BLACK FRIDAY

I read the news today, oh boy...

Trouble, man. You wake up the day after Thanksgiving with a food and drink hangover. You can't make a fist, but you somehow manage to make coffee. Everything's too bright, too loud. You stagger to your chair with a cup of joe, and your head feels like a blimp from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that has torn loose from its guy-lines and bashed into a few skyscrapers.

You sit down and open the morning newpaper. Shit oh dear! The world is going to hell in a gravy boat. The headlines scream bloody murder. Maybe this is just a bad dream. Maybe Scrooge was right--the senses are cheats; a slight disorder of the stomach affects them. You pray these headlines are just an undigested bit of turkey, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of pecan pie.

MUMBAI

Members of the Indian security forces taking up firing positions between fire trucks and ambulances on the grounds of the Taj Hotel on Friday. (Ruth Fremson/ The New York Times )

I know you've been following the news from Mumbai. More than 150 people were killed in a series of coordinated attacks Wednesday. By Friday, nine gunmen had been killed by Indian commandos. Hostages were found dead. The fighting continues, and they say it's down to one luxury hotel, the Oberoi Trident.

In this clip, a CNN anchor Sara Sidner is threatened by an angry mob outside the Taj Mahal.




BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING DEATHS
So far, only three people were killed in shopping accidents: A Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death by eager shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, and two people were shot to death in a crowded Toy 'R' Us in Palm Desert, California.

Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times

According to the LA Times, "the [Toys 'R' Us] shooting, apparently sparked by a personal dispute between two groups of shoppers, occurred on Black Friday, traditionally one of the year's busiest shopping days, and when the store was crowded with families and children."

To hear "Black Friday" by Steely Dan, please click button:


When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it 'til
I satisfy my soul

YESTERDAY'S PAPERS:

A shout out to the rabble-rousers in the TDA who occupied the Trojan nuclear plant 31 years ago in an act of peaceful civil disobedience. Read a "trespasser's notebook" here.