The PUMA sportswear company headquarters is next door to the place I work. It is an industrial cul-de-sac that is maybe one quarter mile long, and my company has a building on either side of the street. Several times per year, PUMA has their big "tent sale" an event featuring PUMA running shoes, sweats, tee shirts, VELOUR TRACK SUITS, (for you Cass) etc, at low, low, LOW! prices. That seems innocent enough, but don't be fooled. This thing attracts huge numbers of bargain-crazed shoppers, mostly youngish and female. They come by the SUV-load, line both sides of the street for its entire length, and park in our lot in such numbers that we had to block our driveway with trashcans, just so that those of us who actually work there can have places to park. They walk the length of the street looking sort of dazed, drawn to this place, much like the stars of the above-mentioned movie. Scary!

A coworker of mine, a 32-year-old single guy thought he would mosey over and see if he could grab a few cheap tee shirts for work. What a mistake. He described the scene in the big bargain tent as resembling nothing so much as a "huge bar fight." He said there where just "clumps" of women, young and old, "arms flailing, yelling and FIGHTING" over the great bargains. When someone suggested that an eligible bachelor like him should not be so intimidated by a bunch of women, and indeed should seize this as an opportunity, he replied that he feared either being killed, or ending up registered with the police on a predator list. He got frightened and came back empty handed.

Quite the scene, all in all. There is material enough there for someone to do a doctoral thesis in mob mentality, I'll bet.

Submitted for your approval, by me, a humble observer of the human condition.