RED ALERT: If you notice a sea of red around here next Friday, it won’t necessarily be a run-up to Valentines Day. But it will be an expression of love—and remembrance.

As a very sad anniversary approaches, some are promoting (on Facebook and elsewhere), a “Red for Remembrance” day on Feb. 12, the date last year when Continental Connecting Flight 3407 crashed into a home in Clarence Center, killing all aboard and one person on the ground. Finding something red to wear on that day would honor their memories, and send a message of condolence to those they left behind.

COLOR CHANGE: OK, the segue here is to national red ink, the recession and the loss of jobs.

The editorial above gives you a Web page where you can watch flashing numbers roll up the tally of the national debt, along with a host of other changing statistics. But if you really want to feel depressed, check out http://cohort11. americanobserver. net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal. html— a Web page that color-codes county unemployment figures throughout the nation, and then runs the month-by-month changes from January 2007 to November 2009 (you can just visit the Matters of Opinion blog at buffalonews.com to find click-on links to both sites).

It’s like watching an angry purplish infection spread across the land—and it gives you a pretty good idea of the impacts of a recession and the mood of the country.