Posts of Thanksgiving Past
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"Same-sex Mrs. Santa: 'The semantics are confusing'", 11/27/2003
"Thanks giving", 11/25/2004
"Life in these, uh, this United States", 11/24/2005
"A linguist's Thanksgiving", 11/23/2006
"A Thanksgiving discussion", 11/22/2007
"Thanksgiving variation", 11/23/2007
"In the wake of Thanksgiving", 11/27/2007
"Thanksgiving: The Greek influence", 11/28/2007
"Giving thanks", 11/26/2009
"Thanksgiving weekend quiz", 11/27/2010
"Black Friday", 11/22/2012
What's on your mind, this last Thursday in November?
rgove said,
November 27, 2014 @ 7:57 am
This year I was surprised to receive an email from the supermarket Sainsbury's promoting a "Black Friday Sale" in the UK. Despite Thanksgiving itself still being virtually unknown outside of North America, some retailers have started promoting the following day as a big shopping event regardless. (Source)
[(myl) In French Canada, of course, they have Vendredi Noir. And then there's Viernes negro, and venerdì nero, and ….
Mara K said,
November 27, 2014 @ 12:16 pm
As an American at school in Canada, I had Thanksgiving last month. Today I have two classes, but I leave immediately after the second one for an overnight flight to my grandparents' for the tail end of American Thanksgiving. Today I am bored and kind of homesick; tomorrow I will be exhausted and inarticulate.
John Lawler said,
November 27, 2014 @ 8:23 pm
Actually, I thought this post by Geoff Pullum, also from 11/27/2003, is even more à propos eleven years further on. And it's even labelled as entertainment for post-turkey relaxation.
Dan Lufkin said,
November 28, 2014 @ 10:09 am
News from Sweden:
Black Friday seems to have become a serious hit in Swedish business this year…the network is infected.
Alicia said,
November 28, 2014 @ 6:36 pm
John:
Mildly entertaining, but in the examples many of the "nouns" listed were functioning as adjectives in the sentence.
winter[1] quarter[2] undergraduate[3] computer[4] science[5] course[6] assignment[7] plagiarism[8] incident[9]
Winter modifies quarter which modifies course, as does undergraduate. Computer modifies science, but they team up together to modify course. I'm pretty sure course would be considered to be modifying assignment. Plagiarism modifies incident. So in this list of nine "nouns" in a row, you've only got two actual nouns. Where I come from, we call that "cheating." Or maybe you just call me a Scrooge…
[(myl) I suspect that John would call you someone who is confused about the fact that English nouns can modify other nouns without thereby becoming adjectives.]