516. Black (Joe) Friday

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early and offer promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth Nations. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many non-retail employers also observe this day as a holiday along with Thanksgiving, giving their employees the day off, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers.

515. Elmo Loses His Voice

NEW YORK — Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash has resigned from "Sesame Street" in the wake of an allegation that he had sex with an under-aged youth.
In its statement Tuesday, Sesame Workshop said "the controversy surrounding Kevin's personal life has become a distraction that none of us want," leading Clash to conclude "that he can no longer be effective in his job."
"This is a sad day for Sesame Street," the statement said.
(tags: Entertainment Series, Sesame Street, Elmo, Kevin Clash, Sex)

514/354. Thanksgiving Turkeys

(tags: Holiday, Thanksgiving, Turkey, Animal rights, Animals, Slaughter, humanity, Vegetarian, food)

513. Hostess Folds Operations

Twinkies may last forever, but the same can't be said for Hostess Brands Inc., the company that makes the popular cream-filled spongecake.

Hostess has asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to go out of business and lay off 18,500 workers, blaming a strike by members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.

"We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," Hostess Chief Executive Gregory F. Rayburn said in a statement Friday.

Hostess Twinkies’ CEO tripled his salary to $2.55 million while the company was preparing to go into bankruptcy. And nine top executives saw massive pay raises, some nearly doubling their salary. Ah, another greedy CEO who courageously blamed the union for his failure, while omitting the part about tripling his own pay while preparing to go under.
(tags: hostess brands, twinkie, suicide, Business, Greed, Unions, Political Series)

512. General Petraeus Begins to Fade Away

During their affair, retired Army Gen. David Petraeus and his alleged former mistress Paula Broadwell used a cyber trick known to teenagers and terrorists in an effort to hide their communications. Sources say they often composed draft emails which they both could read on a shared private email account -- without having to transmit the messages.

511. Romney Loses Election

Beating GOP candidate Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama won re-election exactly the way his campaign had predicted: by running up big margins with women and minorities, mobilizing a sophisticated registration and get-out-the-vote operation, and focusing narrowly on the battleground states that would determine the election.
(tags: election, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, DNC, GOP, 2012, President)

510. 2012 Likely Voters

(tags: election, 2012, vote, Republican, Democrat, Independent, President, Vice President, Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Statistics)

509. Halloween Booty

Sorting through the halloween goodies, 2012

(tags: Holiday, Halloween, pumpkin, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Election, Candy)