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Plan A Perfect Break In Birmingham ... If shopping tops your holiday to-do list, you'll find plenty to keep you occupied. The Bullring boasts over 160 shops and 25 restaurants as well as outdoor and indoor markets, while the Mailbox contains the largest collection of stand alone designer stores outside London...

Christmas Gifts And Celebrations That Won't Break The Bank ... If not for the fact that Christmas is a time of laughter and merriment, the yuletide season can be awfully frustrating especially for people who have a budget to think of. With lots of expenses for the Christmas celebration already lined up at your door — decorations, dinner, gifts — sticking to the family budget can be difficult, at best! That is, unless, you are smart enough to come up with creative ideas on how to spend Christmas with a bang without spending a lot...

The bells, I say, the bells break down their tower;
And swing I know not where.
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)

Why do our bodies wear out? Why can’t we just go on and on and on, accumulating a potentially infinite number of Frequent Flyer mileage points? These are the kinds of questions that philosophers have been asking ever since they realized that being a philosopher did not involve any heavy lifting. And yet the answer is really very simple. Our bodies are mechanical devices, they break down. Some devices, such as battery-operated toys costing $39.95, break down almost instantly upon exposure to the Earth’s atmosphere. Other devices, such as stereo systems owned by your next-door neighbor’s 13-year-old son who likes to listen to bands with names like “Nerve Damage,” at a volume capable of disintegrating limestone, will continue to function perfectly for many years, even if you hit them with an ax. But the fundamental law of physics is that sooner or later every mechanism ceases to function for one reason or another, and it is never covered under the warranty.
—Dave Barry (b. 1940s)

I am firmly opposed to the government entering into any business the major purpose of which is competition with our citizens ... for the Federal Government deliberately to go out to build up and expand ... a power and manufacturing business is to break down the initiative and enterprise of the American people; it is the destruction of equality of opportunity amongst our people, it is the negation of the ideals upon which our civilization has been based.
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)