Spirit of the Holidays

Christmas in July, inverted, becomes July in Christmas. And there is a sense that Black Friday is a mirror image of the Fourth of July: a celebration of the fundamentals of our economy, the basis of our entire civilization.

For those of you who have yet to complete your shopping, we've just posted a review of a Santa Clause action figure, pictured above, in The Clearance Bin. And, should you become curious as to how we arrive at a specific score, you can read all about it in the article explaining our Methodology, also just published.

Yes, another Black Friday has come and gone. We in The Middle Room marked the occasion by setting our alarms bright and early for 4:45 AM, climbing out of bed, crawling to our computers, and buying discounted DVDs from Amazon before they ran out.

This, we should add, has several advantages over the more traditional activities:

1. Easier commute.
2. One can return to bed immediately after concluding one's purchases.
3. No one needs to die.

The third point is one of particular significance this year, as the body count, while thankfully remaining in the single digits, was higher than one would have expected. Two shoppers shot each other dead at a Toys R Us in California, while closer to home a Walmart employee in Long Island, NY was trampled to death by impatient shoppers immediately after opening the store.

While it warms our hearts to see so many embracing the true spirit of Christmas, we sincerely hope that in the future consumers can express their love of capitalism in a manner less reminiscent of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

On the other hand, it is an exceptional film.