The email in-box is a great guide to the state of the world.

A quick glance through the subject lines of the morning mail is proving to be an accurate gauge to the psyche of the nation, or at least accurate enough to rival the augurs of the ancient Romans.

On one hand, the Christmas gift idea flood has begun, with new ideas on how to spend money arriving almost hourly.

These cheery greetings come from companies I’ve bought from in the past, and dozens I haven’t.

They’re seductive and appealing, providing countless reasons to buy buy buy, and spend spend spend; all on things I don’t really need.

Isn’t it great ?

It’s like an in-box on Alprazolam.

But along with those cheery missives come the not so cheery missiles.

Stark reality.

Barging its way into my plastic subsidized world

From one of my local news stations:

CKNW Breaking News…

Another dark day on the markets; TSX down 766 points, Dow Jones down 445.
Sent 1:32pm

And from Canaccord Capital, a reminder that:

It seems there are lots of stores that are closing due to the “recession” and the fact that people are not shopping. If you have any “gift cards” from these stores, make sure you use them, or you will lose them

The above, followed by a depressing list of major retailers going broke or closing outlets.

Of course, there’s more trouble for big media, now admitting, finally, tough times ahead…

CTV Inc. will lay off some employees, freeze hiring and cut spending to cope with “sharp decreases” in advertising as the television industry braces for a deep slump.

And this from Ipsos (the polling folks)

Year Over Year Online Spending Drops 13% in Q3 2008
Past Three Months Spending Also Down 15%

Dudes, don’t you realize all this reality is bumming us out ?

I mean, I can only take so much reality – what about you ?

In the word’s of Detective John Kimble in Kindergarden Cop:  SCHTOP IT!

Thankfully, at least in my in-box, reality is losing out to Happy Thoughts.

Things like: free shipping, 0% down, and gift cards (while they last) from friendly retailers (while they last).

To which I say: “Keep ’em coming boys, and hey mailbox – pass the bottle would ya?”