When Black Friday Comes....

Dear Congressman,

Needless to say you are probably familiar with the Steely Dan song from the seventies "Black Friday". But in the last decade or two, Black Friday has been hijacked by retailers nationwide as they attempt to create a feeding frenzy of shopping sharks who increase their annual debt load while allowing the aforementioned corporations to remain solvent for another business cycle.

However, Black Friday also has other meaning besides the current one.

Back in 1869, Black Friday referred to a financial scandal that rocked the Grant administration when two wealthy gentlemen, James Fisk and Jay Gould, decided to corner the gold market to further enrich themselves, creating an asset bubble in gold the likes of which have never been seen again... until now....

In England, Black Friday is the last Friday before Christmas, when the entire population goes on a bender for a single night, making it the busiest night of the year for pubs, nightclubs, social clubs, and any other establishment that can legally or illegally supply liquor to a voraciously thirst public. The only sober group are the EMTs, who also log the most runs of any day of the year.

Another Black Friday reference is to January 13, 1939, when fires burned down nearly 2/3's of Victoria, Australia, destroying over 3,700 buildings and killing 71. This was the second largest recorded brush fire in Australian history, burning over 2 million hectares. The largest fire occured in 1851 and burned over 5 million hectares. And what was is it referred to? Yup, the Black Thursday fire... gotta give a "D" to the Auzzies for originality on that one.

Of course, Black Friday is well represented in popular culture, as Steely Dan, Megadeath, and Flogging Molly have all penned and released songs about it.

And my favorite is the 1940 film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Even though Lugosi is listed second on the playbill and credits, he only had a small part in the film and did not appear in any scenes with Karloff, but there is no stopping those marketing geeks when they get their brain cells fired up....

Anyway, hopefully everyone had a safe and prosperous Black Friday...