The Most Horrible Day of The Year

It's been days since I've written. A week, now that I think about it. There's been a lot of crap going on that's interfered with my blogging abilities. Most notably we've had our now annual Holiday Layoffs here at work. I'm still here. (Like right now. Right now I'm here at work, sitting alone in an empty office. I think some other people are supposed to be working today. I hope. Because I can't put out an entire paper by myself.) Anyway, not a very happy Thanksgiving for us but I won't go into all that.

Instead I'll use this time to complain about the annual Day After Thanksgiving Shopping Story that all newspapers and all TV stations feel the need to do year after bloody year. Why? Why? Why? What kernel of truth do we glean from these stories, what wealth of wisdom washes over us when we read these stories or watch them on television? And does anyone read these stories?

My personal opinion - no, no one reads them, no one cares. They look at the photos of people waiting in huge ass lines or fighting over the last Sponge Bob Square Pants doll and they say one of two things: 1) "We were in that line and it sucked and it was freezing!" or 2) "Those people are crazy. You couldn't me out of bed to go wait in line like that." So why do we feel compelled to write this story year in and year out? I think it's because we're scared to stop. Scared that somehow, NOT doing the Day After Thanksgiving Shopping Story (DATSS) will cause subscriptions to fall at a mind dizzying pace; scared that there won't be any other news that day to fill the newspaper; scared that God will strike us down if we do not write the story.

And now for the biggest question of all - Why, no matter what my job is, do I always have to go out and write the DATSS? I hate the day after Thanksgiving. I hate it with a passion unmatched by anything else. Hate is not even a strong enough word to describe today. Oh, let me count the hours till the work day is done. Eight hours and counting....