Black Friday, Black Friday... hot deals on Black Friday!

BLACK FRIDAY

It sounds bad, doesn't it? We talk about things in colours - Friday was the blackest of days. But it doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Since Black Friday is one of the very best days for retailers? You'd think they would call it Golden Friday, or Green Friday (for the colour of money).

So where did the term come from? Well, it seems to have originated in the early 1960's in Philadelphia, where the day after Thanksgiving turned out to be such a busy day that the police department was called upon to work 12-hour shifts. And the rank and file gave it a negative and memorable name ... "Black Friday".

So it began a negative...but Philadelphia retailers didn't care for the ongoing negative name... and tried to change it to BIG Friday... it didn't catch on. Not as provocative as Black Friday.

But retailers have recently glommed onto the term, and are turning it around into "Black Ink" Friday, referring of course to the massive profits to be made on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

I'm sure many of you sat in line early this morning, to buy overpriced, then discounted, poor quality products... Ahh, ain't this a great country??