When Friday Goes Black

     After giving it some thought, I decided not to join the hundreds of other bloggers in writing about Thanksgiving this week. A big part of the reason is (besides the fact that I think we´ve heard a little too much about turkeys, stuffing, and Pilgrims this week) that I´m sure most of my readers have heard a lot about Thanksgiving and very little, if anything, about the day after: Black Friday. I also consider the timing right since this year I saw for the first time a few references to this unofficial holiday here in Spain (see picture on the right).

     In a nutshell Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and the official kickoff of the Christmas shopping season. The term was first used in the early 1950 by business managers referring to the economic losses caused by the number of people who called in sick that day. Later in the 60´s it was used again by the Philadelphia police department to describe the hordes of shoppers who invaded (and collapsed) the downtown area causing all sorts of accidents and incidents. Then, sometime during the 1980´s, retailers aggressively campaigned to get rid of the negative connotation surrounding the term "BLACK Friday" by highlighting that the color could very well refer to all the "red ink" that magically turned black on merchants´balance sheets on this day.

     Nowadays Black Friday has grown in every way. It has grown popular to surpass the Saturday before Christmas as the most active shopping day of the year. It has also grown in length with big retailers such as Target and Best Buy opening earlier and earlier. In fact "Black Friday" became "Black Thursday" this year for the first time, with WalMart opening at 10 PM on Thanksgiving night. Finally Black Friday also continues getting bigger by its numbers, with 20.7 % more money spent this year over 2011.

     No matter what time stores open, or how long they stay open, shoppers throughout the US line up for hours to avoid missing out on the best bargains of the year. Most Americans peacefully shop (though a lot!) and go home. However, every year the frenzy Black Friday creates results in a few stories of violence and injuries on the morning news the Saturday after (just take a look at this example). Because of this, retailers increasingly try to implement measures to reduce crowds and keep crazy shoppers in line. In the early 2000´s for example, many stores issued coupons for exactly the number of some of their most popular items that people had to get beforehand. Another strategy merchants recently resorted to was offering the same or slightly better deals to those who shopped online on the Monday after, which has come to be known as "Cyber-Monday," which makes Black Friday a total of five days long. Who knows, at this rate we may soon end up with a whole "Black Month"!

   

Why the British Drive on the Left

     Have you ever wondered why the British have not joined the rest of the world in driving on the right? Well, I´m not here to give you an answer to that, but I do have some interesting facts related to the popular question. For starters, I can tell you that joining "the rest of the world" is not quite accurate, since there is at least one country in each continent that still follows the "keep-left rule," as you can see in the picture (on the left, of course!). Secondly, if we look back in history, it is keeping left what has been used the longest and what made more sense before cars existed (and possibly even after).
     That´s right! The earliest evidence of road use comes from ancient Rome, and it suggests they kept left. Later, in medieval times, keeping left allowed the right-handed majority to comfortably mount their horses and get going (think about it... To mount a horse you first put your left foot on the stirrup and then mount, and if you do it from the sidewalk you´d be on the left of the road once on the saddle). Besides, meeting people on the road would always be more convenient if they were on your right hand side, whether you wanted to shake their hands or cross swords with them.
     It wasn´t until the late 1700´s that the rules began to change, mostly due to the use of large wagons driven by teams of horses in the United States. These wagons did not come with a driver seat, which meant the person who drove them had to mount the last horse on the left of the team. Keeping left meant severely reduced visibility for these wagon drivers, since other wagons and riders would be coming on the right hand side. Finally, in 1792, Pennsylvania passed a law declaring all wagon drivers and traffic in general were to keep right.
     The new "keep-right rule" quickly spread all over the Americas, but is unclear when and why it was established in Europe. What we do know is that is was first established in France during the Napoleonic period, and that it was Napoleon the one who spread it all over Europe as he expanded his empire. Years later, well into the 20th century, Germany became crucial to the spread of the keep-right rule both by forcing the new system in all invaded countries and by becoming the main car manufacturer in the world.
     Britain, and consequently all the countries the British conquered, never adopted the keep-right rule. This may have been because large wagons were never an option for England´s narrow urban streets and rural roads. Whatever the reason, according to research done in 1969, keeping left significantly reduces the risk of head-on collision, which means sticking to the old rule may be saving lots of lives.
     Now we know it´s not that the British (and all the countries influenced by them) stubbornly refuse to join the rest of the world, it is the rest of us who have changed the original rule!

The Democratic Donkey and the Republican Elephant

     Every four years Americans are called to the polls to vote and elect a President of the USA under the curious and/or inquisitive look of the rest of the world. As a consequence, every four years people out of the United States start asking the same questions: What is the Electoral College? Why are they saying in the news a candidate with more votes may lose the election? What´s the difference between Democrats and Republicans? And Why do they use elephants and donkeys as party symbols?
Today I will address the last of these questions (one step at a time!). I highly recommend to those of you who are interested in learning about the Electoral College this video.

     We owe the famous donkey and elephant party symbols almost entirely to a single person, caricaturist Thomas Nast, considered the father of the American cartoon. I say almost because, contrary to popular belief, Nast did not invent the Democratic donkey, he simply made it famous (but he did come up with the elephant!).

     Everything started during the 1828 presidential campaign which, according to many historians, marked the beginning of modern politics. The  two presidential candidates, Democrat Andrew Jackson and Republican John Quincy Adams, used for the first time a political tactic that quickly became common practice: mudslinging. Mudslinging consists of making negative statements about the opponent, trying to discredit him. One example of mudslinging is John Quincy Adams´ referring to Andrew Jackson as a jackass (a donkey), which the democratic candidate decided to use to his advantage. He printed the donkey on his campaign posters as a symbol of a strong will. Many years later Thomas Nast began to use the donkey on his cartoons to represent the Democratic party, which ended up adopting the symbol.

    Almost half a century after the Jackson - Adams campaign, in 1874, Nast published yet another of his brilliant cartoons on Harper´s Weekly. The cartoon (see image) presented a Democratic donkey disguised as a lion scaring away all other animals in the zoo. Among the animals there is an elephant labeled "the Republican vote." The cartoon (as most other cartoons Nast published) became incredibly popular throughout the country, and the Republican party quickly adopted the elephant as their symbol.

     Nowadays both political parties continue proudly displaying their animal symbols. Democrats claim the donkey is smart and brave, whereas Republicans regard their elephant as strong and dignified. Who would have thought a simple name-calling would result in such internationally recognized symbols?

   

What is the Official Language of the USA?

     If your immediate answer was English, well... YOU´RE WRONG!!

     The truth is the United States has no national language. That´s right, even though English is the most widely spoken language in the country (82% of the population claim it as their mother tongue) , the American Constitution does not establish English or any other language as official.

     Whether this was intentional or not is a whole different story. On the one hand there are people who argue that the absence of an official national language was part of the Founding Fathers´ equality project. We know they wanted to create a country in which absolutely everyone, no matter what their cultural, racial, religious, or ideological backgrounds were, had the same opportunities to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. On the other hand there are those who defend that, since all but possibly one of the 55 delegates who wrote the Constitution were native English speakers, it was simply assumed that English would be the national language.

     The usefulness of the debate in general is questionable. English is the de facto language in the USA, which means it is the language of choice when broadcasting information: most colleges and universities teach only in English, and governmental acts are carried out in English. It´s true, there are television channels, newspapers, and even some street signs (depending on the state) that make it possible for large communities of people with other cultures and languages to get by without learning English. Moreover public education is provided in other languages in many states where there is a large enough language group whose native language is not English. However the people they are meant for end up learning the language anyway simply because they need it to be able to achieve certain level of influence within their communities. In addition  research suggests that strengthening literacy in the mother tongue helps learn a second language better and faster, with which teaching children in their native language is also an investment in their future learning of English.
   
     In conclusion, although English is not the official language of the USA, it is necessary to be able to take part in America´s broader social, cultural, and political life. English is and will continue being the link that binds together the colorfulness of America´s cultural wealth.