Hating Black Friday 2012: The Hatening

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Last year I went on about how I hated Black Friday.  To sum up last year, I felt it:

  1. Distorted economic planning.
  2. Was stressful on businesses.
  3. Was a giant cultural distorter.
  4. Wasted mindshare on things like . . . me writing about it.
  5. Distorted perspective.

None of my areas of concern really changed, and repeating them is kind of useless.

So I’d like to turn this around and ask – do I see Black Friday going away?

. . . and the answer really is no, not without specific effort or changes.

Black Friday is integrated into not just our economy, but our culture.  It’s there, it’s expected, it’s assumed.  As much as people (like me ) complain about it, it’s just something we do.  There’s a lot of inertia behind the idea.  I see no reason for it to stop.

It’s fascinating to imagine something economic like this being a cultural fixture, but there you go.  The mutant offspring of Christmas greed (which we’ve been decrying for decades), bargain-hunting, and watching-the-car crash is just something we do.  Much as we also rant about it (which is strangely its own traditions).

Now could I see it going away?  Maybe, but it’d have to be conscious.  We’d have to as a country and a culture, or at least part of us, move against the insanity of the day.  We’d have to get businesses to go along with it.  In short, there’d have to be a kind of movement.

Do I want one?  Actually, yeah.  The entire holiday distortion of the economy can’t be healthy, and I’m not sure it can last in its currently exponetially-insane-ifying state.  Also it’s really annoying and distracting.

OK, you go start the movement. *I* am tired ranting.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup: Curry Cheese Log

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This is a great recipe for creating something different than your usual cheese log; a spicy, layered, deep taste that has a lot of facets.  It’d probably go well with the right wine – like a Syrah.

I’m also considering cutting it with a little butter/butter substitute, olive oil, or something else to make it into a spread.  Its also a bit hard to coat the roll in stage 9, so I wonder if there might be a better way to do it.

8 oz cream cheese
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (may need a bit more)
1 Tbsp dried Basil

  1. Put cream cheese in a microwaveable bowl.
  2. Sprinkle curry powder over cream cheese.
  3. Cover cream cheese and curry powder with blue cheese.
  4. Microwave the bowl with the cheese and curry in 15-second increments until soft enough to blend.
  5. Mix the cheese and curry thoroughly with a no-stick spoon or spatula until finely blended – it’ll take on a pale yellow or orange color.  You might need to microwave it occasionally.
  6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator.  Keep there for 2 hours at least in order to set.
  7. Mix pecans and basil, spread out on foil.
  8. Roll the cheese and curry mix into a log about an inch thick.
  9. Roll the cheese log in the mixture of pecans and basil until well coated.  You might need to do a bit of work to patch “holes”
  10. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve.  Serve on top of crackers or toast.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Thanksgiving Recipe Roundup: Super Turkey Baste

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Here’s my recipe, derived from a “Taste of Home” recipe from some years back.  It’s pretty much how I make turkey now, and has been for years.

1/4 cup butter
2 cups champagne (or sparkling white wine)
1 cup condensed beef consomme
2 medium onions, diced.

Spices:
2 tsp celery salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried sage
2 tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp marjoram

1) Combine celery salt, butter, pepper, 1 tbsp of parsley, sage. apply all over turkey.
2) Bake uncovered at 325 for 30 minutes.
3) While cooking combine champagne, onions, 1 TBS parsley, consomme, thyme marjoram.
4) Base with mixture, applying regularly throughout cooking cycle (probably about 3-4 hours), until center of meat is 180.

The turkey comes out juicy and spicy, and any fatty parts are just delicious as the soak the flavor up.  However, all the marinating is going to dilute the drippings so you may not want to use them for gravy (or you may like it, dunno, but it’s going to be more a beef gravy).

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.