Just watched the latest Antiques Roadshow and an American woman calls her wrought iron French item from 1925 The Hobbit Tree and says that it was well before the "trilogy ever came out", which is true but very hard to argue that it influenced the books.

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Well, Americans (some Americans anyway) seem to think that the word 'hobbit' can mean anything they like! Take a look at this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 9537989&ff4=263602_263622

Garm,

While I am not exactly proud of everything that goes on in the United States (especially in our government), I still hate to hear such generalizations. I guarantee I can find serious morons for you in just about every corner of our planet - and plenty of them are trying to capitalize on someone else's accomplishments (like this particular 'Hobbit Tree' woman).

But I guess stereotypes exist for a reason, right?

Point taken - nevertheless, if one looks up 'hobbit' on ebay, one finds a terrific amount of sheer tat which has nothing to do with hobbits, or JRR. And that sort of thing gets up my nose.

And guess where they all originate?

The boots are one example - here's another.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hobbit-House-Bird ... ain_0?hash=item2c52dc984e