Do you remember feeling that it was, perhaps, just a bit crass when President Bush declared that the patriotic response to 9/11 — the way to show the terrorists that They.Would.Not.Win. — was to go on a shopping spree? Or perhaps that it was a tad counterintuitive to hear President Obama urge you to buy a new car rather than tighten your belt in the recent consumer credit crunch? (Note: I’m trying to be non-partisan here, and don’t want to spark a debate over current politics.)

Well, crass, counterintuitive, or not, it wasn’t the first time. Just think, sisters, you too could play an important role in World War II by giving your men something worth fighting for. And that something was …