout will be at Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary in Worcester on Thursday evening to talk about her favorite insect – “I want them to be as famous as the dragonfly,” she said – and demonstrate how she uses the exquisite casings to make earrings, necklaces and bracelets.

“I’m going to bring some bugs with me,” she said by telephone from her home in Wheeling, W.Va. “I’ll bring jewelry and casings and material to construct jewelry.”

In order to make her jewelry, Ms. Stout needs to be rather closely involved in the later stages of tiffany bangles the caddisfly life cycle. Each March, she gathers a few friends and they trek up to the headwaters of springs in the mountains of West Virginia, where the larvae congregate and live off debris. “They maintain the water quality in the stream for other organisms,” Ms. Stout explained.

She and her friends collect the larvae that are in the stage in which they are starting to construct their protective casings; it’s an amazing process to observe, she said. The larvae start by gluing pieces of leaves together with silk.

“If it’s a nice, beautiful weekend, it’s wonderful,” Ms. Stout said. “You sit on the side of a stream and look at leaves. They cut these round-circle disks out of leaves to start constructing the casings. You find the leaf disks and know they’re there.”

Ms. Stout and her friends collect 2,000 to 3,000 caddisflies and bring them back to her house, where she has bins filled with water kept between 55 and 65 degrees. She must maintain a certain water flow and oxygenation or the caddisflies will perish. She feeds her insects leaf debris she has collected from the headwater streams. It took years to create her simulated environment, and she must continually fine-tune it.

As the larvae move into the stone-building stage, Ms. Stout provides them with gems from which to build their casings. Each September, the casings become cocoons. The caddisflies emerge and head for land. They shed one more layer of skin and fly off. Ms. Stout collects the hollow casings and, using a syringe filled with jeweler’s glue, she carefully seals each one.

Ms. Stout, 46, works as a respiratory therapist, and her mother designs and makes much of the jewelry. It is tiffany rings sold on Ms. Stout’s Web site, www.wildscape.com. As far as she knows, she is the only person making jewelry out of caddisfly casings. She knows of an artist in France who uses the casings to create pieces of art.

As much as Ms. Stout enjoys making her jewelry, her real dedication is to the welfare of the caddisfly. She visits schools to give talks and is working on an educational video on the caddisfly ecosystem.

“One way I can get younger kids involved in looking at streams is showing them the beauty and art associated with a stream,” she said.

Ms. Stout recently returned from Salt Lake City, where she attended the annual meeting of the North American Benthological Society, which is dedicated to the study of bottom-dwelling creatures in streams and lakes. When she’s away, her caddisflies are tended by her “bug sitter.”

“She knows the system really well and monitors the caddisflies for me,” Ms. Stout said. “They’re my babies. I want them to survive and live a happy life.”

Contact Pamela H. Sacks at Psacks@telegram.com

Jewelry Created by the Caddisfly

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, 414 Massasoit Road, Worcester

How much: $3 for members; $5 for nonmembers. There will be a charge for materials used, and Kathy Stout’s jewelry will be for sale.

Units: About 29,000

Importer: D&D Distributing-Wholesale Inc., of Tacoma, Wash.

Hazard: Small parts can detach from the necklace and bracelet when the elastic string break, posing a choking hazard to young children.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported.

Description: This recall involves two models of “Chelsea’s” Necklace and rings Set. These two models are “Crayon” and the “Shiny Heart” Necklace and Bracelet Set. Both models have yellow, blue, red, green, purple, and pink crayons or hearts connected by elastic string. Each set has one necklace and one bracelet.

Sold at: Retail stores and wholesalers nationwide from April 1999 through April 2009 for about $4.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately take the recalled necklace and bracelets set away from children and contact D&D Distributing-Wholesale to exchange or refund the product.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact D&D Distributing-Wholesale toll-free at (800) 262-9435 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT Monday through Friday. Consumers can also visit the firm’s Web site at www.dddist.com

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $800 billion annually. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. The CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, cufflinks power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – contributed significantly to the decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years. To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC’s hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC’s teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270 or visit CPSC’s Web site at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC’s Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

Steven W. Derr, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England and Nora R. Dannehy, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that GENERO MARTE, also known as “G,” 44, a citizen of the Dominican Republic last residing in Blackwood, New Jersey, was sentenced yesterday, November 24, by United States District Judge Janet C. Hall in Bridgeport to 204 months of imprisonment for supplying cocaine to a New Haven drug trafficking organization. Judge Hall also ordered MARTE to pay a fine in the amount of $25,000. On November 20, 2008, a jury found MARTE guilty of one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base (“crack cocaine”).

This matter stems from “Operation No Nonsense,” an investigation conducted by the DEA New Haven Drug Task Force, including agents and officers of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New Haven Police Department and the West Haven Police Department, into a significant crack cocaine trafficking ring silver earrings operating in and around the Newhallville section of New Haven.

According to court documents, statements made in court and evidence disclosed during trials of several of the individuals charged as a result of this investigation, during 2006 and 2007, DEA Task Force agents made several supervised purchases of crack cocaine from Mauriel Glover, also known as “Feet,” of New Haven. In September 2007, the DEA obtained court-authorization for wiretaps on phones used by Glover and Roshaun Hoggard, also known as “Foot,” of New Haven, after which hundreds of incriminating drug-related calls were intercepted and recorded. The wiretap revealed that Glover, Hoggard and others regularly received cocaine from MARTE, which was transported to Connecticut and processed into crack. Glover, Hoggard and others then sold the crack to numerous customers in the Newhallville section of New Haven.

In several recorded conversations, Hoggard described the process of cooking the powder cocaine he had obtained from MARTE into crack. Hoggard also was intercepted complaining to MARTE about cocaine powder that was of too low quality to be processed into crack and which he wanted to return. During the trial of silver key rings MARTE and Hoggard, the Government presented the testimony of law enforcement agents who followed Hoggard to the Bronx, New York where he met with associates of MARTE to pick up distribution quantities of cocaine.

MARTE, Glover and Hoggard have been detained since their arrests in December 2007.

On May 21, 2008, Glover pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base. On November 20, 2008, a jury found Hoggard guilty of one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base, and one count of possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base. Each awaits sentencing.

This case has been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New Haven Police Department silver necklaces, the West Haven Police Department, the Shelton Police Department, the Meriden Police Department and the Branford Police Department. The United States Marshals Service assisted in the arrests of several of these defendants.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Nora R. Dannehy, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that GENERO MARTE, also known as “G,” 44, a citizen of the Dominican Republic last residing in Blackwood, New Jersey, was sentenced yesterday, November 24, by United States District Judge Janet C. Hall in Bridgeport to 204 months of imprisonment for supplying cocaine to a New Haven drug trafficking organization. Judge Hall also ordered MARTE to pay a fine in the amount of $25,000. On November 20, 2008, a jury found MARTE guilty of one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base (“crack cocaine”).

This matter stems from “Operation No Nonsense,” an investigation conducted by the DEA New Haven Drug Task Force, including agents and officers of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New Haven Police Department and the West Haven Police Department, into a significant crack cocaine trafficking ring tiffany cufflinks operating in and around the Newhallville section of New Haven.

According to court documents, statements made in court and evidence disclosed during trials of several of the individuals charged as a result of this investigation, during 2006 and 2007, DEA Task Force agents made several supervised purchases of crack cocaine from Mauriel Glover, also known as “Feet,” of New Haven. In September 2007, the DEA obtained court-authorization for wiretaps on phones used by Glover and Roshaun Hoggard, also known as “Foot,” of New Haven, after which hundreds of incriminating drug-related calls were intercepted and recorded. The wiretap revealed that Glover, Hoggard and others regularly received cocaine from MARTE, which was transported to Connecticut and processed into crack. Glover, Hoggard and others then sold the crack to numerous customers in the Newhallville section of New Haven.

In several recorded conversations, Hoggard described the process of cooking the powder cocaine he had obtained from MARTE into crack. Hoggard also was intercepted complaining to MARTE about cocaine powder that was of too low quality to be processed into crack and which he wanted to return. During the trial tiffany money clips of MARTE and Hoggard, the Government presented the testimony of law enforcement agents who followed Hoggard to the Bronx, New York where he met with associates of MARTE to pick up distribution quantities of cocaine.

MARTE, Glover and Hoggard have been detained since their arrests in December 2007.

On May 21, 2008, Glover pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base. On November 20, 2008, a jury found Hoggard guilty of one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base, and one count of possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base. Each awaits sentencing.

This case has been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New Haven Police Department,tiffany pendants the West Haven Police Department, the Shelton Police Department, the Meriden Police Department and the Branford Police Department. The United States Marshals Service assisted in the arrests of several of these defendants. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney H. Gordon Hall, Deputy Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, and Assistant United States Attorney William M. Brown, Jr. For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Disney released a new version of the Dickens Scrooge story last week, timing it so that “A Christmas Carol” will be lucky to be in distribution past Thanksgiving Day.

Starbucks has already retired its white cups for the duration, replacing them with cranberry-colored, snowflake-flecked seasonal substitutes. Wal-Mart is just one of the retailers already Kringling away like crazy, running television ads with Andy Williams crooning “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Who knew that the weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving were the hap-happiest season of all?

The day after Thanksgiving used to be the official launch of the commercial Christmas season. Now Sears is running “Black Friday” specials all through November.

Given half a chance, retailers would probably try to get their plastic garlands hung just after Labor Day. (Ho-ho-ho, it’s back to school!) But we’ve been spared that particular encroachment, thanks to a holiday that has proved capable of standing athwart the relentless forces of Christmas-creep — Halloween. Once a quaint bit of Americana built around the simple pleasures of costumes, candy-grabbing and petty vandalism, Halloween has become a marketable and profitable holiday, putting many official holidays to shame. If only Presidents Day had some sort of free-candy angle.

In contrast to Halloween’s stalwart ability to keep Christmas from jumping the queue, Thanksgiving has lost its cultural muscle. The early advent of the Santa season may have less to do with the red-and-green imperative than with the weakness of Turkey Day. What happened to this quintessential American holiday cufflinks?

Lydia Maria Child’s ode to going over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house is a good place to start in decoding Thanksgiving’s decline. First, there is the anachronistic attention given to grandmother. Thanksgiving is one of the few occasions left, in our fanatically kinder-centric culture, to honor the elderly. Picture the famous Norman Rockwell illustration “Freedom From Want” — at the Thanksgiving table grandpa and grandma have pride of place. No wonder the day gets short shrift.

And then there is all that over-the-river-and-through-the-woods business, which in our day means a choice between stripping for the nice TSA agent or creeping along I-95. Thanksgiving is the official holiday of planes, trains and automobiles. What the modern travel experience lacks in charm it makes up for with sheer ordeal. And what’s the payoff for all this effort? A chance to make small talk with in-laws.

The Food Network may be the only institution in America unapologetically boosting the holiday. For weeks, the cable channel’s programming is packed with turkey tutorials, stuffing suggestions and investigations into the mysteries of cranberry sauce. But Food Network’s programming is less an indication of popular enthusiasm for Thanksgiving than a measure of the fear the holiday engenders. Hostesses know that they will be judged on the juiciness of their turkey, the cooking of which is an exotic undertaking chanced but once a year. And the result must be achieved while juggling a half-dozen side dishes, all the while making the above-mentioned small talk.

None of which would be so daunting if the day meant more to us. Could it be we’ve lost our capacity for gratitude? A successful harvest occasioned thanks back when it was all that stood between us and a long, cold, hungry winter. But now we’re divorced from the seasonal rhythms of the farm, where the harvest is celebrated as the payoff of all the year’s labors. Even in the midst of this Great Repression we enjoy perpetual plenty. What resonance does a cornucopia have to people who have come to expect ripe blackberries in February? If anything,money clips we should be more grateful, but that’s not our nature. Anything we struggle for, we hold dear; anything that comes easy, we take for granted.

Not only don’t we celebrate the astonishing abundance that is our good fortune, we whine and moan about how it makes us fat. Lydia Maria Child’s poem ends, appropriately enough, with dessert: “Is the pudding done? / Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!” A version for our time would read, “Is the pudding sugar-free?” And if that weren’t enough to squeeze the pleasure from the day, no modern Thanksgiving is complete without a college student home from school, lecturing the family on the cruelty of meat. (To which the only appropriate response is: “Does that mean you don’t want the drumstick?”) That same sophomore is also likely to bemoan the grim fate of the Native Americans who made the strategic mistake of helping the Pilgrims avoid starvation. In some circles, Thanksgiving is second only to Columbus Day as an occasion for grieving.

There will be plenty of time next month for all the secular manifestations of Christmas: shopping, trimming the tree, shopping, mugs of frothing Tom & Jerry, shopping, and watching Ralphie get his Red Ryder BB-gun and Clarence get his wings. Oh, and yes, shopping. But before we break out the ornaments and dust off the Vince Guaraldi soundtrack, let’s make the most of autumn and its particular pleasures. Jump in a pile of leaves. Savor the waning daylight. And go ahead. Week after next, eat that second slice of pumpkin pie –pendants just be thankful for it.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials at Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport complex seized 860 boxes of drug paraphernalia arriving from China in a sea container. The domestic value of the shipment is estimated to be more than $2.6 million.

It is illegal to import, export or sale any type of drug paraphernalia in the United States. On November 17, CBP officers seized 316,068 pieces of drug paraphernalia, which were being imported to the United States.

“CBP is devoted to prevent the entry of drugs and drug paraphernalia from entering the money clips United States,” said Jeannette Lewis, CBP acting director of Field Operations. “These are 316,068 pieces of drug paraphernalia which will not make it to the streets,” Lewis added.

CBP has a multi-layer approach to target containers inbound to the United States.

This particular shipment was selected for inspection before the shipment arrived from overseas. The commodity was described as glass figures and Christmas ornaments but the highly decorated glass pipes did not fool CBP officials. Drug pipes and bongs tend to be very decorative with bright colors and designs to attract young people.

The term paraphernalia refers to any equipment, product or material of any kind, which is pendants primarily intended or designed for use in introducing into the human body a controlled substance. The items will be destroyed.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.