Former BJ Editor Dale Allen learned the hard way the warning that
is implicit in the term, Black Friday.
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| Dale Allen |
Dale reports:
“I
tripped, fell while changing TVs. Tripped into City Hospital for a total knee
replacement. All is going well. I was just told that I am getting out of hospital today to
begin therapy and healing. Moral of story: Don't shop on black Friday.”
Later, Dale corrected himself. It was his hip, not his knee, that was replaced. You know, the bone higher up than the knee.
Dale blamed the error on being drugged out. I find that a completely justifiable excuse.
I
still remember my first experience with Black Friday, in Dayton when I was at
the Dayton Daily News. I was lined up outside the door before opening time,
prepared to get the bargain of a lifetime. The doors flew open, and
octogenarian ladies with bluish white hair damn near took me down as if they
were Steelers defensive lineman and I was the latest Cleveland Browns
quarterback on the sacrificial altar.
Lesson
learned. I’ve avoid Black Friday mob openings ever since. Perhaps I should have
told Dale about this before he went for the TV.
Dale,
Jim Holan and I were the midwives for Channels’ birth in 1980. A few years
later, Dale had me slow down the BJ computers while Knight-Ridder
representatives were in the building to determine if Ol’ Blue Walls needed more
mainframe power. I did. KR folks went back to Miami and the BJ got its upgrade
to superpower mainframe.
Who
says management and labor can’t work together for the good of the company?
As for Dale's store-bought hip, I've had my right knee for years and it's improved my golf game by 6 strokes for 9 holes. Dale's a fisherman so I'm not sure what that will do for the trout as his target. Plus, it's his hip -- got that! -- and not his knee.
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