Is it that time of year again? Time to string the cliches from the rafters and hang the unoriginality from the mantle and tuck the ridiculous quotes snug into bed for a long winter’s nap?
Here’s the participatory Holiday Weekend version of Gangrey.com.
You be the judge of who did the obligatory Friday-After-Thanksgiving story justice, and let’s try to learn something.
Brace yourself, though, for much swarming and luring and quite a few references to standing in line for this or that. Be warned: A Google News search shows at least eight reporters wrote “line snaked” on Friday, so, um, OK, here’s a cross section.
Looks like it got pretty wild at the Walmart in Middletown, N.Y. (Someone’s going to die in one of these stampedes.) There were more wacko’s in Washington, but the retail giant’s PR machine was fully functional. (“Christi Gallagher, a national Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the most excitement was caused by two people shouting at each other. She said, “From time to time, our customers get very excited about the prices we’re offering.”) The Mercury News sent a team out for the “near-riot” in Mountain View. Those covering fist-fights and police action at least had something to write about. Not so in Detroit, where people reportedly woke up: “And get out of bed they did.” Of course, you can’t neglect to mention the menacing weather. “Morning rains did little to dampen the ardor of shoppers who crammed into big-box retailers, department stores and malls Friday,” in San Francisco. And shoppers in Baltimore’s burbs were “Lured by early-bird specials and undeterred by frigid weather and jostling crowds.” “Frigid temperatures” didn’t stop crap in Oklahoma, thank goodness. It’s actually refreshing to get a kinda-funny anecdote by Doris Hajewski at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Jim Bainbridge at the Colorado Springs Gazette gets props for working his tail off. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette went overboard: “This story was written by Teresa F. Lindeman based on her reporting and that of staff writers Caitlin Cleary, Monica Haynes, Madeline Izzo, Rebekah Scott, Anya Sostek and Monessa Tinsley.” (No men?)
Thank God for Steve Israel in sleepy Sullivan County.
Until next year…
Leave a comment