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BLACK FRIDAY and OTHER COLORFUL DAYS

11/24/2013

COLOR ME MONEY
We all know that Black Friday is officially day after Thanksgiving, right? The beginning of the Holiday shopping season.

Says who? Says, well...I guess a lot of us don't really know who gets to decide the "official" Black Friday.

This year, because Thanksgiving falls on November 28, we experienced an "unofficial" Black Friday on November 22. As it turns out, in the US we have quite a few “black” days—in fact, nearly every day of the week—and they are all driven by economics and spending.

ORIGINS OF BLACK FRIDAY
Actually, the term “Black Friday” is used in several contexts and dates back to the US financial crisis of 1869. That seems to be the first recorded use, and the term has been used for many events marking financial downturns.

In 1966, the term "Black Friday" was applied—and not as a term of endearment—to the day after Thanksgiving...by Philadelphia Police Department. That day officially opened the Christmas shopping season and usually brought massive traffic jams, over-crowded sidewalks, and general chaos. The Philadelphia Police Department hated it.

The designation came into more general use around 1975 and by the 1980s, merchants were objecting to the negative connotation. So, being the innovative business people that we are, someone came up with the theory that this was the point in time when businesses (which traditionally operated at a loss or “in the red”) started making profits and operated “in the black.”

Tah-dah! Now, merchants love it.

BLACK MONDAY
October 19, 1987, is when the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 22% in a single day. That event marked the beginning of a global stock market decline, making "Black Monday" one of the most notorious days in recent financial history. By the end of the month, most of the major exchanges had dropped more than 20%.

BLACK TUESDAY
"Black Tuesday" is the day marked as the end of the Roaring '20s and the great Wall Street Crash of 1929. A second Black Tuesday event was the Tasmanian fires in 1967.

BLACK WEDNESDAY
September 16, 1992, is commonly known as the day that George Soros broke the Bank of England. He made one billion dollars profit that day, and the British government was forced to withdraw the pound from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

BLACK THURSDAY
Thursdays seem to be “black” for a lot of reasons, some of which include:
      •February 6, 1851, a day of devastating brush fires in Victoria, Australia.

      •The Panic of 1873 when the US bank Jay Cooke & Company declared bankruptcy, triggering a series of bank
        failures.

      •October 24, 1929, was the beginning of the Crash of 1929, followed by “Black Tuesday” on October 29, 1929.

      •October 14, 1943, when the Allies suffered large losses during bombing in the Second Raid on Scheweinfurt
       during World War II. And so on.

MORE COLORFUL DAYS
There are some “good” days out there, too. At least, days with different colors and some dedicated to more socially-worthy endeavors.

Green Monday
The day Green Monday (coined by eBay) is the second Monday of December. Also economically driven, Green Monday is the biggest online shopping days of the year with only ten more days until Christmas. Experts project consumers will spend $1 billion on holiday shopping this day alone. It also refers to a network of sustainable development practitioners in the UK, which meets on the first Monday of every month to discuss critical environmental issues such as climate change.

Purple Wednesday
March 26, 2014 will be the Global Day of Epilepsy Awareness. People in countries around the world are invited to wear purple and host events in support of epilepsy awareness.

Purple Day was founded in 2008, by nine-year-old Cassidy Megan of Nova Scotia, Canada, with the help of the Epilepsy Association of Nova Scotia. Cassidy chose the color purple after the international color for epilepsy, lavender. The lavender flower is also often associated with solitude, which is representative of the feelings of isolation many people affected by epilepsy and seizure disorders often feel.

Pink Wednesday
Wednesday, April 4, 2014, will be the next "Pink Wednesday", the International Day against Bullying, Discrimination, Homophobia and Transphobia in schools and communities.
We also associate pink with Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Red Friday
There are a number of Red days for different purposes. "National Wear Red Day" is the day when Americans wear red to show support for women's heart health. It was on Friday January 31 in 2013. Sources indicate it is February 1, which in 2014 is Saturday.

Red Friday, also a day for wearing red, is a way for Americans to demonstrate their appreciation to our soldiers for their bravery and sacrifice. It is the same in Canada, where wearing red on Friday shows support for Canadian Troops.

Who can tell us about more "colorful" days of the week?

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November 24th, 2013

11/24/2013

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VETERANS DAY: A Time for Reflection

11/11/2013

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Today is November 11, Veterans Day. A day off! No Mail! We get to wear red poppies, wave flags, and go to a parade!

Many American tend to think of Veterans Day as just another day off. Or, if you don't have a holiday, it may be just another day when the mail isn't delivered.

That's too bad, because it should be a day of reflection and thanks to the multitude of armed services veterans, and their families, who have kept our country "the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

Don't confuse it with Memorial Day, which honors those service men and women who have died in the service of their country.

HISTORY
Nothing is easy when it involves the federal government.

US President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919, one year after the armistice between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month and brought to a halt the actual fighting in WW I. The Treaty of Versailles was signed seven months later, on June 28, 1919.

I was surprised to read that Congress didn't officially recognize the end of WW I until June 4, 1926. It's hard for me to envision signing the treaty without acknowledging the end of the war. However, in the same resolution, Congress requested President Coolidge to proclaim November 11 as a national holiday. This is the same day celebrated in other parts of the world as Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Victory in Europe Day, and other names.

An act approved in May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November a legal federal holiday, known as "Armistice Day", dedicated to the veterans of WW I and the cause of world peace.

Something as non-partisan/non-controversial as this took almost ten years. No wonder we're in trouble.

Then, on June 1, 1954, Congress approved legislation changing the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day, a holiday which honors of the veterans of all wars, not just WW I, and celebrated on October 25. The first Veterans Day was celebrated on October 25, 1971. Confusion ensued. No one was happy.

On September 20, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed a law which returned Veterans Day to the original date of November 11, beginning in 1978.

Sigh of relief. This pleased just about everyone, although I used to wonder why my employer gave us a union-negotiated holiday on October 25, when the official holiday was November 11. Now I understand.

Hopefully, everything is settled for a while. And it pleases me that Veterans Day hasn't been moved from the specific date. That's not an accident. The proponents wanted to preserve the significance of November 11 and to focus attention on the purpose of Veterans Day.

Just a note: According to Yahoonews.com, "In 2013, there are no longer any living World War I vets among us. A woman named Florence Green was considered the last surviving World War I veteran. Green was a waitress with the Women's Royal Air Force at an air base in England. She died in 2012. [Flying Saucers to Mind Control: 7 Declassified Military & CIA Secrets]"

A TIME FOR REFLECTION AND THANKS

As Senator Mike Johanns said,

"Nothing we can do in Congress will ever fully return the favor of those who have given so much for America. But we must do all we can to honor them. All Americans share in the responsibility of caring for our veterans who have defended our freedom.

Fewer causes are so imperative or so noble. This Veterans Day, we remember the service to our brave men and women in uniform. We thank them for their sacrifice and for their service."

THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE PAST AND TO THOSE MEN AND WOMEN WHO CONTINUE TO SERVE AND PROTECT OUR FREEDOM…AND THEIR FAMILIES.

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THIS IS AFRICA

11/5/2013

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By R. Ann Siracusa
An expansion of a blog originally posted on Melisa Snarks blog on 11-04-2013.

THE SETTING OF THE ALL FOR A BLAST OF HOT AIR
In the simplest terms, the setting of a novel is the time and place in which the action of the narrative takes place. Without place, the characters are just there without reason to act or care. Setting is not only the time, location, and circumstance of where the story takes place, but the social milieu which shapes values and the characters. Not only the mood and texture of the place, but also attitudes, values, and issues of that point in time.

Interesting settings can be a challenge. At best, they can become a character in the story. Since my brand is "Travel to exotic foreign lands for romance and intrigue", my goal is to make my readers feel as though they've been to the place they've read about.

Author Susan Meissner writes:
"We are wired to assign value to places. That's why home is so sweet, Yosomite is so beautiful, Paris so romantic, and a moonlit beach is so calming. It's also why dark houses scare us, crumbling cliffs intimidate us, and foggy moors depress us. Place communicate something to us. A spider doesn't care it if makes a web in a dark, musty cellar or under a chair in an opulent ballroom. But we care!"

You can set a novel in a place you've never been and pull it off, but having been there is better. Physical presence gives you a sense of how the location feels, tastes, and smells. You hear the background sounds, feel the rhythm and pace. These things are often hard to research. Even if you've never been to the location where your novel is set, thinks about those characteristics of place.

I use international travel for the settings in my novels. The uniqueness of each location is my inspiration. When I travel, I look for locations, attitudes, and customs that result in a story that couldn't happen anywhere else and be the same story.

AFRICA
The setting for my latest novel in the romantic suspense series "Tour Director Extraordinaire" is southern Africa. I traveled to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia in 2008. The trip inspired the novel "All For A Blast Of Hot Air."

Everything in Africa moves at its own pace, which tends to be slower and more laid back than the urban parts of the US. When tourists get frustrated about this, the response is a shrug and the words, "This is Africa." The phrase is delivered as more of an explanation rather than an excuse, and they don't understand why we have our panties in a wad.

While I was there, someone we met spoke of having taken a hot air balloon safari. About all that I heard was how wonderful the experience had been—I'm not even sure where in Africa she'd been—but the comment struck a chord, and set the stage for the novel.

SETTING OF EACH SCENE
I was intrigued by Author MaryLu Tyndall's list of six ways the setting can help or hinder the protagonist in achieving his/her goals in general and in a scene. It's worth the time to read her article. http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/06/using-setting-as-a-character-a-tip-for-novelists/

Here's a recap of her points.
● The setting as a friend / a comfortable, relaxing place where protagonist can reflect, or a safe place to hide from enemies.
● The setting as an antagonist / introduce conflict, trouble, thwarts protagonist's plans.
● The setting as a mentor / a place to learn or make discoveries, a place to prepare to take something on.
● The setting as a shadow for protagonist / a shadow reflects the deepest flaws of the character / a setting that opens the character's eyes to his/her own flaws.
● The setting as a model of what the protagonist wants to be / a setting that fosters qualities to which the protagonist aspires.
● The setting as an example / a setting that either assists or hinders the character in the particular scene.

WHAT DID WE DO IN AFRICA?
So, how does a trip to Africa translate into a unique setting?

We didn't take a hot air balloon safari, but we did go on ground safaris. There were so many amazing locations and activities in those four countries that just didn't fit into my book. I find that unless I have a rough outline already when I visit the setting, I may or may not pay attention to the details that will end up enriching the story. I've learned to be more astute about things that may end up having a place in a novel.

The following are only mentioned in passing in my novel, if at all, but the experience added to my sense of what it is like in Africa. Think about them and see if these minimal descriptions bring any ideas about settings to your mind. In what kind of book would any one of these setting be appropriate?

We rode "rescue" elephants. These are sick or starving elephants that have been abandoned by the herd. When found, they are brought back to health and used for tourist rides. The money earned goes into the upkeep of the animals.

We walked with lions. Walking with the Lions is part of the "ALERT" program which is intended to reintroduce lions into parts of Africa where the population has been reduced due to farmers killing them to protect their farms and livestock. A century ago, the lion population in all of Africa numbered about 200,000. Now the population is between 20,000 and 30,000. Again, the money earned for these tourists walks (which are actually part of training the lions) helps to fund the program.

We visited Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls [Mosi-oa-Tunya of The smoke that thunders] is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

These falls are not the highest or widest in the world, but Mosi-oa-Tunya is the largest falling sheet of water in the world. The full width of the Zambezi River (5,604 feet – over one mile wide) plummets straight down for 354 feet in a single sheet.

Part of the uniqueness of the falls is that there aren't any mountains or deep valleys as you would expect. Just flat land with a wide river…and then you see a billowy column of what looks like white smoke. It's actually the spray from the river plummeting into a deep vertical chasm caused by water erosion over thousands of years in the fracture zones.

We baboon-watched. A baboon actually made it into the novel as a secondary character. To the right is Manny Balz-ac. He and Harriet spend the night together in a tree.

Baboons run free like squirrels. They're incredibly smart, can open most locks, and harass the tourists by breaking into cars and homes looking for food. To the lower right, a troupe is hanging out on the road to stop cars. In the second phone, the baboon on the right is taking the woman's purse. The one below is in a golf cart at a golf course. He's looking for food, but it looks like he's stealing the golf cart. They also steal the golf balls.

We photographed Baobab Trees. These are unusual trees that grow only in Africa and Madagascar. The branches look like spread out like roots, hence the names "upside-down tree".

Every part of the tree can be used, which the primary reason it is called the tree of life. It's fruit, bark, roots, and wood provide innumerable products used by the native African peoples for thousands of years. Food, red dye, Vitamin C, medicine, rope and strings for musical instruments. Canoes are carved from the wood. The list goes on and on.

We ate weird foods. Zebra pate, Mopani worms, and soup with crickets. Oops! That wasn't the way the soup was prepared. The cricket flew into the open-air restaurant at our very nice hotel in Zimbabwe and landed in my friend's soup...but it didn't have anywhere to land in the book.

The Mopani worms, which are actually caterpillars, don't look like this when you eat them...well, not exactly. These are the staple protein for much of Africa.

We slept under Mosquito netting. This definitely made it into the book with some interesting consequences when the hero and heroine make love. Below was our room at one of the Safari Lodges where we stayed.

Watch for the rest of my blogs about Africa, including more about the worms and a recipe for them.

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BLACK FRIDAY and OTHER COLORFUL DAYS

November 24th, 2013

VETERANS DAY: A Time for Reflection

THIS IS AFRICA

Author R. Ann Siracusa

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