Ford Field Turkey, Black Friday, and a few thoughts
by Barry Bauer
For the seventh year in a row the Lions won the “Turkey” award on Thanksgiving Day. Although The Lions had a good game plan going in, we didn’t make the right half-time adjustments. I always thought that the outcome of a football game depends on coaching in the second half. The Patriots had it and we didn’t.
The smart coach makes adjustments and tries to win the game while the lesser coach takes a few guesses and loses.
The Lions were pretty much in the game until Alphonso Smith was faked out three times on the same play. I don’t believe I ever saw that before. The Patriots receiver ended up scoring. That cut the heart out of the team, the fans, and the game was pretty much over.
Is the only solution new ownership, Mr. Ford? It’s hard to believe that the same family that successfully runs an automobile company can’t run a football team.
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I don’t know when the shopping day after Thanksgiving became known as “Black Friday” but I’ve always associated a black “any day” as being bad. We used to go Christmas shopping on Friday when the kids were little but that’s before it became this big event. I wouldn’t normally get involved with it nowadays but Wal-Mart pulled a dirty trick on me. They had an early morning sale on Seagate’s 1.5TB external drive that my son-in-law, Jake, wanted for Christmas. They promised a minimum of 3 per store. I know this is a great value for the bucks because I already have one and I’m almost sure I remember what I paid for it. The sale started at 5:00 a.m. which was no big problem for me because I’m always up around 3:30 a.m. anyway.
I try to get up before the Devil claims me.
I went into the store and headed for the electronics department. Where else would you go to buy a computer external drive? Heading in the opposite direction was a Wal-Mart employee with a hand truck, pushing a wooden pallet with two large but narrow cardboard boxes. The name, Seagate, caught my eye. I followed it over to the far reaches of the grocery department where they set them up. There was also a display of flat screen TVs that were part of the sale.
I was the only one in line and there must have been 50 external drives in the box so that’s when I decided, one for Jake and one for me. Given what I do, I can never have enough memory.
After the purchase I took them out to my truck and grab my camera which is generally with me. I headed back to the store to get a few pictures for “Around Town with Barry” on the Indy.
An employee at the door told me I couldn’t take pictures. I know better than that because I’ve taken pictures of a former store manager showing off a store award, and took pictures when local law enforcement officers treated some needy kids to “Shop with a Cop.” Nobody objected then. I don’t know if the employee was mis-informed or if it was a store policy that day.
Do you think they’re concerned they wouldn’t know if I was walking around with my camera or one of theirs? I suppose so, Gram. I need to find and keep the receipt with me showing I purchased my camera. Never mind that I’ve taken almost 7,000 pictures with it so far. My last camera gave me over 13,000 pictures before it started failing.
Anyway, I didn’t pursue them telling me I couldn’t take photos further because it was early and I wanted to go home.
I did noticed that there were two Wal-Mart semis parked in the parking lot and it’s my bet that after the sale was over with, all the leftover sale items were taken back to the trucks, and sent on their way to Wal-Mart’s warehouse, wherever.
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A few thoughts:
The most tiresome phrase in this country, “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.”
Obama was sent here on a mission . . . not to build America up; he’s here to tear her down. How’s he doing?
Two of the best interviewers on late night television are David Letterman and Craig Ferguson.
Not too long ago we were arming airline pilots. Now we’re making them go through security screenings by TSA agents. Don’t they realize that pilots don’t need a bomb or fingernail clippers to bring the plane down?
Okay, here’s the problem, we support China and China supports North Korea. There’s no way we can do anything about North Korea unless we’re willing to give up our “made in China” crap. As you all know, we can’t do that!
History has a history of being incorrectly recorded.
Does it bother you that our legislature passes bills that fix one problem and creates ten more?
Artists see things the rest of us don’t.
Until the next time . . .