The US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a core inflation index that excludes food and gasoline because those items, you know, fluctuate (and math is hard!); turns out some wealth management outfit (I'll manage my own wealth, thank you) in Pittsburgh applies the same imaginative method to calculating "The 12 Days of Christmas" gift list.
The tab [this year] will be $15,480.10. But that price is valid only if the costly flock of trumpeter swans — the song calls for seven swans a-swimming — are struck from the gift list...
Swans, which vary widely in price because of their scarcity, have caused big swings in the index. The gift package this year would shoot up to $21,080.10 if the swans were included because the going price for the seven is $5,600. That is a 33 percent increase, or $1,400, for the swans compared with the price last year.
[From Skip the Swans and Shower Your True Love - NYTimes.com]
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