Today we celebrate an event known as Blackout Wednesday or Black Wednesday.  This day is observed annually on the eve of Thanksgiving day.

Blackout Wednesday is a night where you and your friends celebrate a night before Thanksgiving binge drinking or Drinksgiving.  Usually, most university students are home with their families and this is their last time to enjoy drinking with the company of their friends, just like Friendsgiving.

The name refers to “blacking out”, losing memory due to excessive drinking.  Blackout Wednesday is sometimes more popular partying night than New Year’s Eve or Saint Patrick’s Day in the suburbs of Chicago.  This is time when police departments increase patrols checking for drunk driving.

Amazingly, Blackout Wednesday has been trending on Google searches since 2004, particularly in November.  This is also the day when bars get crowded and situations get out of hand fast.  So, if you own a bar, make sure you have hands-on-deck and have a seasonal staff member alert like having a bouncer to help.

Since it is going to be the busiest drinking holiday of the year, it is also the worst day of the year for drunk driving and to prevent from bad event happenings, it is encouraged to have a designated driver or use a ridesharing app like Uber and Lift to take you home.

So, today, celebrate Blackout Wednesday with friends and remember to be a responsible drinker.  Avoid driving while intoxicated and bring a friend along who doesn’t drink but still can have fun with the events company.  Share on social media how you celebrated this day using #BlackoutWednesday.

2005 Aerosmith and 50 Cent headline a $10 million bat mitzvah

For seasoned showbiz veterans Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith—middle-aged men long past worrying over their perceived “legitimacy”— the offer of a $2 million appearance fee for a 45-minute performance at a private event in New York City must have been a true no-brainer. For Curtis James Jackson III, on the other hand, there were likely competing impulses. Jackson—better known as the rapper 50 Cent—had built his professional persona on the image of a street-hardened former criminal who was tough enough to survive being shot nine times at point-blank range in 2001. So there were legitimate concerns that his image might take a hit if word leaked out about the event in question.

Ultimately, however, Mr. Jackson made the decision that the title of his multi-platinum 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ suggested he might: In exchange for a multimillion-dollar fee, 50 Cent took to the stage at New York City’s famous Rainbow Room in the early morning hours of this day in 2005, joining Tyler and Perry as headline performers at the $10 million bat mitzvah of Long Island 13-year-old Elizabeth Brooks

According to the ensuing coverage of the event in the New York Daily News, guests at the Brooks bat mitzvah began their celebration unaware of what lay ahead.

(excerpted from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/aerosmith-and-50-cent-headline-a-10-million-bar-mitzvah