A bittersweet week, and a jam-packed weekend: Welcome to the beginning of the 2011 holidaze.

The title of my long-awaited autobiography finally came to me yesterday: Beer, Bile & Bolsheviks: "A Fermentable Life." Now I need only begin writing it, but there'll be little time for doing so this weekend.

Today is Plaid Friday. It isn't Black Friday to me. It's Plaid Friday, or as Bluegill suggests, just plain Friday. For so long as we refer to it as Black Friday, and mindlessly play our parts as frantic consuming automatons, the multinationals, chains and big boxes win - and civil society declines.

Beer helps, so here is a broad survey of what NABC is doing this weekend. We'll be at Kaiser's Tobacco on Saturday for the Jingle Walk, as well as vending beer for the Deck the Walls art show the same night. On Sunday, a new brunch (10 a.m. - 2 p.m.) begins at Bank Street Brewhouse, which also has expanded weekday hours to include lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The city of New Albany's gracious decision to finally commence major Grant Line Road reconstruction during the rush time of holiday season, while an Ohio River bridge remains closed 'til March, means that there is more reason than ever before to enjoy a seasonal beverage, and accordingly, Saturnalia MMXI kicks off at 11:00 a.m. at the Pizzeria & Public House. Among the libations is our annual spiced tradition, Naughty Claus.

Over at OSIN, our pal Matt Nash contemplates the blackness of Friday, including this timely reminder:

Studies have shown that when you shop at locally owned, independent businesses, significantly more money is returned to the community in which they are based than money spent at chain retailers. Local independent business owners are people with ties to the community and a vested interested on what goes on here. Local business owners generally hire employees with better knowledge of the products they are peddling and usually have more time to get to know their customers.

As Matt proffers, the general idea is to Shift Your Shopping. Happily, there is a new local option in downtown New Albany: The Keg.

There you have it, or at least some portion of it.