Today is Black Friday in the USofA.

Black Mondays have both been economically bad. The first was Monday, 28 October 1929 when the New York stock market crashed. The second was Monday, 19 October 1987, when the same market crashed again.

In contrast, Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving -- is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and sometimes marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. It is called black not becuase it signals something economically bad but because, on this day, some businesses are said to move out of the red and into the black in terms of profitability.

Some of us observe Black Friday as Buy Nothing Day in reaction to the excessive and conspicuous consumption celebrated otherwise.

How odd that "black" should mean bad in connection with Mondays and good in connection with Friday.