Can I just say I heart eBay? As someone who does not like traditional shopping --that would be shopping in malls, discount malls, department stores and boutiques, I am an enthusaistic eBay shopper and a very occasional eBay seller. I just checked my profile and I have been a member since February 9, 1999.

You know the story:older woman gets dumped for younger, sexier woman. Younger sexier woman gets bored and older woman's lover comes hightailing it back, begging to be given a second chance. So goes the retail plight of Victoria's Secret. 2007 was not a good year for Victoria's Secret. They got dumped. But then again, 2007 wasn't a good year for most retailers. It's just most retailers aren't blaming it on bad sex.

In the summer of 1968, nestled in the weeks following Robert Kennedy's assassination and the August debacle that came to be known as the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, I was a 17-- year old spending my afternoons reading novels for a summer school class on government. The class requirement: read two novels a week. In 1968,summer school at DouglasSouthall Freeman High School in Richmond, Virginia, was not so much a punishment but an opportunity to take a class that you might not be able to fit in your regular schedule. And besides, my mom believed in keeping me busy.