Two things before I get to the real post today.

You have probably heard a variation of this one before, but I don´t care, it´s funny.

George Bush and Condi Rice are at a UN meeting and Bush wants to try out some new administration lines about the war in Iraq. He turns to Tony Blair and says, "Hey, did you hear that 3,000 Iraqis and a pizza delivery man died in Iraq today?" Blair replies, "How did the pizza delivery man die?" Bush looks and Condi with his famous smirk and says, "See, I told you no one would care about the 3,000 dead Iraqis."

That, and this other tidbit...not a joke. Exxon Mobil posted a 26% increase in their fourth quarter profits in 2004. Don´t worry though, they only pulled in something like $8.4 billion during the holidays. Good to see there is no price gouging going on.

Now, Rebajas Mania is an entirely different story. One might call it the opposite of price gouging. I am not sure of what the translation for "Rebajas" is, but I assume it means "rebate." Basically, here´s the deal. After January 6th here, everywhere has "Rebajas" time. For the months of January and February and sometimes part of March, almost everything (except food and beer) is seemingly on sale. Clothes are like 50% off. Electronics, ditto. You get the point.

In my class the other day, I asked some students about it. Boy, I didn´t know what a good discussion topic the rebajas would be. They actually started arguing over it. I asked how long it lasts. Everyone had a different opinion. End of February, no beginning of March, no it depends on the store, no there´s a law. "There´s a law." That was definitely my favorite response. I said, "Wait a minute. Are you telling me that there is an actual law regulating the time and length of sales in this country?" She looked at me like I was the crazy one and simply answered, "yes." I haven´t gotten a second source confirmation yet. I´m working on it though.