Friday, November 27, 2009

"Black" Friday Dawn


Just after dawn this morning, the sky shows a lot of blue, but the sun has not yet reached the buildings. The Christmas tree (center, in shadow) will not be lit until the official ceremony tomorrow, although it is already covered with decorations. Merchants will open soon; this is "Black Friday", from the expression "In the black", meaning profitable. The term comes from old hand written business ledgers, where profits were written in black and losses were written in red. In the US, retail sales are highest in the weeks before Christmas, and since the day after Thanksgiving is usually a day off work for most people, it has become an especially important sales day for retailers.

Find links to more of this week's Skywatch Friday participants at http://skyley.blogspot.com/.

6 comments:

Lowell said...

That's a nice sky ... but what were you doing up just after dawn? ;-))

I'm retired, so I can ask stupid questions like that!

BlossomFlowerGirl said...

For a moment I thought I was looking at Chinese lanterns, then realised they are trafic lights. Unusual seing trafic lights hanging from a wire - are most of them like that where you are?
Melbourne Daily Photo

VP said...

I'm asking the same question of Jacob...

Bob the Bolder said...

Always learning ! - I'd never heard of Black Friday before - in the UK Cyber Monday gets the press.
PS - those suspended traffic lights are common in continental Europe.

Three Rivers, Michigan said...

I was in Florida and they had signs hanging down from intersections, in about 6 languages they said - "Look Up!" (to see the signal lights.) Yes they are common where it would be awkward to see a light at the side of the road, especially over large intersections.

If I don't say what I was doing up early, would I be mysterious? :-)

VP said...

Absolutely yes! I just checked to know...