[Theodoric]

Well, today's Grauniad, that liberal, politically correct, feminist-leaning rag, has an article in the women's section on the sociology of shopping with a sub-heading reading, "What is it about the January sales that sends women into a frenzy?"

Mind you, when the author says such things as, "If it is women who have been most seduced by this [shopping], it may be because shopping is associated with an evolutionary instinct to nurture and provide for the family that has traditionally been a demale role.", I suspect that the author was on auto-pilot and had just cut and pasted from "The Giant Book of Junk Science".

PS When I and the world were both young, we referred to an authoress, a poetess or an actress. Nowadays, only actress seems to have survived to any extent.