I hereby dub this the Pavlov Code because it conditioned so many of us to come back again and again, and even to do goofy things like accidently using the code as our password at the bank and in my case, to almost try reusing a gift certificate!!!

Someone said something the other day that made me guess why we were able to repeatedly use the code. After all, you can't repeatedly use a gift certificate.

I should think that if the company had been bothered they could have pulled the plug on repeat offenders, or at the least sent out an email telling guilty parties we can't continue, but they almost seemed to encourage it .

Whether or not they planned it, I suspect they benefited from the timing of it. Their first quarter numbers have to be huge compared to a year ago. After their failure to prepare for Nellie's arrival in time for Christmas orders, they needed this burst in sales to show to their stock holders.

So, my hunch is that if such a code ever returns it will be the first quarter of the year again [img]wink.gif[/img] I further predict that it will happen after a weak Christmas season. So, theoreticly we could force another one much the way gardeners force blooms. We'd all need to purposely place our Christmas orders very early and not do any in the last quarter of the year.

Popsie (feeling like a mad scientist)