In the handful of years since the term came into currency it has always seemed bizarre to me that the day after Thanksgiving might be called “Black Friday.” Supposedly the term arose from grateful shopkeepers and bookkeepers who saw their accounts flow from the red into the black thanks to binge-buying consumers fueled by L-tryptophan hangovers, pre-Christmas compulsivity and the involuntary wallet-opening following from viral bargain rumors. But it has always sounded to me more like the name of an awful disaster movie in which hooded thugs plot to blow up a department store, or something. I mean, what is Black Friday after sundown, anyway? Black Sabbath! (For us Old Testamentarians.)
Anyway, I won’t be shopping on Friday, and I doubt the Republic will collapse if you don’t either. The folks at Adbusters suggest we view the post-turkey moment as Buy Nothing Day, and that sounds pretty sensible to me.
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