Barneys New York...Have a hippie holiday! Peace & love! Win a flowered bug, dude!

Searching high & low for the perfect gift for your Eco pals?

Jump on the - um - Volks "wagon" and try your hand at winning a bug adorned with delightful flowers and inspired by the spirit of the 60s.

Barneys of New York has joined "heads" with Volkswagen to create a whimsical one-of-a-kind 2008 Beetle.

John-Paul Philippe has artfully etched exquisite flowers, a ubiquitious peace sign (not be confused with the Mercedes logo, folks!) graceful dove, and a myriad of abstract pop shapes reminiscent of sixties-era decor on to luxury auto's pristine shell.

Want to drive off in this fanciful motorcar or win the Bohemian offering for a friend?

Buy a ticket to enter and win!

Suggested peace offering is $100.00

All proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit the VW Carbon Neutral Project.

Owners and gift-givers are urged not to pooh-pooh or fret about small details!

All carbon emissions for the lifetime of the bug will be offset by Volkswagen!

Have a "hippie" holiday, eh?

John Lennon...spirit plays tricks on me today! Pray for peace...

I just had the eeriest experience this past hour as I sought to transfer a post from blogspot to the wordpress site in respect to a memorial being held for John Lennon later today.

Just before noon - after receiving an e-mail communication from Yoko Ono reminding me that October 9th was the anniversary of John Lennon's birth - I scurried about to pen a post since the former wife of the Beatle was requesting that everyone pray for peace in memory of her late husband at 8 p.m. tonight.(October 9th)

So, it was necessary that I get cracking!

The blogspot post went off fairly well without much of a hitch.

In fact - I managed to post the news flash on the Internet quickly enough to alert fans - that Yoko will be at the Peace Tower tonight at 8 p.m. praying for peace in memory of John.

But - a series of mysterious (mystical?) events transpired - as I attempted to post the news release on wordpress!

Initially, I crafted the post - so that the e-mail message I included within it from Yoko - was outlined in red.

But, shortly after the body of the post was inserted into the edit bay, weird goings-on started to spook the heck out of me!

What was going down, for heaven's sake?

When I hit the publish button - for instance - I suddenly noticed the script in the entire body of the message was now all "red" - not just the section meant to highlight Yoko's message.

So, I hit the edit button, and sought to resolve the screw-ball issue.

After painstakingly initiating edits on the script I wanted "black", I proceeded to click on the publish icon.

Argh!

The post was now split into distinct sections in red and black, and both were all out-of-whack. And, not in keeping with my aesthetic game plan at all!

Then, I noticed that something eerie was unfolding before me, too.

For some inexplicable reason, a rather large gap had erupted on the page - and started to stretch out-of-control with a mind seemingly of its own - between the last photograph in the layout and the contact information posted at the end of the page.

At this juncture - I strategically placed the cursor in the body of the post - and began hitting the backspace button to resolve the problem.

It should have been a snap to edit out the slip-shod space running down the page.

But, out-of-the-blue, the screen image distorted instead and went wide sideways!

How odd!

Because the "save" buttom was now obscured, I was unable to wrap up the edit process.


In sum, I was being blocked from deleting the void-like space!

When I clicked on "home" to check the status of the published post - the gap was several inches in depth now - and posing quite the dilemma.

As I tried to fill in with data - the space not only got larger - but strange distortions started to "freeze" up the entire page to my great dismay!

At this juncture, I threw my hands up and deleted the post.

I was going to start from square one.

Then, something curious happened.

Suddenly, I noticed there was an unpublished post in the queue!

When I clicked on the link to review the body of the post, I shook my head in disbelief!

The John Lennon post was not only intact - but featured the body of my writing in black with Yoko's message in red - as originally intended.

As if by magic!

So, I published the post.

At this point, I thought I'd pen a post about the disturbing hour or so that I wrestled with the computer trying to fathom out the strange events surrounding the John Lennon incident.

And, sure enough, odd scenarios descended on me all over again.

At one point - just as I was about to finish writing this piece, for instance - it disappeared from the screen.

Poof, the post vanished into thin air.

Oh God, I thought. I've lost an hour's work.

After all, there wasn't any icon in the tool bar, signaling it had been minimized by error at the flick of a misguided finger or two.

I thought something was truly amiss, too, because I was forced to use my password and ID to gain access to the site all over again.

But, when I logged back on, a surprise was waiting for me.

Lo and behold - as I whispered a little prayer to myself (God, please let it be there on the dashboard) - I spied the ghostly post in the line-up waiting to be published - undisturbed!

Well, in view of what transpired this afternoon, I would have to surmise that John's spirit has been hovering around.

And, just maybe, was the good-humored musician playing games with me?

Alright, John.

I'll get the message out.

Give Peace a chance.

And love to Yoko, you say?

Oh my God. Electric shivers just raced up and down my spine.

John's spirit is here in the room with me, undoubtedly!!!

Cup of tea?

Peace...a sign of the times?

When a number of school children were shown a peace sign and asked to identify it, a handful of the young ones confused it with the logo for the luxury vehicle, the Mercedes Benz.

A sign of the times?

Divine Presence...appears. Message of peace!

Throughout the night, I was restless - tossing and turning - this way 'n that.

Suddenly, at about 5 a.m., a Divine presence appeared and hovered overhead.

For a moment, as the entity unfolded before me - and revealed its awesome light - I thought I was going to be enveloped by it, swept up.

But, a message was communicated telepathically...not my time yet.

After a serene moment of peace, the light vanished into thin air as quickly as it appeared.

To be continued, I am sure.