End the War -- on Thanksgiving

I wouldn't have been upset if tapped to work Thanksgiving night. I'm 2,000 miles from my family, and the in-laws are having a late afternoon meal. Besides, I tell my wife, we've cooked turkey perfectly before, so why do we wait for one day to cram everyone together to do it? Why can't I make my own damn turkey with cranberry jelly shaped like the can? We should be living more dangerously!

 

Oh, my God, that is just so wrong.

On the other hand, three NFL games and two college games at night? Pass the freakin' pumpkin pie!

 

TV report I saw yesterday says Black Friday sales are, in part, not much of a deal. One national store (can't remember which one) is offering a stand mixer for $199; the same mixer was on sale weeks or months ago for $193. The report gave a few other examples of big-screen TVs and popular electronics that earlier in the year were advertised for less than they are during Black Friday sales. As for me, I don't much care. I've never done Christmas shopping in November and I'm not about to start now.

 

I have been waging a good natured war of words with my girlfriend for weeks about when to put up the Christmas tree. If she'd had her way, it would have gone up last weekend. I said there was no way in hell I was putting it up before Thanksgiving. We finally settled on this coming Sunday, which is Dec. 1. I can live with that.

 

Give it five years, I see Congress moving Thanksgiving to the third Thursday. Thus lengthening the holiday shopping season. I told my dad 10 years ago this was going to happen. He agreed after thinking about it.

 

"On the 52 days of Christmas, my true love gave to me ..."

 

How about making November "A Month of Thanksgiving" and and October can be a month of Pre-Black Weeks? Oh wait, Halloween, the new national holiday, would have to be fucked with. Never mind.

 

Wrong. All college bowl games are sanctioned by the NCAA and there is a pretty involved can-do, can't do list of criteria that must be followed to stage a bowl game.

And the NCAA also puts a maximum value on the amount of swag players can receive.

 

Maybe "Sanctioning" wasn't the word to use. "Affiliated"?

Either way, it shows that the NCAA is willing to have players be rewarded with gifts for participating in a sporting event with their school, which goes against their shamateurism concept.

 

I just wiki'd Franksgiving, 1939-40. It's happened before. Eighty percent of Republicans voted against it. Fifty two percent of Democrats supported it.

 

Looking at the ads today, Black Friday is damn near irrelevant. So many Thursday openings and sales. I saw the BF thread from just a few years ago, and we thought a midnight opening would be outrageous. Walmart at 6 p.m., many others at 8. Those early-morning Fridays will be over by next year. All doorbusters will be Thursday evening.

I'm off to bed. Gotta be at the toy store at 5 a.m. If I don't get beaten to death by a bargain shopper, people aren't Black Friday-ing hard enough.