A rose by any other picture, might be different.
Filly had run out of the rose smelling soap that was on the kitchen sink ledge. It had a red truck on the label and so she looked it up online hoping to order some more to replace the empty bottle. Filly LOVED how that soap smelled and as she was ordering it, she thought she might should order some for her mom as well. But her mom really liked lavender better than rose. So at the last minute, Filly decided against it.
That was when she saw the ad for real rose flowers. Well placed and attractive, oh, Filly thought, I can order my mom some real flowers instead. So she typed in the name of the city her mom lived in, as well as “beautiful flowers” and got a local listing. When Filly scrolled across the flower bouquets she came across an arrangement in a vintage looking tea cup.
The cup was delicate, and a pale cream colored with roses on it, and the flowers in the tea cup were tightly arranged tiny roses in pale pink, and pale white with baby’s breath. The whole arrangement was artfully done, and was beautiful and because it was tea cup sized, and the price was also reasonable. Filly decided to send it to her mom, adding a heart shaped box of chocolates.
Several days later when she heard from her mom, she sent a thank you note, along with a photo of the flower arrangement, which made Filly laugh out loud. Literally.
Her “vision” of the subtle yet delicate, and lovely tea cup arrangement that she had ordered for her mom, had arrived, only it was not delicate, or subtle. In place of the fragile china looking vintage tea cup, the photo showed a heavy, thicker, generic looking tea cup and in place of the tightly arranged miniature pink and white rose buds, were a handful of giant red, yellow and white open bloom roses.
The quote, What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Yep, those roses Filly thought probably smelled as they were gigantic. But the flowers and the “China” were nothing like the way they were sold or marketed. Filly thought that the rainbow colored roses were too big for their pot, and were somewhat gaudy and distracting instead of having been artfully selected. The vintage roses that had been shown in the ad, were traditional, fit their environment and were lovely and well proportioned. But that was “fake”.
No big deal, her mom still liked the flowers which was the main point. But Filly did remember being in journalism class and reading about how a person should pay attention to what is portrayed versus what is actually true. When advertising grossly misrepresented itself, was there no recourse? Filly did explain the “fiction” in ads, when talking to the kids about toys, or TV commercials…the packaging, the images and even the words could be purposefully misconstrued to mislead.
About that time Filly looked at her email and saw that she had gotten a letter from Amazon. Filly had been looking a few days earlier, to read other reviews of the book, “Alex Cross Must Die”, and saw that she could review the book herself so she did. Filly did not remember if the site she did the review was Amazon, or good reads or what…apparently it had been Amazon. Filly “read” the book as an “audio book” and she had a valid opinion. But according to Amazon, because she could not document that she had PURCHASED the book ON AMAZON, and had also not even used a valid account of anyone who might have gifted her FROM AMAZON, her review had been removed.
Thank you for leaving a review of Alex Cross Must Die: A Thriller (Alex Cross, 29); we are sorry you did not have a positive experience with the product. We looked into your concerns but we unfortunately could not verify that your account purchased this item on Amazon. As a result, we removed the review you submitted for this product.
If you did purchase this item on Amazon, please sign in from the account that made the purchase and leave a review. If you received this as a gift or through any other means, please provide the order ID or the Amazon sign-in email address of the person who placed the order. This will help us investigate your concerns. You can send the details or contact us about this decision by emailing us at community-help@amazon.com.
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Isn’t it ironic, Filly thought, that in voting, politicians wanted people who WERE NOT CITIZENS, who did not pay taxes, but who were getting free things from the government, (like Filly read the free audio book) be able to have an opinion about how the government should be run, and VOTE, the same way that she had voiced an opinion on Amazon, by writing a review, when she had not been a purchaser of the product.
If her review was not valid, because she was not a customer, neither should votes be valid, for those who were not citizens, because they also were not valid, and were not invested, and were not paying tax, and were not registered or documented. That was what Filly thought. If it was good business to not allow those who have made no investment to voice an opinion, wouldn’t it be good business to do the same in political elections, if a the government wanted to actually be fair and and obey the rules and laws of the land? Yes it would. And so it would be, Filly concluded. NO worries there.
Filly lived in Texas where it was often said that bigger was better. But because she was fair and reasonable, and believed in law and order, she also knew that with SOME things in Texas, bigger was NOT better. Bigger government was not better. Bigger taxes were not better. Bigger inflation because of bigger government spending was not better. So in contradiction to the words of the media, people who lived in Texas, did not want EVERYTHING in Texas to be big.
The words of the media, like in the journalism classes she took, which tried to market big government by letting in tons of undocumented migrants into the Texas borders, were dishonest, and tried to do damage. The tide was about to turn. No more. They would have to go home.
It was Sunday and Filly had spent the hour before Church at McDonald’s with Tater eating the yummy big breakfast that the two of them shared. Filly ate the sausage and eggs and Tater ate the pancakes. She loved the place. As she ate she became aware of another marketing strategy. Filly wondered if the person who picked the toys/games for children knew that they seemed to be “grooming” children to accept a type of “voodoo” which allowed characters to “gain power”.
The game, that Tater wanted to play, involved scanning a QR code in the packaging with the toy. The game, that Filly thought looked innocent, involved a “good character” combining with a “bad character” in order form an entirely new blended character supposedly to acquire the “power” that the bad character had originally held.
With regards to Yugioh, Filly read that
“ Many of the games I’ve played and seen played rely too much on preventing your opponent from ‘playing the game’. Hand traps negate, boss monsters negate/omninegate, and floodgates just halt the game entirely. These kinds of cards as disruptions” Yugioh as it is now: un-welcoming and possibly toxic.”
Filly felt like teaching kids to believe that a good character “NEEDED” to “mate” “combine” “accept”or “Join” with a bad character was NOT a Christian viewpoint or perspective. She felt like McDonald’s should shut that down. Jesus did not “accept” evil on the Mount, when told that he could have “all the power” if he did. HE told evil TO GO TO HELL.
But how many parents were looking to see what the kids were learning in these games that they were playing. Filly looked. And Tater told Filly. But then Filly had to explain that the game was not real. And Filly told her that good does not combine with Evil to “gain power”. The game was just another way Evil was trying to find a way into the thinking of innocent kids. Another example of how a person “gets what they pay for” because even though the games were free, they were still costing something because they had the potential to cause a subtle brainwashing of kids.
And even Mister wanted to find the QR code as soon as he got in the car and saw the toy. Filly was annoyed. The toy … a cheap little Christmas ornament sized stuffie… was not fun or even cute. C’mon McDonald's Filly thought. Dancing barbies, and little cars were much better toys…not screen QR codes designed to brainwash small kids. Get rid of that.
Filly had bought a stick at the thrift store that had a ball attached to a string and holes in the stick with points for the hardest hole. The person had to swing the stick and try to get the ball into the hole for points. This simple toy, was inexpensive, harmless and entertained both girls and boys for more than a half hour. And the toy did not involve screens or computers.
Filly looked outside and saw the rest of the flower bed that needed to be weeded. She was grateful that today, Sunday, she had decided to take off because it was too hot and she did not feel like weeding or walking or working out. She put away the pallet that she had made for Tater and Mister to sleep on, and put away the Knights and castle book that they had read and played with, and put away the towels and bathing suits from the pool.
She looked out on the front porch and the rose soap with the red truck on the front had arrived. It was exactly as pictured on the advertising. It was the same size, the same smell and the same delightful product. Filly smiled.