"Black Friday," again

[Wilson Gray]

A couple of days ago, on the local version of NBC national news, a
talking head claimed that there would be no post-Thanksgiving "Black
Friday," this year. Indeed, merchants were expecting year-over-year
growth to be in the neighborhood of 3,000,000 more customers,
nationwide, just on that one day.

I don't recall that I'd ever heard the term before. Very likely, I
have heard it before, but not enough times for it to stick in my
memory.

-Wilson

On 11/25/06, Sam Clements <SClements at neo.rr.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Black Friday,"  again
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is it just me, or has the term "Black Friday" been used in the media this
> year on an order of tenfold over previous years?
>
> Sam Clements
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bonnie Taylor-Blake" <taylor-blake at NC.RR.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 7:19 PM
> Subject: "Black Friday," again
>
>
> > We've previously discussed when "Black Friday" may have first become
> > attached to the day after Thanksgiving Day (and what significance the term
> > held to those who did the attaching), so I won't go over old ground [1].
> >
> > I was a little surprised to see, then, that the Wikipedia page on this
> > term
> > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%28shopping%29) includes the
> > following mention of a 1922 usage.  (Incidentally, this snippet appears in
> > the "Accounting Practice" portion of the page.)
> >
> > ----------------------------------
> >
> > Earliest citation, speaking to the Friday after Thanksgiving:
> >
> > A BLACK FRIDAY.
> > There have been many Black Fridays in recent history. Most of them have
> > been
> > days of financial panic. There has been none of blacker foreboding than
> > last
> > Friday. And the blackness is not loss or fear of loss in stocks and bonds.
> > New York Times (1857-Current file).
> > New York, N.Y.: Dec 3, 1922. pg. 38, 1 pgs
> >
> > ----------------------------------
> >
> > In fact, that *New York Times* article has nothing really to do with "the
> > Friday after Thanksgiving," but instead describes diplomatic reaction (or
> > lack thereof) on Friday, 1 December 1922 to the formal announcement in
> > Lausanne of a decree calling for the expulsion of Greeks from Turkey.
> > (The
> > first two paragraphs of the piece follow.)
> >
> > In the end, there's no mention of Thanksgiving Day.  The closest we come
> > to
> > that holiday is that 1 December was technically the day after Thanksgiving
> > here in the States.
> >
> > -- Bonnie
> >
> > ----------------------------------
> >
> > A BLACK FRIDAY.
> >
> > There have been many Black Fridays in recent history.  Most of them have
> > been days of financial panic.  There has been none of blacker foreboding
> > than last Friday.  And the blackness is not loss or fear of loss in stocks
> > and bonds.  It is the blackness of loss of home, the blackness of exile
> > and
> > suffering and the peril of death.  But that which deepens the darkness
> > that
> > has come upon the earth in the broad daylight of the twentieth century is
> > civilization's prompt acceptance of the Turks' decree of banishment not
> > only
> > of a million Greeks, but incidentally of all Christian minorities within
> > the
> > Turkish realm beyond the Hellespont, which the Aryan crossed over three
> > thousand years ago.  Light blackens such a blot.  Lord CURZON but urged
> > that
> > the Greeks be gotten out as quickly as possible in order to escape
> > massacre.
> > For the rest there was, so far as reported, only quiet acquiescence.
> >
> > Meanwhile, the dispatches from Washington of the same date report that the
> > Administration believes that the United States "is not without influence
> > at
> > Lausanne," that not only the Allies but the Turkish representatives appear
> > to be "wholly satisfied" with the part that the United States is playing
> > at
> > Lausanne, and that the very latest reports from Ambassador CHILD enable
> > the
> > Department of State to draw the conclusion that the work of the
> > "gathering"
> > at Lausanne is "proceeding satisfactorily."  Let us assume that the "very
> > latest reports" do not include the happenings of Friday.  If the
> > Government
> > were knowingly "wholly satisfied" with that day's record, then black were
> > white.  It is inconceivable that the American people can be "wholly
> > satisfied" with our part as the Turks are reported to be.
> >
> > [Etc.]
> >
> > ----------------------------------
> >
> > [1] Earliest printed sightings of "Black Friday" in the sense of what a
> > traffic and shopping nightmare the day holds seem to date to the
> > mid-1970s;
> > the earliest sighting I've now come across for the sense of "putting
> > businesses' ledgers back into black" is a 26 November 1982 broadcast of
> > ABC
> > News's "World News Tonight."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam Clemens

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