According to news reports, the holiday season is now in full swing once again. What actually constitutes the "holiday season?" Not quite sure. I'm pretty sure that it starts around Halloween or Thanksgiving and ends after New Year's Day or maybe President’s Day. Despite my best efforts, I've not been able to convince anyone to keep it going until my birthday in July. Ah well.

For the record, my family and I (like so many in our country), celebrate the most joyous and spiritual of holidays -- capitalism. If you're like us, you try to spend as little time as possible anywhere near retail stores at this time of year. Thank goodness for catalogs and online stores.

An unfortunate side effect of the season is that you may have to call a credit card or other business line more than usual. That means having to deal with those horrible phone systems that seem intent on raising your blood pressure.

But, wait. Before you're tempted to take out your phone with a bazooka, you might want to check out this site. Paul English has put together an incredible list of "secret prompts" that will help you navigate quickly and easily through the thickest of phone trees. Some brave souls at National Public Radio tested the list on 15 different vendors and their average hold time was 58 seconds. I don’t know about you but that beats any experience I’ve had.

There. Now don't say I never gave you anything.

And remember I said my birthday was in July. ;-)

Wow, thank you thank you thank you.

And good luck. : )