Cup of Coffee

November 10, 2013: Black Thursday

38 Comments

We open at 6pm Thanksgiving night this year. Our GM, who is obsessed with work, was very surprised to learn that some people weren't happy and excited about it. This is very amusing to me. I don't actually mind, as my family is over a thousand miles away, but man, that's some level of delusion.

38 thoughts on “November 10, 2013: Black Thursday”

  1. The couple we've been celebrating Thanksgiving with these past 23 years (we also have family several hours away) will be out of town on Thanksgiving, so we're moving it to the Saturday before. This means Runner daughter can work Thursday and earn her time-and-a-half in the relaxed atmosphere of pretty much an empty store.

    1. We're in a similar boat, but without aggregate plans and without a teenager. I think I'm just going to eat as much as ten people and pretend like we were with friends and family.

    1. I used to be a pretty hardcore football fan, but I started losing interest several years ago, in large part due to the futility the Vikings and my reconstituted Browns showed for so many years. Even before the concussion issues surfaced, I thought the game exacted much too heavy a toll on the players -- so many blown out knees, debilitating neck injuries, etc. It is blood sport, and with age I've lost some of my taste for blood. I still like watching college ball, I like the tradition and pomp and nostalgia that goes with it, but I know at the Division I level it's nearly as corrupt and callous as the NFL.

    2. So i skimmed that, and i skimmed too fast so i ended up reading a comment. Eff me some people are just stupid as shit.

      I did completely cut it out of my life. (Except for fantasy, though that may happen next year.) I am loving it. Of course, it also means that i have to wear headphones on Mondays at work because the way people talk about the NFL annoys me a lot.

          1. The real study was on Metal Machine Music.
            People work more productively so they can get the heck out of there.

    3. This is the game I've spent 36 years glamorizing. These are the men I've spent five decades lionizing. And it turns out I was part of the problem. Howard Cosell stopped covering boxing when his conscience wouldn't allow it, and yet I go on. I'm addicted

      He cites the source for precedent and then denies his opportunity. Boo.

  5. Regarding Thanksgiving, the Target where my wife and daughter work will be open from 7:00 p.m. Thursday through 11:00 p.m. Friday. I absolutely hate this, and I hate that our culture is so dominated by commercial interests that we can't spare even one frigging day out of the year to dedicate to family, friends, feasting and counting blessings instead of profits. It's just another indicator that we've lost a great deal of perspective as a society. You will never see me shopping on Thanksgiving. Never. I don't know why but I take these things very much to heart. Example: I was so outraged when Sony/BMG was putting spyware on their music CDs that I haven't bought a single Sony product since, and that's been seven or eight years ago. Call it a character flaw, but I feel no burden carrying certain grudges for years on end.

    2. Hey man, I'm with you. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's the only one where the emphasis is actually on family, friends and eating with no other bullshit. Pure holiday. (The 4th is pretty great for this, too, but loses some points for the risk of dismemberment and the risk of jingoism.) God Damn Shane done people can't embrace that.

      1. Don't forget NFL football!

        Actually, don't forget that the main parade is sponsored by Macy's. That would be a cash grab.

    4. Amen. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, non mardi gras division, celebrated in the states. I'm ashamed at my fellow country men and women who would seek to get a good deal on consumer goods shit at the expense of quality time with family and friends.

    5. My wife has to be up at 3 am on Thanksgiving Day to monitor her sales remotely until about 9:30 am. Then we'll have to travel back from my parents place rather thank stay overnight because she has to pull a full day on Friday. 4th quarter for retailers is huge, but there's no need for the December holiday shopping to start before we've even had a chance to enjoy the November holiday.

      1. but there's no need for the December holiday shopping to start before we've even had a chance to enjoy the November holiday

        And I'm wondering why the three homes in our subdivision that have had their Christmas lights up have to turn them the frack on already!

    6. one of the evening network news shows did a story about stores opening on Thanksgiving last night. They said they are bowing to consumer demand. who are these people? they never did a 'man on the street; thing to find a person who wants to shop on Thanksgiving.

      1. I don't know who they are, but the stores wouldn't be opening on Thanksgiving if nobody wanted to shop then.

        1. And we wouldn't be getting spam in our inboxes unless someone is responding to it, so we've already established that there's a lot of lowest common denominator out there.

      2. Unfortunately, wattsy, there are tons of these people. Last year there were over a hundred people in our line when I left work on Wednesday. We will be absolutely packed at 6pm on Thursday night, I assure you.

        1. I believe that's not nearly as much pent up demand to go shopping as it is pent up demand for extreme bargains from a consumer class that's been squeezed to the point of desperation.

          1. Yep. The consumers want the bargains and the corporates want the extra hours of selling. We don't have relatives nearby and can't afford to travel, plus our boys don't like turkey or much of the other traditional food, so Thanksgiving isn't much of a big deal at our home.

          2. What surprises me every year, though, is the large number of people in the line who don't even know what the deals are. I can't believe people wait that long in line and they don't know what they're waiting for, but every year, this is the case.

    7. I was so outraged when Sony/BMG was putting spyware on their music CDs that I haven't bought a single Sony product since

      That's OK, no one else has bought one since then either. A music CD? What's that?

  6. I started listening to the Night Vale podcasts. So far, I'm enjoying them. One of the news items is that the HS quarterback grows a 2nd, autonomous head, which his mother begrudgingly admits to liking more than her son's original head. That gave me an idea for a short story.

    Someone grows a second head, with a separate consciousness. As #2 develops, it becomes stronger than #1, slowly taking over control of the body. As #1 tries to communicate with the outside world, it finds it harder and harder and #2 progressively takes more control of their body - first the limbs, then #1's voice, and then even #1's facial expressions. #1's consciousness becomes completely trapped. From there, it's an exploration of the trappedness of #1 and what it means to have a body but no control over it. After thinking about it, I realize it's got quite a bit of "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" with a little "Diving Bell and Butterfly", but I think it could be interesting.

    If anyone needs a CdL entry, feel free to appropriate this because I don't think I'll get around to fleshing it out.

    2. Heh. Night Vale provided a bit of the inspiration for my story for last week.

      During most of September, the peperoncino had to be held for his first hour of sleep every night (because his reflux was so bad he'd wake up if I set him down). So I'd sit in the dark in his room with him in my arms and my headphones on. Night Vale makes for pretty excellent listening under those circumstances. (Other circumstances as well, no doubt, but being alone in a pitch black room really enhanced the creepy/surreal quality of everything.)

      1. Yup. I was at split rock for the lighting and bell ringing several years ago. It's a moving ceremony.

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