A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

On Thanksgiving day, I went out and bought a paper so we could look at all the sake ads for Black Friday. There were ads for really cheap DVD players at several stores.

I heard about this on the MJ morning show (I know, I know, schlocky nationally syndicated corporate radio show and all... it was either that or listen to the regular guys make jokes about Ozzy's childhood abuse story.) Somebody called in to tell MJ about how they'd witnessed a guy in New Jersey pull off his own artificial leg to use as a weapon in a DVD-player-related confrontation.

We ended up sleeping in friday morning and going to Wal-mart and Lowes on friday night. Things seem to have died down a bit. Wal-mart was pretty busy, but Lowes was absolutely normal. The next day we went to Lenox Square, the throbbing heart of all Atlanta shopping. It was no more crowded than any other saturday. Later that night I went back to Wal-mart for 1-hour film that I dropped off the day before and forgot to pick up, and it was still much more crowded than The Mall. I wonder what this says about the economy.

Dahlia and I rode the Rich's Pink Pig. From the pictures that were on display, the original Pink Pig (at the long-defunct flagship Rich's store downtown) was a marvelously unique ride. The car was suspended from an overhead track, giving the illusion of flight. The new "pig" is basically an electric train, just like every other kiddie train ride at every other mall. Oh well. One of the things I planned to do this weekend was to take my daughter on her first train ride, and this was sorta close.