On this weekend dedicated to two favorite American pastimes - shopping and food - we ask you to take a
moment to think of Sylvan N. Goldman, as Saturday
will mark the 26th anniversary of his death.
Mr. Goldman was a major
stockholder of the Piggly-Wiggly supermarket chain and
invented the shopping cart. For various
reasons, his customers didn't want to use the carts, so his solution was to
hire fake shoppers to wheel them around the stores to show others how useful
they could be. Obviously, it worked.
The excitement of Thanksgiving has now passed,
and while history tells us that Yahoo! will see search spikes
today on both food poisoning and the
location of the nearest pizza parlor, many of us will
concentrate on the primary events of this season: shopping and not shopping.
As
consumers head to the disorienting wonderland that is the mall (and we note
that Friday is the 145th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland),
both of these pastimes will make big headlines in the media.
For those who are pro-shopping, today is "Black Friday," the day of
the year that sees the highest number of sales transactions. Let it be noted,
however, that the day the most money changes hands is the Saturday before Christmas
(though with Christmas falling on a
Saturday this year, it’s anyone’s guess what the biggest day that will actually
be). Monday is, of course, "Cyber Monday," when
workers will waste a good portion of the day shopping online, rather than doing
actual work (like writing The Spark).
On the other hand, Friday is also Buy Nothing Day, which
reminds us all to not feed the corporate beast that drives this holiday frenzy
and to concentrate on either the message of the season or home-made gifts.
Those celebrating this day might consider a cake (since it's also National Cake Day), or even donuts to commemorate the 2002
passing of Verne H. Winchell, who founded
the Winchell's Donuts chain in
1948, and who was known as "The Donut King." Whatever
you eat, be sure to brush afterwards - and celebrate Friday's National Flossing Day.
Someone who’s probably doing all he can to ignore this weekend is Eldrick "Tiger" Woods,
since Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the car crash that sent his whole
word spiraling.
Perhaps he can use the occasion to get his aura read and see his future. Fortunately for him, Sunday is International Aura Awareness Day.
Failing that, he may want to head to New York for the first preview
of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
The musical, with a score by Bono and The Edge, has been plagued by budget problems
(its estimated cost is $65 million, nearly four times the usual for a big
Broadway show) and severe injuries to cast
members. "Break a leg!" might not be the best thing to wish this
particular cast, but their misfortunes so far might make Tiger feel better.
A number of birthdays fall on this weekend. Saturday sees what would have been
the 88th birthday of cartoonist and Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz (who died in
2000, the night before his final strip ran), as well as the 67th
"birthday" of the Slinky. The flexible toy was
invented by engineer Richard James in 1943, and its
initial lot of 400 units sold out in a mere 90 minutes. Despite its limited
uses (just how many staircases can it walk down?), the Slinky has
remained a perennial toyland favorite.
Saturday would have been the 70th birthday of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. It's also the 100th
anniversary of New York's Pennsylvania Station, which was a grand and imposing structure
that welcomed millions of visitors and immigrants to Manhattan in the days when
train travel was king. In
1963, despite a vigorous campaign to save it, the station was torn down to make room for the
fourth Madison Square Garden, a
mistake many in the city have rued in the decades since.
Monday sees the birthday of movie choreographer supreme Busby Berkeley (1895), and
Sunday brings us a trifecta of masters of their craft: Daily Show host Jon Stewart turns 48.
Randy Newman, the Academy Award-winning composer (and writer of the greatest song ever written about Los Angeles), turns 67 (he's as old as the Slinky!),
Paul Shaffer, David Letterman's longtime
bandleader, who's personally played with pretty much every major rock performer
of the century, and whose group is the house band for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
induction ceremony, turns 61.
For us, though, the most significant anniversary of the weekend is the November 26, 1942 opening of Casablanca at New York's
Hollywood Theatre.
Still considered one of the
greatest films ever made, Casablanca's mixture of heroism, humor, and
self-sacrifice, combined with indelible characters and lines has never been
equaled in the many years since. They truly don't make 'em like that anymore.
Suggested Sites...
- Lewis Carroll Society of North America - 'tis brillig.
- Doughnuts: A Definitive History - personally, we prefer "donuts."
- Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark - a shaky bootleg may be the best way to see it.
- Slinky Lab - actual experiments by actual physicists.
- Roger Ebert: Casablanca - it amounts to a lot more than a hill of beans.
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