“Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
In the last 90 days, 4 million people have flooded Snuggie with orders for their blanket-with-sleeves twofer sold with matching battery-run book lights. True, the couch-potato couture has been ridiculed by smart alecky college kids but Ellen DeGeneres loves hers and plus it’s the only thing that’s selling, and it’s keeping Chinese factory workers on the job, so maybe Beijing will keep fronting us the cash to keep the country afloat. Laugh all you want, but at least Snuggie is doing what billions in bailout have not.
Still, why are so many buying backwards bathrobes? Are red-blooded Americans abandoning “guns and religion” for left-leaning, security-blanket cocoons? Or, with unemployment expected to climb to 5 million, are they simply suiting up for the not-so-distant-day when their very survival might depend on the ability to carry their beds on their backs while keeping hands free to shine a booklight on the dark, lonely road ahead?
Today is Chinese New Year and we had hoped to launch Poor Us by wishing you “Kung Hei Fat Choy” but unless those words translate to “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold…” they don’t really do justice to the Chinese fortunetellers’ blood-dimmed tide of dire predictions for this Year of the 
