Black and Blue Friday

Here, I made hot chocolate on my camp stove: Retail exports say outdoor supplier REI isn’t really taking a great risk by closing on Black Friday.

Its customers shop elsewhere that day. They’ll be the ones running ahead of slower shoppers, rappelling from the rafters of big box stores and setting up camp the night before.

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Pea soup, anyone? Destination America network’s “Exorcism: Live!,” promises an attempt to rid a home of malevolent spirits. As proof of its haunting, a psychic on the show said a picture of Pope Francis was ripped from his hands during a visit.

Well, we’re convinced. Oh, no, not about whether ghosts are real. Just that the pope is so popular, you have to nail down any keepsakes with Francis’ likeness.

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Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1938, the radio play, “The War of the Worlds,” starring Orson Welles, was broadcast, causing some to believe the world was being attacked by Martians.

Of course, our society is much too sophisticated now to panic over something like alien beings, haunted houses or a Trump presidency.

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