Ho! Ho! Ho! A Little Cheaper O List!

Since I’ve decided to get rid of the Oprahs, I’m not going to write as much about them.  I just want to plug through them.  I’d thought about keeping track of the O Lists, because it’s interesting to see just how much money one would spend if you bought everything on the list; however, it takes a long time to write it all out and link everything (for those of you who write/blog, you know what I’m talking about–it’s amazing how long writing takes), so I’m just going to touch briefly on it.

I made this decision because the December O List is long so that you have a lot of options for the holidays.  It’s really long.  And O does try to keep the prices down–nothing’s over $100 (save a Visa gift card, which can go up to $250, but you can’t really count that).  Yet even though there’s an effort to help people watch their budgets, there are still things like 2 dozen brownies for $71.  I can’t imagine spending that much on brownies, even if it’s the holidays.

Anyway, the December 2008 issue is all about “Happier Holidays,” which means the first half is stuff, stuff, stuff, and the last half is the reason for the season.  It’s that ironic way of thinking that we seem to do well in America, but whatever.  What’s great about this issue though is that two original features are back:  “Breathing Space” (which may have returned in November, but I haven’t read that issue yet) and the O interview.  Interesting, don’t you think?  It’s nice to have those two features back because they really helped set the magazine apart.  We’ll see if January keeps them.