Thursday, November 27, 2008

544th Post - To My American Readers

Happy American Thanksgiving!


Bev
Via BlackBerry enterprise server

10 comments:

adSimba said...

Thanks =) happy thanksgiving to you too, it was great, ate too much

Bevboy said...

We had ours in October.

How was Black Friday in Northern California? Stores as crowded as in years past?

Bev

adSimba said...

well, I went out at 7am, first I went to a big box home center and it was mostly empty got a 50 jigsaw for $20 (but there were only 4 left so perhaps the rush was early and than over) than I went to target (like a cross between walmart and pottery barn) it was pretty busy but nothing like walmart last year (or this year as I hear)

Bevboy said...

I have read about this year's Black Friday, and the consensus seems to be that people are not buying as much as they once did, and that the crowds are not as big this year. I guess you are confirming that for me.

Bev

adSimba said...

except for lame stuff like clothing, women were beating eachother for over childrens pj's while the $400 flat panel high def tv sat on the shelf, weirdos

Bevboy said...

I also read that people are buying smaller, cheaper items this year. The five dollar DVD bins are selling out regularly at places like Walmart. The more expensive stuff is not selling like it once did. They mentioned in the NY Times I think that HD tv sales would be an economic indicator of the US economy this year. If they don't sell, even heavily discounted, then there is a big problem.

Not trying to be negative or anything, but it is ugly out there in Canada, too. Our government may fall in a week's time, and be replaced by a coalition government. Think about how that will affect the stock markets!

Bev

adSimba said...

really? forgive my ignorance, but what does that mean?

Bevboy said...

What does what mean? The government falling?

Assuming that's what you mean, we have what is called a minority government in Canada right now. The party with the most members of parliament elected in the election last month is outnumbered when you add up all the m.p.'s from all the other parties combined.

Those other parties are threatening to vote against the government in a motion of non-confidence in a matter of days. This means that if the vote goes against the government, then we either have another election on our hands (we just had one in October), or these other parties can ask the Governor General to allow them to form government.

Sounds weird, I know. It has only happened once or twice in Canadian history. It may happen again on December 8th.

If you look at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics you will see plenty of articles about it.

Bev

adSimba said...

sorry I did realize that it meant the govt. was failing, but I've never heard of a coalition govt. didnt know what that was, I'll try to keep up, I'd really like to know what happens

Bevboy said...

What is happening in Canada right now is nearly unprecedented. The global economic crisis is such that the opposition parties feel compelled to act decisively and team up to vote against the ruling Conservative party. It looks as though this will happen on December 8th.

The ruling party may choose to suspend parliament. "Pirogue Parliament", in other words.

This stuff only started to happen on Friday!! Things are happening so quickly.

Bev