"Black Friday" Thoughts: Pt. 2

America Has Been Good To Me

J.C. Penney, Lines of a Layman, 1956

Today I remember that the years have rewarded me for every talent I possess, and for every effort I've ever made-- amply rewarded me not only with the world's material goods, but richly rewarded me in many, many fine friendships-- rewarded me too with an almost endless series of deep and gratifying experiences.

This is no casual thought. I have often pondered it. I write of this now not merely because America has been good to me. It's often difficult for us in the United States to see this. Most of us were born in this country; we grew up here. Without giving it any particular thought we accept our country and the vast wealth, the many advantages, and the countless opportunities which it so lavishly bestows upon us. We take America for granted.

But while this may be quite natural--and is certainly understandable-- it's also dangerous. "Those to whom much is given, from them shall much be required." This ancient precept is as true for us today as it was for those to whom it was originally addressed two thousand years ago. Sometimes we forget that those stern old statements so cardinal in the faith of our fathers are true, not because they are written in the Scriptures, but rather they are written in the Scriptures because they're true. [Emphasis in original]

~~

From PJM's Tatler; Maybe if he had applied himself when his country was providing him with free education, he'd know that the "?" is not the proper punctuation for this assertion.

~~

Mr. Big Food has asked me repeatedly when "they" started calling the Friday after Thanksgiving "Black Friday." I had no answer. We used to call the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving "Two Big Days," and when stores began opening on Sundays, "Three Big Days." Even the sales circulars and signage were labeled "Three Big Days!!"

Curiosity got the better of me so I consulted that infallible source, Wikipedia, to learn that the term originated in Philadelphia in 1966. 

The term's spread was gradual, however, and in 1985 the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that retailers in Cincinnati and Los Angeles were still unaware of the term.

(No surprise there. Cincinnati isn't exactly up-to-the-minute on these sorts of things.)

I don't think I heard the phrase until the early- to mid-2000s. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. I doubt that Mr. Penney would like it. I am certain my dad would not.

Unlike, I'll bet, Mr. Protester, Mr. Penney has been rewarded with "an almost endless series of deep and gratifying experiences." I cannot fathom how participation in Black Friday qualifies as a deep and gratifying experience. But then again, I cannot fathom asking, "What can my country do for me?" 

~~
More Black Friday thoughts here.

Black Friday, 2012

In what looks to become a yearly chit-chat ritual, Mr. Big Food has begun asking me when the term "Black Friday" became part of our your the Christmas Season vocabulary. And I've begun answering that I should know the answer to that question because I answered it last year. 

If you are interested, the answer is here. You'll have to scroll down a bit as the post begins with a short quote from a crappy old guy who was the founder of the Golden Rule Store, known today as JCP-- because apparently calling retail establishments by the names of their founders is just not cool.

Those who have acquaintance with the urbane city of Cincinnati will find the answer funny.

Black Friday Thoughts: Cyber Monday Edition

J.C. Penney, Lines of a Layman, 1956

To be clear, much as I like Mr. Penney, and much as I admire the company he founded, I am no fan of JCPenney these days. JCPenney, circa 2011, is the antithesis of 

That first little store I called "The Golden Rule."*

I've claimed that Mr. Penney would not approve of "Black Friday." By that I mean both the term, and the practices thereof. How do I know this?

p.74

Do these words sound like they've been written by a man who would ask thousands of his associates to be at work at 3am on the day after Thanksgiving? I think not.

~~

*Do not get me started on that other retail empire begun by a liar, thief and former JCPenney associate, Sam Walton.

Let me be perfectly clear

I will make it a point to talk about guns.

What with neither Mr. Big Food nor Miss M having to go to Starkvegas today, and our having finished up all of our shopping for tomorrow's feast, our Thanksgiving weekend has begun. So let me take a few minutes to get some things on & off the table right now so we can all enjoy the remainder of our weekend.

1) We will be talking about guns this weekend. We may even shoot some guns.

2) As I was explaining to Missy yesterday, Thanksgiving is an American holiday-- more than just a harvest feast we also remember the Pilgrims, Puritans and other souls who left the warm and comfy Old World to come to the New, where they had a greater measure of freedom. Unless your ideological bent is toward individual freedom and liberty and away from being told what to do, think, eat, etc., you can say whatever the heck you want but be prepared to meet with devastating resistance from those of us who value individual freedom, etc. 

3) You loose points if you use the term "Black Friday." In all of the English language, this is a phrase I abhor the most. Shopping for Christmas gifts for loved ones should-- yes, should-- be a warm, pleasurable experience. It is not a contact sport. Calling the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" is crass and I don't like it. 

4) The salad fork is the shorter of the two. 

Good. Now, let's enjoy the weekend!

"Black Friday Thoughts": Part 1

Click to enlarge

This is from Lines of a Layman: The Golden Rule in Every Day Living, published in 1956 by WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO. Grand Rapids     Michigan.

The author is a guy named James Cash Penney. For real, he's the son of a preacher. He goes by J. C. Penney.

Those of us watching television this weekend are being assaulted by the company that bears his name. 

I was in a Penney's just the other day. I saw that the store was going to open at 4am, and I commented on this to the lady on the other side of the counter. She had to be there at 3. 

I said I'd never met James Cash Penney, but I'd known people who had. And that I thought he would be turning over in his grave if he saw what was going on.

I know my dad is.

Dis-qualified Entrant: Gumbo

As you know, we are having a Fall/Winter Soup Contest. We are making up the rules as we go along.

Gumbo is soup. It is Fall.

Dis-qualified

I mulled over this all afternoon, and right before we were ready to serve the gumbo, I asked Mr. Big Food what his thoughts were on allowing the obvious winner-- because we are so familiar with it, because we have it in other seasons-- into the Contest. He disallowed it. Because we have turkey and duck and goose gumbo in all seasons. So Gumbo is not, strictly speaking, a "Fall/Winter" soup, even though it is our tradition to have Turkey Gumbo on Black Friday.

We make these rules up as we eat.

~~

Rocky is due to arrive back at The Farm later this evening. I am perfectly blase (insert squiggly line over "e") about the whole thing.

Recipe: Across the Garden Soup

Alternative title #1: Preparedness

Alternative title #2: Another non-entrant into the soup contest

This is the menu Mr. Big Food prepared on Sunday, November 27th:

Week of Nov. 27-Dec.3

It wasn't until the week had begun that Mr. Big Food decided to carry me away. Thus, some adjustments were in order, as indicated by the arrows.

As I've asserted, one reason Mr. Big Food is so productive is that he's organized. Another is that he's prepared. The whole notion of traveling and arriving back home on Monday could have made Monday supper a real dilemma, given that Mr. Big Food had to work late Monday afternoon-- he wouldn't be home in time to fix supper. Fortunately, we took stock of the freezer not to0 long ago and he updated his records. It was easy as pie for me to take the frozen Across the Garden Soup from last July, and some Turkey Gumbo from Black Friday, out to thaw and slowly heat up on the stove top.

~~

Across the Garden Soup is something I make. As its name implies, the soup changes subtly with the seasons, so go ahead and stroll across the garden to create the soup you like. This is a great soup to have simmering in the background as you go about your business doing other things. Provided it's simmering very slowly, if you forget about it and the potatoes and carrots are fully cooked before you add the cabbage, it's no big deal. In my humble opinion, it tastes better after it's been refrigerated for a day.

Recipe below the fold

And just exactly what would you expect

when you start calling the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday?"

via Drudge which (who?) I know deals in hyperbole, but still.

By the way, the man who was punched in the face by a rabid line-cutting shopper had a Texas concealed carry permit and will not be charged.

Public Service Announcement

 Background for those unfamiliar with concealed carry permits:

Mississippi is a "shall issue" state, meaning that provided an applicant meets certain age (21) and law-abiding citizen criteria (as reviewed by applicant's county sheriff and ultimately determined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation), the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS) must issue a Firearms Permit which allows the citizen to carry a concealed handgun. Note that a permit is not needed to have weapons in one's home, vehicle, or place of business. Note also that there are restrictions. Firearms are not permitted in government buildings, restaurants that serve alcohol, or on university campuses (see below for more on this issue), to name a few. 

~~

Unbeknownst to me-- and I'll bet many other Mississippians-- earlier this year Governor Barbour signed into law House Bill 506 which permits concealed carry in previously restricted places, provided that the firearms permit holder takes an eight-hour class on safety and state law regarding firearms carry. From the NRA-ILA web site:

"a person licensed under Section 45-9-101 to carry a concealed pistol, who has voluntarily completed an instructional course in the safe handling and use of firearms offered by an instructor certified by a nationally recognized organization that customarily offers firearms training, or by any other organization approved by the Department of Public Safety, shall also be authorized to carry weapons in courthouses, except in courtrooms during a judicial proceeding, and any location listed in subsection (13) of Section 45-9-101, except any place of nuisance as defined in Section 95-3-1, any police, sheriff or highway patrol station or any detention facility, prison or jail.  The department shall promulgate rules and regulations allowing concealed pistol permit holders to obtain an endorsement on their permit indicating that they have completed the aforementioned course and have the authority to carry in these locations."  [My emphasis]

The "nationally recognized organization" is undoubtedly the NRA, which much as I dislike it, serves a useful function at least at the local level. 

Read more about HB506 and its implementation here.

Here is the list of Enhanced Permit Certified Firearms Instructors at the Mississippi DPS website.

[h/t Y'all Politics for linking to this Clarion Ledger article]

Some of the comments on the article at the Clarion-Ledger highlight the stupidity of the anti-gun crowd lack of critical thinking on the part of opponents to concealed carry. One notes that a lot of "emotionally charged" activities, child custody hearings and the like, happen at courthouses. True enough. But let's think this through. Bubba and Bubbette are fighting over custody of their seven youngins. Neither can legally take a gun into the courtroom where the hearing takes place even if they have enhanced carry permits. With or without a permit, enhanced or not, they both have to leave their guns in their respective trucks. Recall that Mississippians do not need permits to have guns in their vehicles. If Bubba wanted to shoot Bubbette after the hearing, he'd have to leave the courthouse, go to his truck and retrieve his gun. Again, he could do this even if he had no permit at all. How exactly does HB506 change this scenario? It doesn't.

Also, a lot of pretty mundane activities take place at courthouses. We vote, pay property taxes, and renew car tags at ours. Not a lot of emotion attached to these. Why shouldn't law-abiding citizens be armed when they renew their tags?

More to the point, the anti-gun commenters fail to appreciate the character of concealed carry permit holders. An FBI background check is non-trivial. A person who has passed one is known to have never-- that's never-- committed a felony of any sort, been convicted of any-- that's any-- drug offense, and has no criminal history of abuse. 

The front and back of a business card from the group, Ohioans for Concealed Carry. Although designed for another purpose, it makes my point nicely.

(Aside: On Black Friday, the FBI processed a one-day all time high number of background checks: 129,166.)

Restaurant and bar carry is another topic that got the commenters' knickers in a knot. Alcohol and firearms co-exist quite peacefully in many homes, why do these folks assume they can't do the same at Applebees? Because they aren't thinking about Applebees and a zillion other places that serve alcohol along with food. They are thinking about bars where they get drunk. 

If you are ever in this argument with an anti-gunner, ask him or her this, "Have you ever been in a drunken bar fight?" 
 
The likely answer will be, "No." 

Follow up with this, "Neither have I. Now, imagine-- imagine just for a second-- you were armed in a bar, would you pull out your gun and shoot someone if your life was not in danger?" 

The likely answer will be, "No!" 

Follow up, "Then why do you think I will?"

Keep reading for thoughts on campus carry. Hint: there are more over-21 grownups on campuses than there are under-21 crazy kids.  

Try This

From an article at PJMedia about yesterday's retail sales:

Some municipalities may ban Thanksgiving shopping next year. But that will only disadvantage businesses in their area. The only problem is that now, we have to come up with a clever name for the shopping day before Black Friday.

How about Thanksgiving?