The New Yorker: Everything You Know about Black Friday is Wrong

[LiberalElite]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2013/11/everything-you-know-about-black-friday-is-wrong.html

Beginning in the nineteen-thirties, thousands of fans thronged Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium for the Army-Navy football game. As festive as the mood was inside the stadium, it wasn’t nearly so cheerful for the Philadelphia police officers who had to herd the crowds. The game was frequently held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and just as visiting fans were showing up the day before, holiday shoppers also would descend on downtown. On those Fridays after Thanksgiving, the late Joseph P. Barrett, a longtime reporter for the Philadelphia Bulletin, recalled, even members of the police band were called upon to direct traffic. The cops nicknamed the day of gridlock Black Friday, and soon others started to do the same.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Is it possible that turkey makes people crazy?

Or maybe it's the cranberry sauce.

[stage left]

2. I always thought the explanation for Black Friday's name was a little suspect.

I mean, the Black Death was not a good thing.