the Friday After thanksgiving

[stilltrucking]

it is a good day for funerals: is that why it is called Black Friday?
No probably not, just a Idiosyncrasy of mine, a biographical detail.
But why Black Friday, where the hell did that name come from in relation to retail sales. A lot of black ink for the bottom line??

hmmm
thanksgiving such a push button holiday for me
the holiday with the most emotional
content,
loaded with baggage

[stilltrucking]

http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/20 ... black.html

New Jersey's own language expert Ben Zimmer weighs in on how this term with negative connotations came to be associated with the first shopping day after Thanksgiving:

The latest research on the origins of "Black Friday" has been conducted by Bonnie Taylor-Blake, who has shared her findings on the mailing list of the American Dialect Society. The earliest known example of "Black Friday" to refer to the day after Thanksgiving is from an article entitled "Friday After Thanksgiving" in the November 1951 issue of Factory Management and Maintenance. The article (posted by Taylor-Blake here) was about worker absenteeism on that day, rather than the shopping rush. But in the early 1960s, "Black Friday" came to be used in Philadelphia to describe the post-Thanksgiving shopping rush.
As I noted in my prior post, the term's origin had nothing to do with that nonsensical folk etymology about how stores go "into the black" on that day:
According to Taylor-Blake, the story of businesses getting "back in the black" on Black Friday doesn't start appearing until the 1980s. So the "back in the black" explanation was clearly a way to rebrand Black Friday with more positive connotations. It's worth noting that all of the historical predecessors for the modern Black Friday were negative events. One early "Black Friday" was on Dec. 6, 1745, when news of the landing in Scotland of Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the throne, was publicized in London. "Black Friday" was also used to describe financial panics of 1869 and 1873.

I was working in the Philadelphia area in the early 1980s and I recall the term being in common usage then. I thought it was just another piece of Philly slang that would never escape the region, like calling a submarine sandwich a "hoagie." For some reason, however, it took off and now merchants take out ads boasting of "Black Friday" sales. All I can say is, it would be a black day indeed for me if I were to go shopping today. I hate crowded malls.

But then I'm not the audience these ads are aimed at.

In any event, the way they keep pushing the sales forward it's only a matter of time before we get "Black Wednesday."

[still.trucking]

Should I Google it or should I be grateful to be part of Rick Perry's Texas Miracle.

I work for Kurt Vonnegut's Rosewater Foundation, people call me all the time for help. I sell them things; they give me their credit card numbers.

Seven billion of us want to be me, got to be me consumers on this planet.

The Come and Get It if You Really Want It thanksgiving week end holidaze$ Thank$Giving weekend through Black Friday and Cyber Monday 96 hour kick off to the Christmas Potlatch season.

Right Livelihood
If I could say may G d greet me as a Friend when I die, then I would say I had a right livelihood

till then I will be a wage slave and a paperback writer
amor fati
I could think of something else we who enter here have abaondoned besides hope, responsibility, in hell no one is responsible for anything. Or maybe that is heaven, no responsibility, no hope either.

[mtmynd]

Should I Google it or should I be grateful to be part of Rick Perry's Texas Miracle.

It occurred to me the other day after listening to a cut of something Slick Rick had said at the last debate, since watching those ridiculous 'debates' that is the most I've ever heard Perry say anything during his 10 years as Governor. It's no wonder he never says anything publicly after hearing him at those debates - he's a complete loser. A real sham and a real shame how he has fooled the state.

[Arcadia]

black friday sounds to me more like a general electric cut or some Bolsa de Valores crisis but Seely Dan´s theme seems a good adrenalin shot for waking up...! . Hope you all had a peaceful fiesta & good to see you posting again, Cecil!!!!

[Artguy]

hmmm..I though the term came from the last crash of the stock market...duh, shows what I know.