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phorneker's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

by phorneker

Disclaimer: For the past 17 years, I have held a job in retail at Kohl's, Inc. Per their social media policy, I am required to state that opinions stated herein are my own and not those of Kohl's, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries.

This year has been anything but an ordinary year. Last year, we lost a number of retailers to closure and bankruptcy filings. This year, COVID-19 wreaked havoc in the retail sector.

Fortunately, some retailers, including my employer, fared very well during this pandemic, while others such as GameStop and JCPenney did not.

GameStop was already in financial trouble long before the pandemic. This was due to the ever changing dynamics of the video game market. With more games being played online rather than downloaded, it only makes sense that GameStop would be in trouble. In fact, the demand for games on physical medium has dropped dramatically. Where I live, there are more CD-ROM and DVD-ROM based video games available at my local Goodwill than at the local GameStop.

In fact, you can play classic arcade games at the Internet Archive!

As for JCPenney, the company filed bankruptcy (which was inevitable because their sales were lagging the past decade). The good news here is that Simon Properties (the Indianapolis based real estate company that owns many shopping malls), and Brookfield Property Partners (a property management company based in Bermuda), have purchased JCPenney. This makes sense as many JCPenney locations are attached to or otherwise located inside shopping malls. What happens here is anybody's guess considering that the two companies assumed $500 million in debt with that purchase.

That said, let us get on with this year's Holiday Gift Guide.


Chessie "Sleep Like a Kitten" Wood Frame Clock     Amazon.com    $32.95


For the cat lover, or train buff in your family, this clock features one of the most successful corporate campaigns ever launched during the Great Depression. Viennese artist Guido Grünewald created the original sketch. In 1933, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway purchased the sketch for $5.00 and used it in its advertising campaign for the railroad's air conditioned passenger cars, with the idea that you "Sleep like a kitten. Wake up fresh as a daisy."

The name "Chessie" was given to the kitten, and also happened to be the popular nickname most people called the Chesapeake and Ohio at that time. Later, two kittens, named "Nip" and "Tuck" and Chessie's mate "Peake" were added to the family.

Legend has it that "Peake" served in the Army during World War II (in the Transportation corps), while Chessie sold war bonds and gave up her perch to traveling soldiers.

After the war, the family of cats still represented the Chesapeake and Ohio (which in 1947 expanded into the State of Michigan and the Province of Ontario with the purchase of the Pere Marquette Railway). When Amtrak formed in 1971 to take over all passenger rail service, Chessie and her family were relegated to calendars and various collectables.

The next year, The Chesapeake and Ohio merged with the Baltimore and Ohio and Western Maryland Railroads to form the Chessie System. The cat became the mascot for the entire railroad, and to this day, is still the mascot for CSX Transportation.


Chessie the Railroad Kitten     Amazon.com     $34.00


....and here is Thomas Dixon Jr's book about the legend of this cat.


Western Digital 1TB WD Green Internal PC SSD     Amazon.com    $99.99 to $105.99


If you have an older laptop with a SATA controller, and a traditional hard drive installed, this solid state drive will improve the overall performance of your PCLinuxOS installation. Of course, your local office supply store will have various models with various capacities, but this one is one of the better solid state drives you can buy and use with PCLinuxOS. (These may be available under the SanDisk label as SanDisk is owned by Western Digital.)


The Air Fryer



Prices ranging from $59.99 to $199.99 for various brands from various places online and in store.

This type of appliance has been one of the most popular items purchased so far this year. The idea behind the air fryer is that no oil is needed to fry foods, so what you eat from these appliances contains less grease, and hence what you eat is (theoretically) healthier.

Any grease or fat that comes naturally from the food being cooked is separated while cooking. This, of course, will affect the flavor of the foods being cooked.

I have never used one of these, but many people still purchase these appliances for the convenience (not just for the health benefit).


PPE Protective Masks

This year would not be complete without this rather essential gift (or even for everyday use): the personal protective mask.

These masks are now available as fashion accessories (if you are into that sort of thing), or you can purchase masks that are as plain as you want it to be (at least it does its job).



Samples of what is available:

From the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society:

From Amazon:

Even H&M is with the program. ($9.95 for a three pack)


Victrola Journey

The past few years have resurrected vinyl records as the preferred medium for listening to music. Products such as this Victrola Journey make it affordable to listen to vinyl again (especially if you have a large collection of vinyl records accumulated over the years.)



This year, the VIctrola Journey with Bluetooth is available from $59.99 to $69.99 at Kohls.com, or at your local Kohl's store. This model is also available at Victrola.com (the distributor).

Some of you may recognize this as a Crosley Cruiser and think "This is a cheap record player that will ruin your records."

That may well be true...if you do not take care of the record player or your record collection.

This model is an improvement over the Crosley Cruiser in the sense that the Bluetooth connection on the Victrola Journey actually streams audio over Bluetooth, whereas the Crosley Cruiser's Bluetooth connection when switched on shuts down the turntable and activates the Bluetooth receiver to stream audio through the Cruiser's built-in speakers.

From what I have heard about the quality of the audio coming from the Cruiser's built-in speakers, I could not see why anyone would want to play Bluetooth on this device. On the other hand, the Bluetooth switch is useful if you want to pause playback of a record while the needle is still on the record.

If you do get one of these, be sure to replace the sapphire needle that comes with the turntable with a diamond needle. Doing so will ensure that your records play with the best audio quality.



As these are belt driven turntables, they are not really suited for scratching (unless you have a supply of replacement belts around).


Sony Playstation 4

Yes, Sony has released Playstation 5 in the market, and from what I have heard, it is one of the best gaming consoles in the market today. So why am I recommending the Playstation 4?



Because, now you can run Linux on it! Softpedia has an article on how to install Linux onto a Playstation 4. It was possible to do so on a Playstation 2 and to a lesser extent, the Playstation 3. (Red Hat was contracted by Sony to develop the original Linux distribution for the Playstation 2, with WindowMaker for the desktop. Yellow Dog produced later versions of Linux for the Playstation 2.)

The key to doing this is to have a FAT partition on the Playstation's HDD, and have Version 4.05 or 4.55 of the Playstation 4 firmware installed.

You can still order these consoles from Sony ($299.99, while they last), but not for long if the Playstation 5 becomes a bestseller.

Besides, to get a good experience out of the Playstation 5, you will also need to buy a new television, and one with 4K or 8K resolution. Potentially, you would need to spend about $800.00 to $1500.00 on a new television with the video capabilities the Playstation 5 requires.

Fortunately, the Playstation 4 does not need an expensive television set for video display.


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