Our Annual Books Issue 

One of the joys of the holiday season here at TNT is preparing the annual list of new books by local authors and books that will be of special interest to our readers. This year’s collection has mystery, history, natural history, food, architecture, travel, essays, and a remarkable novella written by an author who is a Topanga living treasure. In a world that is rapidly being drowned in AI-generated slop, it is a pleasure to read books that are written with intention, by people who care deeply and passionately about their subject, and to come away from that experience with new knowledge, with laughter or tears, or even awe. In addition to our local authors and local interest section, this issue features Jimmy P. Morgan’s annual column showcasing his personal favorite books of the year. This is Jimmy’s sixth annual Gift of Reading column, and he couldn’t have picked a better name for this feature. For those of us who love reading there is no better gift. Happy reading! Cover design by Urs Baur

Black Friday? When did the day after Thanksgiving go from being a welcome day off to becoming a shopping frenzy? 

A dark or black day is an ominous or unlucky one in British tradition. One of the earliest references to a “Black Friday” in the US refers to the financial crisis of 1869, when gold prices plunged. That was the type of Black Friday that inspired the author of a 1951 article in Factory Management, channeling the spirit of an unrepentant Ebenezer Scrooge, to apply the title to the day after Thanksgiving. However, this article was a lament about worker absenteeism and had nothing to do with holiday shopping: “‘Friday-after-Thanksgiving-itis’ is a disease second only to the bubonic plague in its effects, at least that’s the feeling of those who have to get production out, when “Black Friday” comes along.” 

In the 1960s, “Black Friday” was adopted by the Philadelphia police who used it to describe the traffic jams caused by shoppers descending on the downtown retail district on the day after Thanksgiving. 

“Retailers would like you to believe that it’s the day when stores turn a profit on the year, thus ‘going into the black,’ but don’t you believe it: the true origins come from traffic-weary police officers in Philadelphia in the early 1960s,” wrote journalist Ben Zimmer in a 2011 expose on the origins of the term. 

A mention in the New York Times in 1975 appears to give credence to Black Friday’s Philly origins, crediting “Philadelphia police and bus drivers” with coining the term, and added that the traditional Army-Navy football game that traditionally took place in Philadelphia on the Saturday after Thanksgiving also contributed to “the impending sense of doom felt by traffic offices, residents, store employees and bus drivers.”

The name stuck, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that Black Friday came to mean the annual nationwide post-Thankgiving holiday shopping frenzy. That frenzy may have peaked in the oughts, when crowds began lining up outside big box retail the night before out of the desire to be first in. 

The COVID pandemic quashed the fervor for “doorbuster” events, but even before that, the spell was wearing off. Instead of a panicked stampede with an intensity that has sometimes seemed not unlike whatever biological imperative that motivates salmon to swim upstream to spawn, there’s a growing movement to take the day off, spend it with family, or communing with nature, or just relaxing. 

In 2015, the sporting goods and outdoor outfitting co-op REI  announced that it would be giving all of its employees the day off on Black Friday. REI challenged customers and other retailers to #optoutside.

This year, with so many people experiencing economic hardships, the focus for many on Black Friday isn’t retail, it’s reinvention, turning this day into something else, something that doesn’t involve traffic jams, battles over parking spaces, standing in lines to spend money we don’t have on things that aren’t really needed. Giving the gift of experiences like classes or activities is an increasingly popular option, together with thrifting, regifting, and crafting presents—more sustainable options that don’t require a mad dash to the mall or an online spending spree.

For those who do plan to shop, Topanga’s independent shops, artists, and artisans offer an amazing range of gifts that can’t be found elsewhere. 

For those participating in the #optoutside movement, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area offers opportunities right in our own backyard. For the more adventurous, there is already snow in the mountains not that far from home, and more than 25,000 square miles of desert to explore just an hour or two away. 

Black Friday doesn’t have to add to the stress of a season that is already loaded with anxiety and impossible expectations for many. Just because somebody invented a game doesn’t mean we all have to play it. Unless we feel like it.

Here at TNT we are celebrating Black Friday with your editor’s annual round of books by local authors and of local interest, and with TNT Columnist Jimmy P. Morgan’s always popular Gift of Reading. We also have a feature by Claire Fordham on the Topanga Witch House and its proprietor, whose reflections on the pagan roots of the holiday season are the antithesis of corporate commercialism.

Whatever your plans are for Black Friday and the start of the winter holiday season, we hope you, dear reader, find peace and joy. 

Stay safe, be well.