Happy

Ah, Thanksgiving! The day that we gather with friends and family to enjoy relationships, food, and reflect on the things for which we are deeply grateful ... to turn around on Friday and shop like crazy for things we probably don't need. Black Friday has turned into the most-anticipated shopping day of the year. Stores gear up for their biggest sales of the year, and shoppers plan, prepare, and do incredibly stupid things to save money on stuff that they wouldn't otherwise buy. Black Friday has been especially interesting this year. There are dozens of websites now devoted to previewing Black Friday sales before the event. And because of these sites, Best Buy wins the award for the most-ridiculous retailer action by threatening lawsuits against any website that posted Best Buy's ads for Black Friday, claiming that such was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Who would have guessed that sales prices would be considered intellectual property? Maybe I should copyright 99¢ and sue anyone who uses it in their prices. Also monumental this Friday was that for the first time, Apple Computer has actually put their items on sale for Black Friday. Peel yourself off the floor. Apple never puts their items on sale. I think this is a sign of the downfall of Apple, that they are so desperate to sell stuff that they had to put things on sale to attract suckers to buy their still over-priced stuff. Something for which we can be thankful is that Sony and Nintendo did not release their respective gaming consoles on this same Friday. Just picture a wonderful family having Thanksgiving dinner together—on the sidewalk in front of Best Buy. The father wanting that high-definition TV; the mother wanting a new washing machine; the daughter wanting a new pink phone, and the scraggly haired, distant-eyed, sloppily dressed son wanting the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii—to sell on Ebay. Now that is an American family! Sick, isn't it?