In a clever color-coordination designation with Black Friday, the widening trend of Thanksgiving Day retail openings is being dubbed “Gray Thursday”.

I like it. Especially the implication that the preceding days of the year are somehow pure/white, with the impending blackness of hardcore consumerism seeping in on Turkey Day to create some preemptive dinginess.

I should point out, though, that while the “gray” syncs well with the “black” syntax-wise, it veers off the true ledger-book definition. The “black” in Black Friday refers to traditional accounting terminology, where black ink was used for profits while red ink was used for losses. The underlying theory behind Black Friday is that it’s the first day of the year that retail businesses get in the clear of deficit or break-even, and make their annual profit — out of the red and into the black (hopefully).

So based on this — a blending of red and black, instead of white and black — I guess the proper color to signify a big-sale Thanksgiving Thursday should… Some sort of dark red? Maroon Thursday? Let’s stick with “gray” instead…