IKEA has always been a store, a company, with a Mission. Entering one of their stores, so I am told (I still have yet to make a pilgrimage, as the closest to us is over 200 miles), is like entering a tidy Bauhaus-designed world, contained within itself. People walk for hours in a daze, pushing carts full of furniture bits, smiles glazed to their faces. I succumbed to the IKEA side of the force via mail order to outfit my office with furniture I could afford yet looked slick -- I still feel a bit torn about it. And yet, and yet, their Mission-oriented world of furniture and accessories is still compelling. Almost Vedic in its simplicity. They are the feng shui masters of furniture sales.

And here you can see a Quicktime movie of one of their latest TV spots (don't know where it's showing, but New Hampshire is not one of their target markets, apparently). Oh, the agony! Oh, the poor lamp! Alas! Alack!