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The autumn leaves, red and yellow and brown, are tumbling from the trees, resigned to their fate. Weekends are full of football and the scritching of rakes. Lazy squirrels are still munching on moldering jack o’ lanterns left over from Halloween. In other words, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas tiffany jewelry.

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.

The city of Hickory issued the following press release:

The holiday season in Hickory will officially begin tiffany and co on Friday, November 20 at 6:30 p.m. when the festive and illuminating Christmas decorations are officially turned on during the Hickory Christmas Lighting Celebration in Downtown Hickory.

Hickory Mayor Rudy Wright will turn on the “official light switch” in the Flag Court on Union Square that will light up the trees and poles throughout the Downtown Hickory area. The festivities begin at 6:30 p.m., and Mayor Wright will turn on the lights about 7 p.m. Festivities on Union Square will continue until 8 p.m. Santa Claus will be at the entire event greeting kids of all ages and the CVCC Brass Ensemble will perform Christmas Carols after the lights have been turned on. Many of Downtown Hickory’s businesses will be open and all the restaurants welcome citizens to enjoy a delicious dinner in the heart of the city.

“We are excited to hold the second annual Christmas Lighting Celebration in Downtown bracelets Hickory and encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the Christmas lights and carols that will brighten our city during the holidays,” said Mayor Wright. “Additional lights were added this year on Union Square and on the streets that surround the center of the city.”

In addition to the Hickory Christmas Lighting Celebration in Downtown Hickory, the Hickory Jaycees Holiday Parade will be held in Downtown Hickory on Saturday, December 5, at 4 p.m. Downtown Hickory Development Association will hold festivities on December 10 between 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Wagon rides, entertainment, and Santa cufflinks Claus will be on Union Square for “A Hickory Holiday.” Visit unique shops, dine in great restaurants, and make Downtown Hickory your holiday destination.

For more information, go to www.downtownhickory.com.For more information please money clips contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

Food & Drug RETailers ; Price war breaks out among grocers ; Doubts cast over green shoots

Asda has signalled the most cut-throat Christmas for a decade by firing the starting gun tiffany and co on a multimillion-pound supermarket price war.

Britain’s second-biggest grocer pledged to cut prices by pound(s)150m, but was immediately trumped by bigger rival Tesco, which vowed to save shoppers pound(s)250m.

The moves underline the increasingly competitive nature of the sector, with grocers fighting harder for sales as sharp rises in food prices fizzle out and the stores expand aggressively into non-food lines.

Judith McKenna, finance director of Asda, said this year would be “the most competitive Christmas for a decade”. But she insisted: “We are not interested in price wars.”

However, she admitted that Asda had benefited from promotions, including a toy sale where it sold more than 30,000 doll’s houses priced at pound(s)35 each.

Asda reported a rise in sales from stores open for at least a year of 5.6 per cent in the three cufflinks months to September 30, a drop from 7.2 per cent in the preceding quarter.

Ms McKenna said the slowdown was entirely due to increases in food prices coming to an end. She said the volume of products sold was up, while profits were expanding faster than sales.

Families sitting in front of the TV on a Saturday evening watching The X Factor were helping to boost demand for food from pizzas to curries, as well as family favourites such as spaghetti bolognese and sausages and mash.

“It’s just like the 1970s with The Generation Game and Morecambe and Wise,” Ms McKenna said.

While some confidence is returning, she said that consumers remained cautious about the outlook for next year amid expected tax increases and public sector job cuts.

“We believe the green shoots of recovery that we’d all like to see could be held back by a few frosty money clips moments in the months to come,” she said.

She hinted that Asda could hold off from passing the increase in the VAT rate on January 1 on to its customers.

Ms McKenna also played down an internal restructuring of the business carried out in August.

She said the exercise, under which Walmart, Asda’s owner, altered the internal ownership structure of Asda, consolidating 30 separate companies into two,improved the way money flowed through the group and taxes were paid, although she insisted there was no change to the amount of tax Asda paid.

The New Jersey Attorney General issued the following news release:

Attorney General Anne Milgram and Division of Criminal Tiffany and co Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni announced that a Riverside man was sentenced today for his role in a stolen motorcycle ring.

According to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza Dagli, Ian Boyington, 31, of Riverside, was sentenced to two years probation by Superior Court Judge Patricia Richmond LeBon in Burlington County. Boyington pleaded guilty on June 22 to a charge of conspiracy to receive stolen property.

The charge stems from an investigation by the New Jersey State Police and the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor into a ring of persons who were stealing motorcycles, retagging them with new vehicle identification numbers, and selling them. In some instances, phony insurance claims were submitted representing that motorcycles had been stolen when, in fact, they had been given up by their owners.

In pleading guilty, Boyington admitted that he conspired to purchase a stolen 2003 cufflinks Suzuki GSXR 600 motorcycle stamped with an altered VIN and fraudulently registered the vehicle with the Motor Vehicle Commission.

The investigation was led by Detective Sgt. Mark Wilhelm of the New Jersey State Police. Deputy Attorney General Paul D. Santangini represented the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing. Analyst Terri Drumm also assisted with the investigation.

Acting Prosecutor Dagli noted that some important cases have started with anonymous tips. rings People who have information about suspected insurance fraud can report it anonymously by calling the toll-free hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD or visiting www.njinsurancefraud.org. State regulations permit an award to be paid to an eligible person who provides information that leads to an arrest, prosecution and conviction for insurance fraud.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

The University of Montana issued the following news release:

Two University of Montana scientists are part of a NASA team that has detected a vast ribbon of energized particles that surrounds most of the solar system.

The discovery resulted from data obtained by NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft, Tiffany and co or IBEX, which was launched last October to map the edge of the solar system. The results were published Oct. 15 in the online version of Science and will be one of the prestigious publication’s print cover stories in November. (For more information, visit http://ibex.swri.com.)

Dan Reisenfeld and Paul Janzen are researchers in UM’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. “This ribbon was certainly unexpected, and it’s pretty cool,” Janzen said.

The interstellar boundary is where solar wind particles from the sun, as well as the magnetic field they carry, encounter and interact with the atoms and magnetized plasma between the stars. In this interaction, some of the solar wind particles scatter back into the solar system where they can be detected by IBEX. The edge region is about 100 times farther out than the distance between the Earth and the sun and about 2.5 times farther out than the orbit of Pluto.

As the sun orbits through the local interstellar medium at 60,000 mph, the interstellar boundary bangles forms a giant teardrop-shaped bow shock around our solar system – sort of like a rock in a stream. The edge region is rounded toward the front of the sun’s orbital path and elongated behind.

Reisenfeld said models from before the launch of IBEX predicted more energetic particles would be concentrated at the nose or tail of the interstellar boundary. However, when IBEX completed the first-ever, all-sky map of the boundary during a six-month period, something unforeseen was revealed.

“There was a ribbon of denser ionized particles that surrounds our solar system,” Reisenfeld said. “It forms an almost perfect circle around us.”

Imagine that the interstellar boundary is a globe turned on its side, and the North Pole points down the sun’s orbital path. The particle ribbon is not located at the equator. Instead, it’s located more at the Tropic of Cancer. And the ring also is tipped upward slightly on the globe’s surface like a jauntily placed cap.

Where does the ribbon come from? The scientists think they have the answer.

“We think it’s caused by the interstellar magnetic field, which threads through our Milky Way Galaxy,”rings Reisenfeld said.

The sun produces a magnetic field that repels the galactic magnetic field at the interstellar boundary. Reisenfeld said that if one imagines that a magnetic field is like a forest of bungee cords, generally the cords want to hang straight.

“So now imagine that the bungee cords are wrapping around a sphere shape like the interstellar boundary,” he said. “Where are they going to squeeze the hardest on the sphere or have the most pressure? It’s where they are tangent to the sides of the sphere. So the ribbon we detected correlates to where one would expect the most amount of pressure to be exerted by these magnetic lines that are trying to be straight, but there is an obstruction – our solar system – that keeps them from doing that.”

He said the location of the ribbon has allowed them to determine the direction the interstellar magnetic field is coming from – at least locally – to a much higher precision than previously inferred.

The 5-foot-wide IBEX spacecraft has two primary instruments – IBEX-Lo and IBEX-Hi – that detect a range of neutral atoms that are energized at the boundary of the solar system. These instruments were necessary because the interstellar boundary emits no light that can be detected by conventional telescopes.

Reisenfeld designed a section of IBEX-Hi that ionizes, steers and accelerates the particles to where they can be detected. Janzen was a lead scientist for testing and calibrating IBEX, and he helps validate the data coming in from the spacecraft.

“Our instrument is essentially working perfectly,” Reisenfeld said. “That’s great, because we are getting bracelets really quality data.”

IBEX orbits in a highly elliptical eight-day orbit that takes it closer to Earth and then five-sixths of the distance to the moon. The orbit takes the spacecraft beyond the Earth’s magnetosphere, which otherwise would drown the signals it receives. At times the moon would block IBEX’s view as it created its map of the boundary, which led to an unintended consequence.

“Our team made the first detection of the solar wind scattering off the moon,” Reisenfeld said. “We even have a number for the percentage of particles that bounce off the moon. It’s about 10 percent.”

That discovery made the cover of Geophysical Research Letters, and the full article can be found at http://www.agu.org.libproxy.library.wmich.edu/journals/gl/gl0912/2009GL038794/2009GL038794.pdf.

IBEX is the latest in NASA’s series of low-cost, rapidly developed Small Explorers space missions. cufflinks Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio leads and developed the mission with a team of national and international partners, including UM. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the program for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.For more information please contact: Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com.

In a surprise development,buy tiffany & Co. has acquired the 10-year old luxury American accessories brand from Samsonite. Lambertson Truex filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March after Samsonite put the brand up for sale in December. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Richard Lambertson and John Truex will join Tiffany & Co. effective today, according to a Tiffany spokeswoman. Lambertson and Truex are expected to explore the development of an accessories collection to complement Tiffany & Co.’s assortment.

We have long admired the design talents and classic elegance of the Lambertson and Truex team and classic elegance of their brand and believe it is a perfect match for Tiffany, said Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and chief executive officer of Tiffany. It is not often that talent of this caliber becomes available, creating a unique opportunity for Tiffany to broaden our accessories offerings.

We are so excited by this prospect, said Lambertson. Tiffany bracelets is a great American brand, and we think Lambertson Truex is a great American brand.

Truex added, This is an awesome moment for us, and we are so thrilled to be a part of the Tiffany legacy.

Lambertson and Truex will close their namesake brand’s 17th Street headquarters and showroom in New York and move to Tiffany’s offices at 600 Madison Avenue. It could not be learned at press time whether staff would move to Tiffany and whether the Lambertson Truex brand will continue as its own entity.

Luxury accessories were selling at an all-time high in 2006 when Samsonite sought to diversify its holdings and acquired Lambertson Truex. The designers, who launched their own firm in 1999, have rsums that include longtime stints at firms such as Gucci, Bergdorf Goodman, Carlos Falchi and ck Calvin Klein.

Known for their high-end leather and exotic skin handbags, Lambertson Truex’s average handbag price point ranges from $3,000 to $5,000, and exotic skins climb far higher. There is also a footwear collection. The brand was distributed at specialty stores such as Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, in addition to other independent specialty shops.

With Samsonite’s guidance, Lambertson Truex opened its first stand-alone stores in New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The stores are now closed.

Tiffany & Co. is one of the few powerhouse jewelry firms that hasn’t pushed leather goods in a big way. Cartier, Bulgari and Chopard all have made significant headway into the handbag and leather goods market in the past several years.

For the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, Tiffany cufflinks reported a 75.6 percent decline in earnings to $31.1 million, on sales that fell 20.1 percent to $841.2 million.

Tiffany’s shares fell 2.9 percent to $28.10 Friday.

Seven Summits Research issues PriceWatch Alerts for JNJ, PBR, RTP, JCP, and TIF.

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