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December 2007 Page 13By Chelsea MeeganEveryone looks forward to theseason of pumpkin pie and Santa’s sleigh.However, what many forget is the chaos ofholiday shopping.Black Friday, the day afterThanksgiving and the biggest shoppingday of the year, fell on Nov. 23 thisyear, which marked the beginning ofthis season’s holiday shopping.The day gets its name fromthe shift of holiday profitability. It waswhen retailers went from being in thered, to being profitable, or in theblack.Shoppers worldwide go intothe midnight madness of Black Fridayanticipating huge bargains and the endof their family’s Christmas lists.With stores opening between 12o’clock midnight and 5 in the morning, theshopping generally becomes a free for alland can sometimes be dangerous.A freshman at H-K, MarissaOssa, had this to say,“It gets so crazy, sometimes I justFEATURESReady, Set, Shop!want to leave the store. I don’t get howpeople can push and shove to save like twodollars.”It may seem chaotic and crazyShoppers on Black Fridayfor shoppers, but what about all the peoplewho are working in retail?Such stores as Tommy Hilfiger,Coach, Ralph Lauren, and The Gap at ClintonCrossings, opened their doors at midnightand had shoppers until 10 p.m.Senior Alyssa Holmes, an employeeat The Gap, experienced the mayhem.“The day took forever to end.The customers were rude andimpatient because the lineswere so long, and by the end ofthe day the store looked like atornado hit.”Pushing and shovingcan sometimes be too much tohandle for shoppers, which iswhy there is an alternative.Online shopping hasbecome the second mostpopular way to shop for theholidays. Just think, all of yourChristmas shopping can bedone with the click of a button!Unfortunately, this year’sshopping hustle and bustle has only justbegun. So if you still have some last minuteshopping to do, make sure you’re preparedfor the time-consuming, long-line-waitingdisarray of this holiday season.Winter Isn’t A Cheery Time For AllBy Erin MoriartyAlthough winter is most commonlyassociated with “holiday cheer,”the cold weather and lack of sunlight canaffect people in the opposite way, in acondition known as SeasonalAffective Disorder(SAD).Symptoms ofSAD are tiredness, weightgain, difficulty concentrating,increased appetite, andan increased desire to bealone. On top of that,people with SAD have thesame symptoms of regulardepressions: anxiety, sadness,loss of interest inusual activities, and withdrawalfrom social activities.Only four to six percent of thepeople in the United States suffer fromSAD. Most people who experience SADgo through the less-severe kind, called the“winter blues.” The winter blues affect10-20% of people in the United States;three-quarters of them are women.Junior Anna Brundage says, “Iknow someone who gets thewinter blues. Some days it’s bad,some days it’s not so bad.”The exact cause of thewinter blues is unknown. However,the main belief is that thesun isn’t out as long as it is duringany other time of the year.People who live farther awayfrom the equator are more likelyto have SAD.Because the sun isn’tout as long, our biological clocksthat regulate hormones sleep,and moods are altered. Our“clocks” run slower.Douglas Jacobs, M.D., a memberof the American Psychiatric Association,explains that “it has also been noted thatthose who work long hours inside officebuildings with few windows may experiencesymptoms [of seasonal depression].”Another belief is that the chemicalsin the brains of people with thattransmit information betweens nerves arealtered. Possibly, this malfunction in neurotransmittersis the result of a lack ofsunlight.No matter what the exact causeis, it has to do with exposure to sunlight,or lack thereof.There are a number of ways totreat SAD. One way is to take antidepressants.Another way is through amethod called light therapy. This is whensomeone with SAD goes through exposureto a special fluorescent lamp forabout an hour a day.A simple way to treat the winterblues is to just get outside when the sun’sout. By increasing outdoor activities,you’re one step closer to saying goodbyeto the winter blues.