Why I Like "Black Friday"

I know that many folks have very strong and often negative feelings regarding the retail phenomenon known as “Black Friday”. If you are not familiar, this is the day after Thanksgiving, when many retail stores open early and entice shoppers with significant discounts and free giveaways. Now some feel that this particular event represents all that is wrong with our consumer driven society. While I agree that one can certainly find fault with our unceasing desire to horde more and more material things, whilst turning a blind eye to the suffering and need of our fellow man, my contention would be that this is a problem not just on Black Friday, but the other 364 days of the year as well. So to make the argument that going out the day after Thanksgiving to buy a laptop computer is bad, but going to the same store any other day of the year is ok, just doesn’t make that much sense. Nevertheless, I’m sure that wiser and more interested folks will work out the details of when and where it is permissible to exchange money for goods and services, without the condemnation of being the face of American greed.

But this post is about why I like “Black Friday”. So as one who experienced this annual occurrence, just last week, I will share a few reasons why I appreciate this retail anomaly.

Top Five Reasons Why I Like Black Friday:

5. A 3-way-tie. The fifth place spot is a hodgepodge of three things that I couldn’t cut out. They are being awake at 3am, getting 50 to 70 percent off, and hanging out with a pair of identical twin ladies in their mid-40’s that were proudly wearing reindeer antlers on their head that light up and play music. Basically, I love being up when so many others are sleeping, its just like you got the whole place to yourself. As for the savings, paying a lot less for something I’d be buying anyway always helps. The ladies with the affinity for their holiday head gear, well…I guess you hand to be there.

4. Watching the sheer carnage as people try to charge the doors, in front of those persons who had been waiting for hours in line. That’s just darn good entertainment. Oh the humanity!

3. Waiting in line and making new friends. When waiting in line for so long with other people you just end up chatting and sharing stories. One of the ladies in front of me, while waiting in line at Target, made a Starbucks run at 5am and surprised me with a cup of delicious hot chocolate. I was very appreciative and was able to return the favor around 5:30am, when they held my place in line and I ran to a nearby McDonalds to use the restroom. I returned with a bag of hash browns and we all enjoyed an early breakfast snack.

2. Hearing people waiting outside a Target store at 4:30am, in late November calling other shoppers crazy. (They were talking about folks that had been camping outside of a Best Buy since midnight.)

1. People Watching. The thing is if you are a student of human nature and/or enjoy sociology at any level, then you would find this entire experience to be well worth it. For me, I’d probably go even if I didn’t buy a single thing. It’s that much fun.

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Coming up in the next post: A few things I don't like about Black Friday...

I just thought this was funny...

Maybe a little crude...but funny.

Will the "real" archbishop please stand up?

My good friend Travis Keller recently posted a picture of the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Douglas Williams on his blog. After seeing the Archbishop’s photo on Mr. Keller’s blog I couldn’t help but notice that Archbishop Williams has a striking resemblance to Cigar Aficionado editor Marvin R. Shanken.

The picture of Mr. Shanken is an older one, which could account for a little more hair and the 80's style glasses. But, I think the evidence is pretty overwhelming. And now you know the truth: That the Archbishop of Canterbury is secretly the editor and publisher of both Cigar Aficionado and Wine Spectator Magazine.

Bottom line: How cool is this guy? I may convert.

Two Birds

Am I the only one that has a beef with the animal rights activists of the world? I mean don’t they have some obligation to address the mass genocide that has been experienced by the bird community in recent years? I just think its time we put a stop to this tragedy and someone needs to raise awareness. Seriously, just listen to people talk. It’s not even something they are ashamed about or try to keep quiet. I’m just sick of people who brag about killing two birds…typically with one stone. This has got to stop.

A response to another blogger's question...

I was reading Travis Keller’s blog this afternoon and the question was raised, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” I was thinking about this for a moment and then decided that, while I’m not exactly sure where I'll be or what I'll be doing, I think it’s a safe bet to say that I will be expecting another child with my pregnant wife.

Sometimes you just gotta play the odds.

Looking back...

How in the world did MC Hammer ever become as popular as he did? Now, I admit that I listened to the music and even had a MC Hammer tape (yes a tape). My lowest point of course was when I actually had a pair of "Hammer pants" and British Knights tennis shoes. After extensive counseling and group therapy, I've come to a place in my life where I am now able to put these tramatic expereiences behind me. But I still wonder how this guy ever made millions of dollars.

Heroes in a half shell...

I had an epiphany today that took me back many years to my childhood. The teenage mutant ninja turtles were awesome, besides being a great cartoon, they also had a great line of toys, a video game for the old school Nintendo system (which I could never get past the level where you drive the turtle van around the city), and there were the live action movies.

A quick aside about the movies, I’ve not seen the recent computer generated version, but for my money it doesn’t get much better than the original movie and the sequel TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze. There were others made (i.e.: Turtles in Time, etc) but these movies suffered the same fate as the later movies of the Batman franchise (basically any movie that didn’t have Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne). So the later movies sucked, but let’s face it: Live Action Turtle Movie = Quality Entertainment.

Back to the issue at hand…It would be fair to say that I really like these cartoons, toys, and movies, but only today did I realize a critical flaw in the turtle mythology. Well, perhaps it has nothing to do with the mythology at all and rather their clever jingle. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Heroes in a half shell…Turtle Power.” The problem is that they don’t have a half shell. They have a full shell. There is the hard green domed shaped side of the shell on the back and the yellow flatter shaped side of the shell on the front. No half shell. Why have we’ve been cheated for all these years out of half a shell? We deserve the full shell…not a half one.