I Did My Part

...to stimulate the economy. After a cholesterol-, triglyceride-, and carbohydrate-filled Thanksgiving, I got up early on Friday (but not early enough) to head down to Fry's Electronics in Palo Alto. Fry's, to the uninitiated, is geek heaven. It has all the latest electronic gizmos, plus most of the parts that a do-it-yourselfer might need; certainly he would stand a better chance of finding components at Fry's than at Best Buy, Circuit City, or Good Guys.

Fry's is also notorious for bait-and-switch advertising. These items on my shopping list were gone by 8 a.m.:

• Gameboy Advance bundle - $80
• 64MB Keychain USB drive - $8
• Emprex 4x DVD/R/RW drive - $80

So I turned to my "don't really need it or want it" list and bought a 160GB Western Digital hard drive for $60 and a new Nintendo game for $35. That's why I hate those sales tactics---they prey upon my human weakness and I respond, just as they knew I would!

You couldn't find parking by 9 a.m.