Fourth-Quarter Surprise

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Greetings from Amsterdam.  I fly to Nairobi in two hours.

   From the WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE, December 20-22, 2002, pg. A11, col. 1:

_Small Merchants Are Upset at Yahoo Higher Fees_
By MYLENE MANGALINDAN
   Merchants call it the "fourth-quarter surprise."
   Last year, just before the holiday-shopping frenzy kicked in, _Yahoo_ Inc. told the small merchants who operate stores on its shopping site it was raising the rent, so to speak.  (...)


(Check the usual databases.  "Fourth-quarter surprise" is a little later than the "October Surprise" and "November Surprise."  Perhaps there's a "first-quarter surprise" also.  The second and third quarters have no surprises?--ed.)