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I swear that I don't know why I get Lucky magazine. Literally. Lucky gets delivered to my mailbox, and I never ordered a subscription. This used to happen with Ladies Home Journal, which led me to discover that Ladies Home Journal is the crappiest magazine on the planet. The writing is horrible, and their makeup and hair people make everyone look like anchorwomen from the early 90s.

But back to Lucky. My husband (let's call him Mr. Banality) despises Lucky magazine. It does blatantly state that it is "the magazine about shopping," and admittedly, that's pretty gross. But, I will read any magazine that comes my way, and I get a kick out of Lucky. So, thanks to the person in Harlan, IA (or wherever the subscription fulfillment center is for those middle school fundraiser subscription things) for giving me a complimentary subscription.

Lucky has a feature in which celebrities remark on their favorite material things. It usually goes something like, "I love (obscure and hip designer)'s stuff--all of her designs are so classic but edgy at the same time. When I wear this (cocktail ring/halter top/caftan), I feel so glamorous." The quotes are wonderfully inane, but then I find myself creating similar narration while walking around my house.

Like so:

This picture represents a sample of the 40 or so thermometer/refrigerator magnets in my collection. They have terrible convergent validity. I'm not sure what property they measure, but I'm pretty sure it isn't temperature. I've gotten most of these from family members and friends, and I love the idea that even when hundreds (sometimes thousands) of miles away from me, people who are dear to me are thinking of me. Very egocentric, I know. I should mention that these are usually gifts to me and the Mr., but I'm the one who claps and squeals with delight when we get one.

My iPod and iPod dock have changed my life, and I don't mean that in the overly dramatic way that I admit might have characterized my description of the Malory boots. I used to buy four or five cds a year, and since acquiring the iPod, I've expanded my music collection significantly. I also listen to music more often than I used to, which makes me happy. And even though this is my second iPod (the first one died) and iTunes keeps effing up my library files and losing my playlists, I will remain faithful to the iPod. Because it's just good design. Huzzah for my in-laws, who were kind enough to get it for me.

Sunsilk 24/7 Creme is awesome, although not really in the original sense of the word. But it's a good leave-in conditioner. I was first introduced to this magical substance when I received a sample of it as part of a consumer survey. It arrived in a white bottle with a black label marked, "MOISTURIZING CREME." When I finished the study, I begged the people at the consumer research place to tell me what it was, but apparently they have a robot that answers their e-mail because the only response I received were messages reminding me of my participant ID and password. So, I kept an eye out at the Walgreens for new hair products, and there it was. It probably takes a barrel of crude oil to make a bottle of this stuff, and they probably test it on baby bunnies, so this likely will be the last bottle I ever buy.

Yes, I'm including footwear in my list of favorite things. I'll wait for you to get over the shock.

I bought these shoes at a bizarre overstock-type store in Maine. I was shopping with friends, which is rare for me, and they really liked these. As did I. These shoes are incredible. A couple of weeks ago, a student approached me after class and said, "Dr. Banality, your shoes are good. We couldn't concentrate in class because we were so distracted by your good shoes." Good shoes might interfere with good pedagogy, but who cares? I have tenure. These are by Kenneth Cole. Perhaps his socially responsible business practices redeem me for fraternizing with the evil that is Helene Curtis.

**Added bonus advice for the day: Do you read Serbo-Croatian? No? Then you might reconsider including in your bibliography a journal article titled, "Etiologija Serijskih Ubojstava" (it has something to do with the etiology of serial killing, by the way). Also, you're not going to be able to actually conduct a study on serial killers in your advanced methods class, so you might consider a different topic.