I catch her on MSNBC occasionally; my sense is her wit is somewhat constrained there, but she's still very good. I'll start checking Vanity Fair now; thanks for the tip!
My mom was the opposite of your mom in this; she abhorred Black Friday. Not having any money to spend was a big part of it, I'm sure.
We were on the lower end of the income ladder (but I learnt dealing with my parent's estate when my stepfather passed that they definitely had a lot of cash income. HE was an appliance repairman, and she a housecleaner, so I think that money wasn't *that* tight) so she would take her pool of Christmas money, and hit the K-Marts, Sears, JC Penney, and later Walmart to get as much as she could.
She left us in 2005, but this is still what I remember from my middle years.
I used to love going around stores on Black Friday morning. Everyone is so petrified of the "Crowds" that they stay away and you can go in, get a great parking spot, some excellent doorbuster deals, and get all your Christmas shopping done by noon. Ive done it at the Mall of America and loved every minute of it.
Now its all online which 1) is no fun at all 2) you never really have in hand what you bought that day and 3) are never happy with once you get it.
I dated a woman in the 90's whose family had a tradition to hit Union Square in San Francisco to shop at Niemann's, Macy's and Nordstrom to get the deals. I tagged along to hold bags, and we would always eat a great meal at one of the small restaurants there.
They spent ridiculous amounts of money.
I imagine if you would hit the mega stores (Walmart, K-Mart and Target) the frenzy was a bit more intense.
Me, I would wait until 3 or 4 days before Christmas and do surgical strikes for my gift giving.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life happened on a Black Friday. It was the height of the Beanie Baby craze. Some poor sap at Target was pulling out a pallet full of boxes from the back room containing Beanie Babies. This guy was mobbed by a bunch of middle aged women and you could see the fear in his face. It was like he was being ambushed in Platoon. Then, out of nowhere, this one woman starts running from the crowd saying "I got it! I got one of the best ones!" when she was tackled by some 60+ year old. It was Bedlam!!!!
I laughed so hard, I don't think I'll ever see something so ridiculous in person ever again.
Platoon. Damn that brings back a memory. Way back when I was young and dumb (in the ways of dealing with the opposite sex, I was a shy nerd) this amazing woman at work asked me out. She suggested Platoon, as her father was in Vietnam and he wouldn't really talk to her about it.
The net-net is that Platoon is a terrible first (and last) date movie. We remained friends, but it was one that definitely didn't work out.
I catch her on MSNBC occasionally; my sense is her wit is somewhat constrained there, but she's still very good. I'll start checking Vanity Fair now; thanks for the tip!
My mom was the opposite of your mom in this; she abhorred Black Friday. Not having any money to spend was a big part of it, I'm sure.
We were on the lower end of the income ladder (but I learnt dealing with my parent's estate when my stepfather passed that they definitely had a lot of cash income. HE was an appliance repairman, and she a housecleaner, so I think that money wasn't *that* tight) so she would take her pool of Christmas money, and hit the K-Marts, Sears, JC Penney, and later Walmart to get as much as she could.
She left us in 2005, but this is still what I remember from my middle years.
That's hilarious!
I used to love going around stores on Black Friday morning. Everyone is so petrified of the "Crowds" that they stay away and you can go in, get a great parking spot, some excellent doorbuster deals, and get all your Christmas shopping done by noon. Ive done it at the Mall of America and loved every minute of it.
Now its all online which 1) is no fun at all 2) you never really have in hand what you bought that day and 3) are never happy with once you get it.
I dated a woman in the 90's whose family had a tradition to hit Union Square in San Francisco to shop at Niemann's, Macy's and Nordstrom to get the deals. I tagged along to hold bags, and we would always eat a great meal at one of the small restaurants there.
They spent ridiculous amounts of money.
I imagine if you would hit the mega stores (Walmart, K-Mart and Target) the frenzy was a bit more intense.
Me, I would wait until 3 or 4 days before Christmas and do surgical strikes for my gift giving.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life happened on a Black Friday. It was the height of the Beanie Baby craze. Some poor sap at Target was pulling out a pallet full of boxes from the back room containing Beanie Babies. This guy was mobbed by a bunch of middle aged women and you could see the fear in his face. It was like he was being ambushed in Platoon. Then, out of nowhere, this one woman starts running from the crowd saying "I got it! I got one of the best ones!" when she was tackled by some 60+ year old. It was Bedlam!!!!
I laughed so hard, I don't think I'll ever see something so ridiculous in person ever again.
Platoon. Damn that brings back a memory. Way back when I was young and dumb (in the ways of dealing with the opposite sex, I was a shy nerd) this amazing woman at work asked me out. She suggested Platoon, as her father was in Vietnam and he wouldn't really talk to her about it.
The net-net is that Platoon is a terrible first (and last) date movie. We remained friends, but it was one that definitely didn't work out.