"Make this her best Christmas ever. Buy her a new stove!" That was a typical advertisement in newspapers and magazines in the first half of last century.

France bans pro-anorexia websites, which promote extreme thinness and methods for self-starvation. Will Australia outlaw them, too?

Even something as straightforward as buying a new television a mere display, the ads wink spawns a salivating beast of Ethernet, HDMI and surround-sound tentacles.

Buy a new printer, and watch its fancy new software befuddle your desktop. Switch to Vista, and - wham-o! - your iPod and PDA drivers go on strike. And God help you if you decide to encrypt your Wi-Fi signals.

RICHLAND — While the water isn’t coming over the decks yet, the Richland Community Library is in danger of being overwhelmed by a tidal wave of financial difficulties.