Much has been made of the Black Friday hubbub. Many people go to pains to make sure that everyone knows that they do not participate in this event. I would expect no different. Only 20% of Americans that shop for the holidays go shopping on Black Friday. Not shopping puts you solidly in the majority. Shopping on Black Friday seems more sport then commerce to me and as of late it has become increasingly a blood sport. Today, Saturday, is supposed to be a shop locally day, counterpoint to yesterday’s big box excesses. This sort of humanitarian consumerism seems as pointless as Friday’s opposite extreme. No shop will succeed or fail on one day’s sales. I propose a more traditional business model, give from the heart. Don’t buy to impress. Don’t buy just to check off a name from your list. A great gift takes planning, it should be what the recipient wants, but it should also say something about the giver too.

I went bicycling today. I beat the rain that has now descended upon Saint Louis. I got 15 miles in the park. It was warm enough to ride in bib-shorts and a short-sleeve Kaldis jersey, not bad for late November. This will probably be the last time this winter that I can ride in such attire, but I’ve already said that before, so who knows. Other then that activity, it has been a quiet day. I think that everyone is as tired as I am, after all of yesterday’s non-shopping exertions. We watched “the game”, Michigan vs. Ohio State. Anne threatened to call her father every time Michigan made it into the red-zone, “Hi Daddy, what’s ya doing?” Dave and Rey proceeded to while away the afternoon watching college football. I took a nap instead, something about riding 55 miles this holiday weekend.

Yesterday, at Pi, I asked Rey, if his sister, Ashlan, had seen any celebrities in NYC. He answered yes, Jason Sudeikis, a cast member on “Saturday Night Live”. He had bought a sandwich in the shop where she works. Dan turned indignant at this turn of the conversation, “Why didn’t you ask me that question?” He proceeded to list the celebs that he has seen in LA. Danny DeVito and spouse, Rhea Perlman, who I already knew about, their daughter is a classmate of Dan’s. Likewise, I knew of his sighting of Jay Leno, driving around town in a Model A. New to me were Ellen Page (“Juno”, “Inception”, “Whip It”) who was having lunch with two unnamed actresses that appeared in the movie, “But I’m a Cheerleader” and Michael Cera also of “Juno” fame and “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”. There were more, but I didn’t know them, so I can’t relay them.