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A glass box of jewelry which looks innocuous enough, util I looked closer and saw the "evil eye" pendants. I went around the booth, and found these pendants both in gold and silver. I looked for crosses, and found them only in silver.
"Can you show me crosses in gold?"
"We have them only in silver."
"What are these?"
"Oh, they're evil eyes. Do you want to see them?"
"NO! No thanks."
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Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Premier Event: July 11-16
Who cares about the actual Christmas? Let's re-schedule and start Christmas in the summer. It's just another shopping event, after all, and the most important one of the year. Mark your calendars (in July, that is)!
"The premiere event is mainly for ornament collectors..."
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I recently bought a pair of shoes at a Naturalizer store. A young woman helped me diligently and Knowledgeably, and after several trips to the store (the shoes are too big, they need insoles, how about leather protecting spray?), I am satisfied.
During my interactions with, let's call her Nellie, we got to talking about "reclaiming beauty" and she said she was interested in multicultural beauty, of other countries and cultures.
"Sure," I said. "There is beauty in all cultures."
"I like to read about Islam," she said quietly.
I was in the middle of testing the shoes, getting ready to walk around the store to try them out, so I missed that last part.
But, it had registered. A few days later, I strangely remembered what she said, and the environment in the store.
The woman, who is in her late twenties or early thirties, looks like she's half white and half black, or Hispanic. Her mother came into the store once, and she is very much white. It seems that she is from a family of divorce, or from a single mother, by the way she was reacting to her mother.
But she had other surrogate mothers who filled the store. Motherly Muslim women with Arabic-accented English would sit on the stools, order her around, loudly demanding this shoe and that shoe (one even stretched out to take my shoes, before I quickly pulled them away), and Nellie would calmly oblige.
"She's talking to you" I sad to her about one vociferous older Arab woman.
"They always do" she replied.
I think what is happening is that these Arab women have heard that there is a young woman in the mall, who is sympathetic to Islam, and how needs to be cajoled, influenced, pulled into their world, their Islamic world.
I wonder when Nellie will convert, because now it is just a matter of time.