Programming note: Today, Black Friday, I'll be checking in with Brian Kilmeade for a post-Thanksgiving appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight", live on Fox News at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific.
~Fifteen years ago - in the hours before Thanksgiving 2002 - the good ship SteynOnline was launched down the slipway. If you were with us on that first day, you'll recall that it was mostly links to my columns in print newspapers and magazines. But "Steyn on Screen" was there in that opening week, and, under the modified moniker of "Mark at the Movies", it's still with us. We introduced audio in 2009, and stuck our toe in the murky waters of video in 2011. And these days in the course of a week we have a little bit of everything. Whether you've been here for a decade and a half or just showed up for the first time yesterday, we're glad to have you along. And to mark our 15th birthday there's 15 per cent off all books, CDs and other items (except for our Club memberships) at the SteynOnline store all Black Friday long.
~The big change to SteynOnline recently was the introduction earlier this year of The Mark Steyn Club. What is the Mark Steyn Club? Well, it's an Audio Book of the Month Club - or, if you prefer, a radio-serial club: The second half of our Scott Fitzgerald double-bill starts next week. It's also a discussion group of lively people around the world from Cook County to the Cook Islands on the great questions of our time - from war and politics to faith and demography. It's a video poetry and live music club. We don't (yet) have a clubhouse, but we do have a newsletter and other benefits. And, if you've got some kith or kin who might like the sound of all that and more, for this holiday season only we have a special Christmas Gift Membership that includes a welcome gift of a handsome hardback or a CD set (see the picture at right) personally autographed by me. More details here.
~A few more Black Friday suggestions to save you slugging it out on Main Street: If you enjoyed my rendition of Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever" as much as Ted claims to have done ("Mark Steyn nails the soulfullness of my classic song!"), you may be interested to know that I've a whole album of cat songs - not just by Ted Nugent but by his fellow cat composers from Rossini and Noël Coward to Burt Bacharach and Paul Simon. Feline Groovy: Songs for Swingin' Cats is available on CD and digital download at Amazon and iTunes.
~When my legal woes heated up and it became clear that the Mann vs Steyn case would be consuming most of my remaining years on earth (seriously, alas), we had various suggestions as to what promotional items we should be offering both to raise funds for me to afford a sub-minimum-wage undocumented paralegal and, more broadly, to let folks show their support for the cause. So we took your advice, and introduced two designs, "Steyn vs the Stick" and "Clash of Sticks", that are available both as T-shirts and sweat shirts (for men and women) and on mousepads and coffee mugs. We're also making it available with my book Lights Out in a Steyn vs the Stick Free Speech Special. It's a good way to support the side of free speech in what (as various groups from the ACLU to The Wall Street Journal have recognized) will be the most consequential First Amendment case in half-a-century.
If you're unsure which books to get or what size T-shirt to order for your loved one, our SteynOnline gift certificates make a great seasonal gift, as well as an easy way to help support my end of the Mann vs Steyn case. You can buy a gift certificate starting at $25 (and soaring way up from there), and let your friends and relatives load up with Steyn books and music and trial merchandise at their leisure. The gift certificates have no expiration date, so if, in ten years' time, your favorite nephew has a sudden yen for $100 worth of Clash of Sticks mugs, it'll still be valid. The gift certificates are available online here.
Aside from all that, the SteynOnline bookstore has everything from "A Marshmallow World" to the post-American world. There's the paperback edition of my previous bestseller After America, and all my other books, personally autographed to your loved one. There are stylish Viva Steyn! shirts for men and women, and lots of other SteynOnline tees, sweats and golf shirts, plus mugs and other gifts - and all the music your party needs, via CD or digital download. Plus at checkout you'll get that bonus 15% SteynOnline 15th anniversary discount.
And don't forget, there are savings galore if you buy The [Un]documented Mark Steyn or Goldfinger or our other fine products as part of our exclusive SteynOnline special offers. It's easier than spending Black Friday getting ground into the dust by walker-wielding nonagenarian bargain-hunters at the mall - and gives you more time to prepare the receiving apparatus for watching me with Brian Kilmeade tonight on Fox News at 8pm Eastern.
