  Last night I made the classic mistake of grocery shopping while hungry, thus coming home with armloads of cookies, pizza, and eggnog (I don't even like eggnog). I also came home with a box of Fruit By The Foot, which for the uninitiated is like a really space inefficient Fruit Roll-Up. I'm usually more of a Gushers kind of girl, but what can I say, I was feeling daring. Anyway, it wasn't until half a foot into my second roll (serving size one roll?
hardly) that I noticed the game printed on the wrapper. It was called "Shopping Scramble", and presumably sponsored by Mall of America given the tiny logo printed above. Instructions, and I quote: "These kids not only spent the day hanging together at the Mall, they also spent money on some fun stuff. Unscramble the items on this receipt to see what they bought. " The items, all but two of which I successfully unscrambled, were a skateboard, soccer ball, cd player, video game, shoes, poster, magazine, bubble gum, shirt, scooter, sunglasses, jeans, bike helmet, watch and guitar. All attempts to be hip by using phrases such as "hanging together" aside, I was a little taken aback at the bluntness of this pitch. I'm sure my young impressionable mind was subject to all sorts of shameless marketing ploys, but I am pretty sure no one ever tried to sell consumerism to me.
Plus, where the hell are these kids getting their disposable income? I've never spent that much on "some fun stuff" in one day at the mall, and I'm a 22-year-old college student digging myself into debt with student loans and irresponsible spending, fer chrissakes. 
