No; yur calendar is correct and you didn’t accidentally sleep for a month. The World Series hasn’t started, and it’s not even Halloween yet, and here we are talking about the 2011 holiday shopping season. Too soon?

I remember the good old days when Black Friday meant something. It wasn’t just another day in a long series of days promising super, extra-awesome special bargains. It was a science. It was a sporting event. There really were deals to be found and it required careful planning and precision strategy–plus warm clothes and lots of coffee.