Before we start let’s recap Thanksgiving.  Anne cooked.  I helped.  Dan and Annie came over early.  Dan, Annie, Dave and Rey played a board game called Twilight Imperium.  It seemed to me to be some sort of space opera themed strategy game.  They enjoy it.  Joanie joined us for dinner.  We ate.  Dan and Annie left for their second dinner.  I did dishes. The drain stopped up.  The tryptophan then took hold and well, goodnight nurse!

Today is Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving.  Traditionally, Black Friday is the start of the Christmas shopping season.  It is called Black Friday because this is the day that many businesses sell enough stuff, to make enough money, to go from being in the red to being in the black for the year.

What was once just a tradition has now been hyped to become a major economic event.  These days, big box stores open up at O’dark-thirty to stampeding mobs of shoppers.  Last year on Black Friday a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death at five AM.  Last year on Black Friday, I didn’t go anywhere near a store.  I filmed the gnome movie, for last year’s one-minute movie contest.  This Black Friday I’ll be looking to buy a snake.

Starting Friday evening, even before the stores close for the day, pundits will prognosticate about the day’s economic success or failure.  Economists will expand upon this one day’s impact on the economy as a whole.  Questions will abound.  Is the economy on the mend or are we headed for a double dip recession?  That is a lot to put on just one day.  TGIF!