HOLIDAY -- BLACK FRIDAY

The day after Thanksgiving has been regarded as the beginning of the United States Christmas shopping season since 1952. The practice may be linked with the idea of Santa Claus parades. 

Parades celebrating Thanksgiving often include an appearance by Santa at the end of the parade, with the idea that "Santa has arrived" or "Santa is just around the corner" because Christmas is always the next major Christian holiday following Thanksgiving.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Santa or Thanksgiving parades were sponsored by department stores. 

These include the continuing Toronto Santa Claus Parade in Canada since 1905, originally sponsored by Eaton's, and Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade held in Manhattan, New York City since 1924, sponsored by Macy's. 

Department stores would use the parades to launch a big advertising push. Eventually, it became an unwritten rule that no store would try doing Christmas advertising before the parade was over. 

Therefore, the day after Thanksgiving became the day when the shopping season officially started.

Thanksgiving's relationship to Christmas shopping led to controversy in the 1930s. Retail stores would have liked to have a longer shopping season, but no store wanted to break with tradition and be the one to start advertising before Thanksgiving. 

For this reason, in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a presidential proclamation proclaiming Thanksgiving to be the fourth Thursday in November rather than the last Thursday, meaning in some years one week earlier, in order to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.

Most people adopted the President's change, which was later reinforced by an act of Congress, but many continued to celebrate Thanksgiving on the traditional date. Some started referring to the new date as Franksgiving.

In 2015, Amazon.com was the first to offer "Black Friday in July" deals on what they called "Prime Day", promising better deals than on Black Friday. Amazon repeated the practice in 2016 and 2017, and other companies began offering similar deals.

Analyst Marshal Cohen of The NPD Group claimed in 2020 that Black Friday is declining in favor of online shopping, and that the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this process. The pandemic also resulted in holiday deals being offered over a longer period of time, even as early as October.

Fewer people shopped in person on Black Friday 2020, and most business took place online. Market research company Numerator said sellers of clothing, tools and other items considered nonessential during lockdowns were not promoted as heavily because lower production meant less available to sell.

Adobe Analytics reported that online sales reached $9 billion in 2020, 22% more than the previous year. Foot traffic to stores fell 48% in 2020 from last year, according to RetailNext, while Sensormatic Solutions reported a 52% decrease.  SOURCE:  Wikipedia

HOLIDAY -- Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan. 

Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and around the same part of the year in other places. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.

A BRIEF HISTORY
Prayers of thanks and special thanksgiving ceremonies are common among most religions after harvests and at other times.  The Thanksgiving holiday's history in North America is rooted in English traditions dating from the Protestant Reformation. 

It also has aspects of a harvest festival, even though the harvest in New England occurs well before the late-November date on which the modern Thanksgiving holiday is celebrated.

In the English tradition, days of thanksgiving and special thanksgiving religious services became important during the English Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII.   Before 1536 there were 95 Church holidays, plus 52 Sundays, when people were required to attend church and forego work. 

Though the 1536 reforms in the Church of England reduced the number of holidays in the liturgical calendar to 27, the Puritan party in the Anglican Church wished to eliminate all Church holidays apart from the weekly Lord's Day, including the evangelical feasts of Christmas and Easter (cf. Puritan Sabbatarianism).

The holidays were to be replaced by specially called Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving, in response to events that the Puritans viewed as acts of special providence. Unexpected disasters or threats of judgement from on high called for Days of Fasting.

Special blessings, viewed as coming from God, called for Days of Thanksgiving, which were observed through Christian church services and other gatherings.  For example, Days of thanksgiving were called following the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 and following the deliverance of Queen Anne in 1605.

An unusual annual Day of Thanksgiving began in 1606 following the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and developed into Guy Fawkes Day on November 5.  Days of Fasting were called on account of plagues in 1604 and 1622, drought in 1611, and floods in 1613. 

Annual Thanksgiving prayers were dictated by the charter of English settlers upon their safe landing in America in 1619 at Berkeley Hundred in Virginia.  SOURCE:  Wikipedia

For What Might You Be Thankful?

 It is so easy to live our lives like we do and have no thoughts in our heads as to that for which we might be thankful...

That unawareness can continue for years perhaps decades until something happens where we experience something that gives us pause and starts us thinking about a shortened life span.

For me, it was a couple of issues that did not take place until the age of 60...

• diagnosed with cancer
• experienced a severe heart attack

While my heart attack was corrected with diet, exercise, and stents, my cancer has been an on-going monthly reminder.

For 170+ consecutive months, I have had constant reminders that I have cancer and that at any point in time my cancer could turn aggressive and my life becomes terminal...

Now what might you think I could be grateful for...  and on a regular basis?

I am in my 15th year of surviving on-going cancer treatments...  so, I am thankful for:

• still being alive
• still having faith
• still having my mind
• still having my thoughts
• still being able to cook
• still being able to write
• still being able to see a sunset or sunrise
• still being able to enjoy a cappuccino
• still being able to play with cats
• still being able to walk around the block

HOLIDAY -- Happy Political Thanksgiving

 

Jean Michel Basquiat - African American Artist

Jean-Michel Basquiat was a Neo-Expressionist painter in the 1980s. He is best known for his primitive style and his collaboration with pop artist Andy Warhol.

Who Was Jean-Michel Basquiat?
Jean-Michel Basquiat first attracted attention for his graffiti under the name "SAMO" in New York City. He sold sweatshirts and postcards featuring his artwork on the streets before his painting career took off. He collaborated with Andy Warhol in the mid-1980s, which resulted in a show of their work. Basquiat died on August 12, 1988, in New York City.

Early Life
Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 22, 1960. With a Haitian-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat's diverse cultural heritage was one of his many sources of inspiration.

A self-taught artist, Basquiat began drawing at an early age on sheets of paper his father, an accountant, brought home from the office. As he delved deeper into his creative side, his mother strongly encouraged him to pursue his artistic talents.

Basquiat first attracted attention for his graffiti in New York City in the late 1970s, under the name "SAMO." Working with a close friend, he tagged subway trains and Manhattan buildings with cryptic aphorisms.

Half a Century

 

I have been married for 53 years...

My first marriage lasted 23 years and my second marriage is going into its 30th year...

Although, for 5 of those 30 years we lived together and technically were not married to each other, but for us, it's the same thing.

Do we always get along?

Hell no!!!

While there has not been any real physical abuse, there has been plenty of verbal abuse on both sides.

Maybe...  just maybe...  we should have divorced several years ago, but we did not...  not sure why, but we didn't.

We have a lot invested in each other and we have experienced more than our fair share of both good and bad shit.

Her son got killed by a drunk driver in 2001 and my daughter decided to stop communicating with me in 2017... nothing in over 5 years.  As far as I am concerned she might as well be dead too.

During our marriage, we became debt free, took 12 ocean cruises (Caribbean, Mediterranean, Alaska, & Hawaii), vacationed several times in Mexico, around the US, and Europe, and still have 300,000 miles on Delta's frequent flyer program.

We been burned by timeshare purchases several times...  and, you would think that we would have learned our lesson, but we still keep believing in the positive nature of sales people.  Our last one is still active in the Berkshires.

We have managed to save enough money to pay our monthly bills for 40 years, but it is highly unlikely that we will actually spend all that we have saved.

We are 75 and 70 respectively and still do all our own yardwork each spring -  summer -  fall and plan to continue these activities at least until we are 80 and 75...  maybe 85 and 80...  who knows.

We have no desire to buy an electric car unless we absolutely have to, but if an electric car is purchased, our travels away from home will be limited.  The last thing we want to do, is find ourselves waiting in line to charge our batteries, and then waiting several more hours waiting for the damn things to charge.

I have no desire spending my last few years waiting for a car battery to charge while I am vacationing.

I cannot imagine what life would be like not being married, although I have fantasized about getting divorced a second time and how I would live.

Marriage is about companionship and not necessarily love as you get older.  Being with someone is better than being alone.

Strictly Political

 

Gratitude or Gratefulness?

GRATITUDE means being thankful.

GRATEFULNESSS means showing appreciation for being thankful.

We think of these two words as two different concepts but they are not...  they are one in the same.

We think of showing gratitude because we are thankful that we have been given life and we attribute that gift to God.   However, can we not be thankful for life without giving the credit to God?

Obviously, there is some sort of creator...  I mean that is a logical conclusion to draw, especially in light of the government admitting that they have been dealing with UFOs since 1947.  I would say that this is pretty good evidence of there being alien life and pretty good proof that aliens were somehow involved with the creation of the universe and everything inside the universe.

Yet...  despite all of that logic, one can still have gratitude and be grateful.

Not only are we thankful for the life that we have been given.  But, we are thankful for that life being in the United States of America as opposed to being born in another country.

I would also suspect that we are thankful for our spouse and our children, if we have any...  not to mention, our good health, if we have that as well.

I'm in a little bit of a different situation, as for the last 15 years, I have and continue to be treated for two different cancers...  and, I am still alive...  I survived a serious heart attack 15 years ago as well.  Recently, I had 5 disks fused and I survived that operation as well and am almost back to normal when I walk....

Those three things alone is enough to be thankful for and show one's gratitude.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow...  and, the holiday was created because the first colonists in this new land survived the winter and were thankful for that survival.  They showed their thanks by preparing food and sharing it with the Native Americans...

Until something terrible happens to you, I am not sure if you can fully appreciate the concept of thankfulness and showing gratitude.

 

Cartoon Cats

 

On Being An American Patriot

I was in the military during the Vietnam War, so does that make me a patriot?

I pay my taxes every year on time without trying to see how little I can pay, so does that make me a patriot?

I obey all the laws of the land and do not complain, so does that make me a patriot?

I am NOT CONVINCED that just by being in the military, paying taxes, and following the law makes me a patriot...

Why?

Doing these three items makes me a good American, but that is not necessarily being a patriot...

Why?

Because, being a patriot is expressing a feeling of LOVE, DEVOTION, ATTACHMENT, and LOYALTY for this country.

I enjoy living in the US of A, but I would not say that I love, am devoted, have an attachment, or am loyal...  that just isn't who I am.

Just because I don't love, am devoted, have an attachment, or am loyal to the US of A, does not mean I want to live some where else....

This country has an enormous amount of problems that it has yet to face and deal with other than try to ignore....  

These are:

1. What we did to the Native Americans
2. What we did to blacks
3. Double standards under the law
4. Rank has its privileges
5. Wealthy arrogance
6. Educated arrogance
7. Religious arrogance
8. Gender inequality
9. Law Enforcement abuse of power
10. Management and labor bitterness
11. North and South rivalries
12. Our Political Leaders LIE
13. We intentionally bend the laws
14. Corrupt judges
15. Insatiable greed

Will any of this change?

I have live 75 years and none of it has changed in my lifetime...

Sadly, without the wealthy,

• we would not have companies
• we would not have goods and services
• we would not have contributions to charities
• we would not have new product development

This is the greatest country in the world right now based upon the FREEDOMS that we have and others do not have...  BUT, I don't consider myself to be a PATRIOT...   I entered the military simply so that the government would pay for my college and grad schools...

Launch

 

Galaxies Newr the Dawn of Time

The small red dot highlighted inside the white box on this James Webb Space Telescope image is an early galaxy, seen as it looked just 350 million years after the Big Bang.       STScI/NASA

New baby pictures of the universe, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, show that galaxies started forming faster and earlier than expected.

The telescope launched back in December and it now orbits the sun about a million miles away from Earth. Its giant mirror allows it to detect faint light that's been traveling for almost the entire history of the 13.8 billion-year-old universe. That means it can effectively see what galaxies looked like way back in time.

The snapshots captured so far have both thrilled and perplexed scientists, because it turns out that many luminous galaxies existed when the universe was very young.

"Just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, there are already lots of galaxies," says Tommaso Treu, an astronomer at the University of California at Los Angeles. "JWST has opened up a new frontier, bringing us closer to understanding how it all began."

In research papers published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Treu and other astronomers report the discovery of one galaxy that dates back to just 450 million years after the beginning, and another that dates back to 350 million years.  READ MORE...

Underwater Road

 

Strictly Political

 

Immigration from Mexico Tears Down Quality of Life in USA

 I have been more fortunate than others in that because of my father's employment, I went to high school in Cairo, Egypt and during the summers, traveled throughout Europe on $3 and $5/day from 1962-1966.

When I was in the military, we went on a Med Cruise and visited all the countries that bordered that body of water.  When my wife and I retired, we vacationed in the Caribbean, Mexico, and throughout Europe...  so, one could say that I have had ample opportunities to know what the quality of life is like is countries outside the US of A.

And, therein lies my problem with all this immigration as it is going to reduce the quality of life in the US of A wherever a group of them decide to live...   They will bring their lifestyles with them and the US of A will turn into MINI TIJUANA's...  see below...

Movement

 

The Threat to the USA

 

As a North American from the US of A, I can honestly say that there are several threats to the United States of which many may not be aware...

These threats include:

• China/Russia/North Korea/ Iran
• A Weak Military
• STEM Training
• Inflation (slow growing economy)
• Ending Fossil Fuels
• Immigration (limited resources)
• A Divided Country
• Robotics/Artificial Intelligence
• Crime and Violence
• Our National Debt

Most North Americans living in the US of A are concerned with whether or not they can get an abortion or not...  or if, the LGBTQ+ community is given all the rights they deserve....  or if, whether or not we should legalize marijuana nationally...  or if, college education should be free...  or if, everyone in this country should drive electric vehicles, knowing that our power grid is not strong enough to handle the overload and knowing that there is not enough charging stations to handle the demand...

Just for shits and giggles...

1. China is not giving up fossil fuels
2. India is not giving up fossil fuels
3. Russia is not giving up fossil fuels

SO...  how much of an impact will our country have on the GREEN MOVEMENT???

Isn't it interesting that I have only partially addressed ONE OUT OF 10 concerns...  

what about the other 9?  

can you imagine what they might entail?

Still After Trump - Six Years Later

 

Blockchain Development Companies

If you have been following banking, investing, or cryptocurrency over the last ten years, you may be familiar with “blockchain,” the record-keeping technology behind the Bitcoin network. And there’s a good chance that it only makes so much sense. In trying to learn more about blockchain, you’ve probably encountered a definition like this: “blockchain is a distributed, decentralized, public ledger.”

What is Blockchain?
If this technology is so complex, why call it “blockchain?” At its most basic level, blockchain is literally just a chain of blocks, but not in the traditional sense of those words. When we say the words “block” and “chain” in this context, we are actually talking about digital information (the “block”) stored in a public database (the “chain”).

“Blocks” on the blockchain are made up of digital pieces of information. Specifically, they have three parts:

Blocks store information about transactions like the date, time, and dollar amount of your most recent purchase from Amazon. (NOTE: This Amazon example is for illustrative purchases; Amazon retail does not work on a blockchain principle as of this writing)

Blocks store information about who is participating in transactions. A block for your splurge purchase from Amazon would record your name along with Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). Instead of using your actual name, your purchase is recorded without any identifying information using a unique “digital signature,” sort of like a username.

Blocks store information that distinguishes them from other blocks. Much like you and I have names to distinguish us from one another, each block stores a unique code called a “hash” that allows us to tell it apart from every other block. Hashes are cryptographic codes created by special algorithms. Let’s say you made your splurge purchase on Amazon, but while it’s in transit, you decide you just can’t resist and need a second one. Even though the details of your new transaction would look nearly identical to your earlier purchase, we can still tell the blocks apart because of their unique codes.  READ MORE...

Skateboard Girl