November 25, 2010

"This is the time" — I hope you're thankful.

I hope you made it to your destination okay. Or, if you're staying home, that you're warm and cozy. Feel free to eat pie: Michelle Obama has given us a dispensation to eat pie.

I liked this shopping-for-Thanksgiving story Chip Ahoy told in the comments at last night's Lake Dusk Café:
The grocery was crowded tonight. Everybody is in high spirits and eager to engage. I encountered two guys picking out a GIGANTIC turkey that barely fit into their cart. The turkey was frozen solid. I remarked on its size and they were filled with glee and good cheer, pleased with their choice. I suggested they might consider an ostrich and they laughed like they just met a hilarious stranger. I did not have the heart to tell them there is no way that thing is going to thaw by tomorrow. No way. I can see it all now; they will cook it anyway. Guy are like that. The outside will be charred and the inside will still be ice. The sequence of events is set, there is no escaping the inevitability, their turkey will be a complete disaster. Years on they will recall tomorrow as a favorite Thanksgiving coming of age fiasco story.
Are you cooking anything? Or did you cook everything already? I'm told real feast-masters do the Thanksgiving cooking before Thanksgiving, and by that standard, I've never cooked a real Thanksgiving dinner. I'm thankful that I've made it nearly to the age of 60 without ever going on the guilt-trip that my Thanksgivings were not sufficiently Thanksgiving-y because I didn't start the preparations days in advance.

Well, maybe I once made a pie — maybe even 2 pies — on the Wednesday. Did I tell you it's officially okay in America today to eat pie? Our national mother has said we may.
Michelle Obama has granted permission for all of us to totally forget anything she says about eating 'cause it's Thanksgiving.  It's okay [today] to go ahead and have pie.  It was in her interview with Barbara Walters.  It's Thanksgiving, eat whatever you want.  But on Friday you gotta get back to what Michelle says you have to do. 
Oh, yeah, she said:
"Don't worry about how much you eat. Just enjoy it.... This is the time. Have pie."
This is the time. Our time to turn the page on the abstemious diets of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new appetite to the piled-high platters we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the food we love. The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. We face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of our own limitations. But we also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide pie for the sick and pie to the jobless; this was the moment when the tightening of the belts began to slow and our gluttony began to increase; this was the moment when we ended our self-denial and secured our yummies and restored our image as the chubbiest humans on earth. This was the moment—this was the time—when we came together to remake this great dinner so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals.  Thank you, God. And God bless the United States of America.

141 comments:

KCFleming said...

Bless the dwelling of Althouse and Meade. May your turkey be unfrozen.

Anonymous said...

I'm on rescue squad duty today. Taking a five hour break to go have dinner with Big Joe & Family.

Nice of Big Mama Michelle to let up on the scolding for the day and give us a temporary dispensation.

My Facebook friends were not as gracious. One eternal hippie had to broadcast the favorite white hippie guilt trip... we're guilty of genocide against the Indians (whoops! Native Americans).

I'm going to drink a couple of glasses of wine, even though my nose will turn bright red. I'll leave a three hour interval after I drink before I return to rescue squad duty.

Happy Thanksgiving!

MadisonMan said...

I roasted the beets on Tuesday for the beet salad, and bought the goat cheese yesterday at Whole Paycheck. Last night my wife roasted the sweet potatoes, and made the sweet potato casserole -- topped with brown sugar and pecans. And she made the pumpkin pie and chocolate mousse. The stuffing is ready to go and the bird -- from Wyttenbach's in Prairie -- is all ready to stuff and go in the oven at 10. We have wine in the basement. I haven't decided if I'm going to make the Brussels Sprouts yet. Guests are bringing corn bread.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving Prof. Your blog is the best.

NB.: I remember visiting Madison during this time of the year many years ago. There is a quiet bar near the Capitol building that serves great burgers (vegetarian, of course). I stayed at the hotel on the square with a view of the dome.

madAsHell said...

Michelle Obama has granted permission to eat pie?...and she believes that someone is listening?

This is truly a one term president.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Thanks!

-given

Roux said...

I fried 4 turkeys last night and will do another this morning. I could care less what Ms Obama has to say about eating as we what her ass expand daily.

Have a good Thanksgiving and be thankful for friends and family. Forget about the rest of the world for one day.

Opus One Media said...

Enjoy the day one and all.

.....My absolute favorite easy Thanksgiving side dish.......

Deb said...

Yesterday while I was at work, my daughter and husband did some of the prep for today. I hope that counts. I have been up since 5:30 cooking. I'm glad my meal will be guilt-free, since Michelle has deemed it permissable t o enjoy myself. Even though my jeans are already a teensy bit snug. Never mind. Back on the wagon tomorrow.

roesch-voltaire said...

People have been deciding what and how to eat for themselves for years and the results are in: we have a national crisis of obesity followed by a huge increase in diabetics, all of which generates business for the medical profession. So I am grateful to S. Palin for telling government, and Michelle, to get out of our diet so we can continue to pig out. We are having guests and family today and I plan on setting a good example by eating two pieces of pecan pie with ice cream for dessert.

Deb said...

HD, you lost me at "oysters."

Omaha1 said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I'm thankful for your blog, you are always entertaining & thought-provoking.

I cooked a lot of stuff yesterday, apple & pumpkin pies, dinner rolls, and cranberry sauce, plus I prepped the stuffing veggies and sweet potatoes & brined the turkey. Also I got out all of the serving dishes & washed them since they are not used very often. Looking forward to a festive meal.

garage mahal said...

I'm traveling on a HIGHWAY to the Great White North to visit my mother and visit a slice of real Wisconsin. I plan to stick it to Michelle Obama and eat twice as much pie as I normally would. That will feel so good. That's if I can manage to dodge all the Professor Nazis on my way out. Wish me luck!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND GOD BLESS THE REAL PARTS OF AMERICA!

AllenS said...

For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback because I can now eat pie.

former law student said...

But on Friday you gotta get back to what Michelle says you have to do.

See what continued listening to Rush Limbaugh does? It makes you unhappy even when Republicans control the House. If she doesn't switch to NPR pretty soon the professor will be wandering the streets muttering to herself.

"Don't worry about how much you eat. Just enjoy it.... This is the time. Have pie."

One day a year to forget about incipient metabolic syndrome.

Anonymous said...

Enjoy the day one and all.

.....My absolute favorite easy Thanksgiving side dish.......

HenHouse, you got nothing!

Nada! Zip!

I have spoken!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Anonymous said...

Notwithstanding the financial challenges of many - too many right now - we have to admit that we live an a time of unparalleled abundance. A trip to any produce section supports that.

We've got our faults, but I believe that what we've done in America has been a substantial party in raising the entire world to share in that abundance.

Maybe not all to our same level, but the percentage of the world's population that are forced to work the entire day just for that day's food and shelter is lower than it has ever been.

I'm thankful for that. Best wishes to you all.

AllenS said...

How cool would it be on this Thanksgiving Day if a pie hit formerlawstudent right in the face?

ndspinelli said...

Growing up in Ct., many would attend the 10am high school football game w/ the crosstown rival. Like most families, we would come home and mom would have the classic turkey dinner ready ~1pm. However, my father wanted to have Thanksgiving be a tribute to both America and Italy. So, he would prepare an Italian dinner. While normal folks would be eating turkey sandwiches @ 7pm, we would be eating an Italian dinner. It took a week to recover!

AllenS said...

For all those who think that the Native Americans wouldn't have suffered the same fate, if not a worse fate, had the Japanese, or the Chinese, or the Muslim world had arrived first, I've got some bad news for you. The same diseases would have arrived with them.

Mike said...

Hope & Change; with Pie!!!

Kirby Olson said...

The American Indians have a huge and delightful new museum in America very close to the Capitol Building on the Smithsonian mall in the center of Dc. Most of the exhibits are postcolonialist anguish over the loss of their cultures and all the lies those in the Capitol told them and how their acreage decreased, but their lifespans have doubled, and their income is way up due to gambling houses, and education is on the increase. We didn't just slaughter them. We mainstreamed them a bit, but also took on a lot of their culture. I think it's all working out.

I will think of them as I dig into the cranberry sauce.

Many American Indians are now brothers and sisters in Christ.

So I hope they will enjoy the stuffing that we are all about to endure, too. And How.

Patricia Ebey said...

No personal offense intended Miss Althouse but defending the Palins on bloggingheads.tv makes me think: Wow, only in America is mediocrity celebrated.

rhhardin said...

Steamed brown rice and peas for breakfast.

The dog likes it too.

Ann Althouse said...

"No personal offense intended Miss Althouse but defending the Palins on bloggingheads.tv makes me think: Wow, only in America is mediocrity celebrated."

Please provide a quote or a time point in the video where I say something that constitutes celebrating Palin. Pointing out mistakes, distortions, and overstatements in the attacks on Palin is not celebration. The only "wow" should be about how eagerly and aggressively some people are driven to go after Palin.

Ann Althouse said...

Breakfast at Meadehouse: Coffee, bacon, and fried mush.

MadisonMan said...

We didn't just slaughter them.

WE didn't slaughter them. Smallpox and measles did. If you live in isolation, and then are exposed to new diseases, very predictable things happen.

Chip Ahoy said...

While we're having a good time over here thinking mostly about food, Singapore authorities are agonizing about their water polo team's unfortunate design choice for their swim trunks. Seems the crescent moon, hang on, hahahahahahaha, is poorly placed, hahahahaha, do, hahahaha have a look for yourself.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

he he..

Althouse said abstemious..

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)

The Life Partner & I are going to have a Traditional Thanksgiving Day Celebration. We are going to a Paula Deen Buffet and then to a casino to gamble-late....

I feel kind of bad that there is a restaurant staff having to work today, but our families are so reduced by death and dispersion that it would have been only the Partner and myself for Thanksgiving. So we're off eat lots of food with strangers and then donate some money to a large corporation...I hope we have lots of fun.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, especially Meadehouse and Titus, and even to Ritmo in his many guises.

Anonymous said...

No personal offense intended Miss Althouse but defending the Palins on bloggingheads.tv makes me think: Wow, only in America is mediocrity celebrated.

Jesus, you can't manufacture Sara Palin's star power!

Even her enemies can't shut up about her!

She's pretty. She's smart. She's tough. I like a lot of the stuff she says.

But, I'm mystified. What is the source of the incredible star power? Enemies/Friends... makes no difference.

Can't stop talking and writing about her.

Wish I knew how to pour that stuff into a bottle and sell it.

Anonymous said...

Pointing out mistakes, distortions, and overstatements in the attacks on Palin is not celebration.

Ah, but see Ann, the "facts" used to attack Palin often consist of mistakes, distortions, and overstatements.

You're popping their little bubble and they don't like it.

DaveW said...

I started yesterday. My turkey brined overnight. We made a big pot of chestnut dressing last night - I was peeling chestnuts for over 2 hours.

Up before dawn. My turkey was in the oven at 8:30am. The bread is rising now. I've got the potatos cut up and ready to boil. Brussel Sprouts are ready to steam.

Heh, I've got a lot of experience with this meal and I know a few basics, like cleaning while you cook and taking the trash out often. I've already got the first load of dishes in the dishwasher, I've done a load of kitchen towels and napkins, trash is out. I just finished my first wipe-down and pick up for the day in the kitchen.

I've got real fundamental things to be thankful for like just being alive. Last year at this time I was pretty sure I wouldn't be here today. Now it looks like I might putter through a couple more years if I play my cards right.

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving, Sara!

We'd have absolutely nothing to talk about if not for you!

Please come to my house and eat pie, Sara!

I'd eat your pie any day.

bagoh20 said...

It has been a roller coaster of a year for me, and I have much to be thankful for.

The year started out with the company where I work struggling to survive and all the jobs there in peril.

Then, I got a diagnosis of cancer and was preparing to retire.

Dog rescue, which is my passion, was having great difficulty finding homes for our homeless.

Now, near year end, I have been cured of the cancer, and I am feeling great and doing all I ever have and more.

We turned our company around dramatically, and I will not be retiring, but rather bought the company and now all 60 jobs are secure.

In the last couple months, loving people have been adopting many of our hardest to place rescued dogs, and they will spend the holidays warm and loved rather than scared, cold and lonely.

It would be a great year anyway, but to turn from so disappointing to so promising is a lifetime of miracles for me.

Even the political scene has gone well, if you are of my persuasion. If not, then for you lefties, keep hope alive. It's not a wingnut government yet - it's just a divided one, which may be best for us both, and it's still a free country.

It's been a great year of discussion here, and I've learned a lot from all of you. Most of all, thanks Ann for making such a wonderful blog, that attracts such great commenters. Amazing work!

Good luck all, and THANK YOU!

FedkaTheConvict said...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Columbus Carried Syphilis From New World to Europe, Study Suggests


MONDAY, Jan. 14 (HealthDay News) -- A new analysis of the genetics of syphilis provides support for the theory that the disease hitched a ride with Christopher Columbus from the New World back to the Old World.

But in a new wrinkle, the research suggests the disease may not have been transmitted through sex until it adapted to the environment in Europe.

"It evolved this whole new transmission mode, and it didn't take very many genetic changes," said study lead author Kristin Harper, a graduate student at Emory University. "What this tells us is that new transmission modes may evolve pretty rapidly. This is important to us today, because we're worried about things like avian influenza going from human to human."

ricpic said...

I hope you're thankful.

I am.

All the best to all on this best of all holiday.

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)


Oh please I beg you all, as a supporter of S____ P____, let us not discuss/argue the benefits or catastrophes of S____, today. Let us just wish one another well.

former law student said...

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday sponsored by a Republican President.

The Pilgrim story, featuring Englishmen who came to America to enjoy religious freedom while denying it to others -- Quakers Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson and Mary Dyer were condemned to death and hanged in the Massachusetts Bay Colony some four decades after Plymouth Rock -- is much less inspiring.

Except for Squanto, the English-speaking Indian who bore the English no ill-will, despite having been kidnapped by an Englishman who wanted to sell him in Spain. Squanto eventually made it back home, to find his tribe wiped out from disease. He was able to help the English learn to survive in their new land, before dying two years later from a mysterious fever.

Then there is the story of Oklahoma, the land carved out to shove America's remaining Indians into, until whites realized they wanted to live there after all. The whites proudly call themselves "Sooners" to memorialize their lawless forebears who jumped the gun.

This historic treatment of Indians makes the ballot statement for their recent proposition comprehensible: OK will not be bound by international, Sharia, or tribal law. How wonderfully convenient for a state full of Indian tribes! And to be able to use the eevul Mooslims as cover!

Bob_R said...

We made turkey last night. Today we are having a goose. The turkey's main function is to provide leftovers to eat while watching football.

Thanksgiving makes me think of Madison. The first time my wife and I did the Wednesday dinner was our first year in Madison - 1984. The first time we didn't travel to be with family. Didn't have the money to fly and it was too long to drive. Just us, before kids. Good weekend.

The next year our son had been born with multiple birth defects. A week after Thanksgiving he was in the University Hospital ICU with heart failure. Scary time, but for all that I think back on those days very fondly. The fact that right now he's in the other room explaining what Xbox games he wants for Christmas probably has something to do with that.

bagoh20 said...

If it was known at the time that Columbus would bring back syphilis to the old world, is there any doubt they would go anyway? Even knowing all the lives that would be lost from disease going in the other direction as well. Our greatest strength and vulnerability may be our addiction and complete submission to progress.

SteveR said...

Prime Rib Roast for us.

Pies were made last night.

OT, I think I heard Ruth Anne on the Dennis Miller show yesterday

Anonymous said...

fls,

So, I suppose that your Thanksgiving motto is:

God Bless America, you genocidal bastard!

Anonymous said...

to enjoy religious freedom while denying it to others --

How illustrative of the modern left.

But how dare anyone question your love of America, right?

KCFleming said...

Gratitude: All Good Gifts

Unknown said...

Be thankful for all the good things in your life, especially family and friends, even the furry or finny or feathered ones. And Ann is right. Be thankful you're warm and safe.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Althousians, especially those who have offered their best wishes regarding The Blonde's health.

And, of course, to Meadhouse, for sharing their lives, thoughts, and hearts with us.

Also, what Quayle and bagoh20 said about being thankful and Kirby Olson, AllenS, and MadMan said about the Indians.

(It's interesting to note the Europeans seemed to have a 30% death rate when encountering any new bacillus, but the Indians, regardless of what or where seemed to die in the 90% range)

Ann Althouse said...

I'm thankful that I've made it nearly to the age of 60 without ever going on the guilt-trip that my Thanksgivings were not sufficiently Thanksgiving-y because I didn't start the preparations days in advance.

Don't worry about it. My Mom always settled for a turkey breast or something from the Acme and was more than happy to let my Aunt Mary pick up a pumpkin pie from Horn & Hardart and never gave any of it a second thought.

shoutingthomas said...

No personal offense intended Miss Althouse but defending the Palins on bloggingheads.tv makes me think: Wow, only in America is mediocrity celebrated.

But, I'm mystified. What is the source of the incredible star power?


She doesn't take any nonsense from anybody and speaks right up about what she thinks is right or wrong.

The Lefties just aren't used to that.

PS Do I detect Ann is getting a little tired of Mrs O's pontificating?

Anonymous said...

I've got a great bottle of Beaujolais Noveau!

Great with turkey!

I'm not dead yet. At least, not so you'd notice.

I'm grateful for that.

I'm grateful that my great grandfathers (and great grandmothers) made it to America, even if they were genocidal bastards!

DaveW said...

FDR is the president that made Thanksgiving a holiday fls.

bagoh20 said...

When it comes to our political leaders, mediocrity would be a huge improvement.

Anonymous said...

Do I detect Ann is getting a little tired of Mrs O's pontificating?

I hope Ann is, as it certainly gets old to be lectured on healthy eating by someone who is about 40Lbs over weight.

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)


Well done FLS, how I bleed for the INDIANS and how bad I feel that the US was created…Boo-Hoo, a set of warring tribes were displaced by a technologically/philosophically/politically advanced people who then founded the GREATEST nation that has ever been. *WOW* if ONLY we could go back and change his/herstory…NOT!

Get back to me about the Indians and their development of science and economics and how they enriched the WORLD, saved the Jews from the Nazi’s, the Indonesians and Burmese from the depredations of the Japanese, and prevented the Soviets from extinguishing human liberty from ALL of Europe. I guess you can’t, can you?

Lastly, I dare say that many of the Indians we found in the US, were where they were by having DISPLACED, read slaughtered, the tribes that had PREVIOUSLY been there, but since the Indians are “pure” and “noble” we never really go into how they ended up where they did.

former law student said...

If it was known at the time that Columbus would bring back syphilis to the old world, is there any doubt they would go anyway?

They could have kept their peckers in their pants, once they arrived here.

So, I suppose that your Thanksgiving motto is:

God Bless America, you genocidal bastard!


We have a lot to be thankful for, even if our national myths were sanitized to protect our kids. And their being able to play Indian bingo, etc., means that our elders are living in comfort.

Anonymous said...

So, I suppose that your Thanksgiving motto is:

God Bless America, you genocidal bastard!


Heh.

Or perhaps it involves an homage to the hammer and sickle, Babushkas and L'Internationale blaring throughout the house...

Anonymous said...

even if our national myths were sanitized to protect our kids.

Hysterical.

I love how you leftists "care" about the Indians.

It is so cute.

Palladian said...

Can you imagine being forced to have former law student at your Thanksgiving dinner?

former law student said...

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Abraham Lincoln

By the President:
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.

Anonymous said...

Here in Woodstock, one of the sub-sects of hippiedom is the wannabe Injuns.

Since the Injuns as supposed by the hippies to be absolutely pure of heart and totally in harmony with nature, Injuns are thought to be the first hippies.

And, the guaranteed way to shrug off white guilt for our bastard genocidal ways is to become an Injun. Problem is: easier said than done.

We have quite a few pretend Injuns. The best known is TP Bob, who actually lived for decades in a TP on top of a mountain. He never wears shoes, not even in winter. He's grown long hair and wears it Willie Nelson style. And TP Bob is gay, thus making him even more pure of heart, and innocent of genocidal bastardy, in hippie mythology!

Every year TP Bob makes a pilgrimage to a tribal reservation in Arizona, in the hope that the tribe will recognize him as a real Injun.

No go. The tribe won't let him in the gate. He sits outside the reservation for a few days or weeks, then gives up and heads back home to Woodstock.

Seems the Injuns want proof of blood relationship. They ain't really hip.

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)
They could have kept their peckers in their pants, once they arrived here.

Had you but read the attached article, you would have realized that Syphilis wasn’t sexually transmitted, being related to “Yaws.” It BECAME sexually transmitted IN Europe…

And No, FLS, we haven’t “sanitized” our myths, because people like you continue to INSIST on “Speaking the Truth to Power” and informing us, continually of our “sins.” I don’t mind the discussion so much as I object to the hubris that makes American “sin” UNIQUELY awful…without much discussion of Aztec or Inca IMPERIALISM, or Aztec AGRESSION or violations of “human rights” or Indian SLAVERY or anything but America’s “guilt” at behaving better than many of its forebears did, but not perfectly.

Palladian said...

"...our harvest being gotten in, our governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labours ; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoyt, with some ninetie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine and others. And although it be not always so plentifull, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie."

From "A Relation or Iournall of the beginning and proceedings of the English Plantation setled at Plimoth in NEW ENGLAND, by certaine English Aduenturers both Merchants and others. With their difficult passage, their safe ariuall, their ioyfull building of, and comfortable planting themselues in the now well defended Towne of NEW PLIMOTH" by Edward Winslow

FedkaTheConvict said...

Oh welll....its time to post Rush's The Real Story of Thanksgiving and watch some heads explode.

Palladian said...

""They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; fFor as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no want. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c. Besids, they had about a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corn to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports."

From "Of Plimoth Plantation", the journal of William Bradford.

former law student said...

Get back to me about [the Indians] saved the Jews from the Nazi’s

Indians, under their open immigration policy, would have done a lot better job.

The Soviets saved their Jews from the Nazis. But by the time the Nazis were defeated, ninety percent of the remainder of Europe's Jews were wiped out. Refugee ships like the SS Saint Louis were turned back, and the strict quotas imposed by the 1924 Johnson(R-Wash)-Reed(R-PA) act were maintained. (Roaring Twenties Republicans feared having more Southern Europeans (read: Mafiosi) and Eastern Europeans in the US.)

DaveW said...

My turkey is incredibly lazy. She's been in the oven 2 hours and the breast is only 85 degrees, thigh is at 125.

Never had one do that before. Tent off, get to work turkey!

Anonymous said...

Since the Injuns as supposed by the hippies to be absolutely pure of heart and totally in harmony with nature

I wonder how the hippies feel about the Injuns running buffaloes off cliffs by the 10's of thousands?

Anonymous said...

The Soviets saved their Jews from the Nazis.

Oh my God! You believe this bullshit!

Even the New York Times (home of Walter Duranty) doesn't believe this crap.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/20/opinion/l-after-lenin-soviet-anti-semitism-grew-422390.html

Soviet Union: Good! US of A: Genocidal bastards!

former law student said...

Had you but read the attached article, you would have realized that Syphilis wasn’t sexually transmitted, being related to “Yaws.” It BECAME sexually transmitted IN Europe…

The article I clicked on used weasel words like "suggests" and "may have."

Now, if this idea had something like the support for global warming caused by burning fossil fuels I might get behind it.

bwebster said...

Just four of us for dinner today, so I'm cooking a pretty standard meal: turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, (homemade) cranberry relish (raw, not cooked), a few pies.

However, a week or so ago, my wife bought a container of peeled and diced butternut squash at Costco. I used it to make soup for breakfast: onion, potato, peanuts, cranberries, homemade chicken broth, all pureed in the food processor, with a cup or so of heavy cream added. Served with fresh chopped chives and sour cream. That should keep me from snacking until dinner tonight.

Anonymous said...

This is something not to be thankful for:

But what ultimately happened is that I was subjected to search so invasive that I was left crying and dealing with memories that I thought had been dealt with years ago of prior sexual assualts. Why? Because of my flannel panty-liner. These new scans are so horrible that if you are wearing something unusual (like a piece of cloth on your panties) then you will be subjected to a search where a woman repeatedly has to check your "groin" while another woman watches on (two in my case - they were training in a new girl - awesome). So please, please, tell the ladies not to wear their liners at the airport (I didn't even have an insert in).

I guess this is what Obama meant by "Get In Their Face" huh?

Anonymous said...

fls,

You have magically turned Thanksgiving, the great feast in honor of the wonder of America, into a celebration of America the genocidal bastard.

You've really got the knack.

I second Palladian. You've got to be a hell of a dinner companion.

former law student said...

Even the New York Times (home of Walter Duranty) doesn't believe this crap.

Huh? A letter to the editor says that Bolsheviks protected Jews, even though remnants of the old regime persecuted them and anti-Semites could be found in the army.

It goes on to say that Stalin did nothing regarding the Jews, except purge the party leadership.

How many Soviet Jews went up Nazi chimneys?

AllenS said...

Does Russia have a lot of Jews in the country now?

Anonymous said...

Thanksgiving dinner should involve a multi-generational extended family with at least 20 people present. When it's just a four-person immediate family, as it will be for us today and has been for years, it's somehow depressing.

Peter

KCFleming said...

I hope fls enjoys his hairshirt and umble pie, flavored with bitter spices, and washed down with a glass of the sorrowful tears he alone has wept for the nation's endless sins.

Anonymous said...

As far as guilt over the treatment of American Indians is concerned, I have precisely none. If they had ever figured out a way to get themselves out of the freakin' Stone Age, they would have fared better when the Europeans came.

Peter

bagoh20 said...

"it's somehow depressing."

Peter, You should probably stop bringing up the subject of shaving during dinner.

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)


Really the Indians had an “Open Immigration” policy, tell me about it, please.

And Soviets and Jews, “Rootless Cosmopolitans” and the “Doctor’s Plot” means NOTHING to you does it?

bagoh20 said...

The Indians and the Europeans were both of an identical species who would have treated each other the same. The only question was who got the technology and immunity first. To pick a side, is looking for a way to divide that one species, who all like turkey, or at least did when natural wisdom ruled.

Anonymous said...

How many Soviet Jews went up Nazi chimneys?

Jesus, fls, it's Thanksgiving, so I won't give you the hell you truly deserve.

You are a very deluded individual.

Perhaps you have an alternative explanation for why Jews fled the Soviet Union for Israel by the millions? I guess they just wanted to live in a warmer climate.

You are a commie stooge. Hate to say it, but you are.

The great mystery of the Soviet Union, often written about by Solzhenitzn, is that Jews were among the most fervent supporters of the communist revolution, yet the Soviet Union proved to be no different for Jews than Imperial Russia.

No wonder you think that America is the home of the genocidal bastards. You are a commie stooge. You think the Soviet Union is morally superior to America. Somehow, you think that the Soviet Union didn't commit the same genocidal crimes as the Nazis.

I know better. My first wife was a Ukranian Jew.

Automatic_Wing said...

Ritual expression of white liberal guilt is one of the more lamentable Thanksgiving traditions, along with canned cranberry sauce and Detroit Lions football.

Stop being such a putz, fls. Now is the time!

The Crack Emcee said...

I'm going to friend's house. He asked me to come spend the day with him because he's got a house full of women and doesn't want to be driven crazy. (He needs another guy to shoot looks at when they say insane shit.) Damn good cook, my friend.

I heard Chip bumped into him shopping.

Anonymous said...

And, for your further education, try to find out why Nikita Khrushchev was called the "Butcher of the Ukraine."

Happy Thanksgiving!

former law student said...

The Soviets saved their Jews from the Nazis.

Perhaps you have an alternative explanation for why Jews fled the Soviet Union for Israel by the millions?

Perhaps you have an alternative explanation for the existence of millions of Soviet Jews despite Nazi determination to exterminate European Jewry?

But to answer your question, most Soviet Jews hoped to end up in the US, as many did, because life in the Soviet Union was no bundle of roses for anyone, and most Soviets were antipathetic at best towards Jews.

Anonymous said...

But to answer your question, most Soviet Jews hoped to end up in the US, as many did, because life in the Soviet Union was no bundle of roses for anyone, and most Soviets were antipathetic at best towards Jews.

You're full of bullshit, fls. Quit peddling these commie lies.

The Soviets were fond of using a single bullet to the back of the head in lieu of gas chambers. The GULAG was full of Jews. The Kossack history of pogroms continued unabated.

Judaism was suppressed just like Christianity.

Jesus, do you really believe these propaganda lies? Are you that stupid?

john said...

We usually hike on Thanksgiving, but today we will have a neighborhood game of football, starting at 4 in the park.

We also opted for ham instead of turkey, because I hate the leftover issues, and the torpor (triptophan?) that eating turkey puts you in.

But now that the ham is heating up, I am getting nostalgic for the smell of a turkey in the oven, so maybe we get one later in the week.

Our family usually plans or ends up doing a movie marathon sometime over the weekend. We were discussing an encore performance of the entire 12-DVD set of LOTR.

However, arriving just in time for the holidays, we are going to watch "A Matter of Life and Death". We are blessed, and the week is now complete.

I have waited years to see this again. It was only available as a scratchy VHS for an outrageous price. It is just now being released in DVD, as a set with "Age of Consent".

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Althousians, and to our hostess, who keeps this a clean and well lighted place for us.

Titus said...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I will be going to be sister's husbands 80 year old gay uncle's house. He lives in Madison and loves to bake...because he is gay.

Thanks so much.

Titus said...

I read somewhere that many americans eat 4000 calories during Thanksgiving and some have heart attacks just because of all the food.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

BJM said...

I set up the tables and made an Olallieberry pie and the Pioneer Woman's cream pumpkin pie (so good that we fought over licking the bowl), a trifle, baked cornbread and roasted chestnuts for the stuffing yesterday.

I cube stale artisan bread and add it to a container in the freezer year around, if that counts as advance prep.

I made a persimmon steamed pudding (Gran's recipe) and finoccio biscotti earlier in the week and just dipped the biscotti in dark chocolate...which is now all over my keyboard.

I'm already stuffed on cook's scraps.

Turkey's in the oven, a marinated butterflied leg of lamb will go on the charcoal grill, along with a gaggle of handmade wild boar sausages from a local butcher shop (Yes, still have real butchers in Berkeley...but no cows).

We've twenty coming today, our families are mostly gone or are scattered about the country/world with their own extended families, so it's friends, siblings, a few cousins and an assortment of dogs.

Lots of foodies and a wine maker in the group (who will be bringing copious quantities of his wonderful Pinot) so over the years it's turned into a competition pot luck. The feast began as a 49ers Super Bowl event and as more of our parents and a few spouses passed it morphed into a communal Thanksgiving.

Hosting rotates among us with the host providing the proteins, dessert and beverages.

I can't wait to see what sides and starters my guests will bring, but I know will it be tasty and there will be music, some wicked Spades played, dancing (yes we old fogey boomers like to dance), and lots of laughter.

I hope all of you have a wonderful day...I'm off to hop into the shower.

Anonymous said...

As far as guilt over the treatment of American Indians is concerned, I have precisely none.

I have none as well.

Ritual expression of white liberal guilt is one of the more lamentable Thanksgiving traditions, along with canned cranberry sauce and Detroit Lions football.

Agreed.

I'm now on potato peeling duty, and the Lions are kicking off so Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Even to those who has revealed themselves as useful idiots today...

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)


Oh I see, FLS, because the Soviets didn’t just exterminate JEWS, they were OK? I mean Stalin got 20-30 MILLION of his own people, Jew and Gentile alike. And I note you have diverted the discussion to the Nazi’s and JEWS, rather than the HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD of the USSR…which is WORSE than that of the Nazi’s…having been around longer.

So I reiterate the US saved Europe’s Jews from the Nazi’s and saved Liberty in Europe, not all Europe, but enough Europe from the Soviets. Get back to me on what the INDIANS did of an equivalent nature, will you?

When I say get back to me I mean tomorrow, because Paula Deen and Black Jack are calling.

Joan said...

Pumpkin pie is in the oven -- football's on TV. I did a lot of prep last night, but then I always do, so I can relax more today. My in-laws are flying in and will arrive in another hour or so, so dinner won't be until supper time. Right now I'm trying to figure out which recipe for dinner rolls to use.

Anyway, the main reason to make pie on Wednesday is so you can have it for breakfast.

I have much to be thankful for this year, including a new job that keeps me so busy I rarely have time to comment anymore. Best wishes to all at Meadhouse, and everyone in the comments here, too.

john said...

Patricia said...
No personal offense intended Miss Althouse but defending the Palins on bloggingheads.tv makes me think: Wow, only in America is mediocrity celebrated
.

Patricia, we just don't celebrate mediocrity, we elect it!

Perhaps we can all get together and correct that in a couple years?

Chase said...

palladian,

thank you for the quotes. I will be reading them out loud to our first set of guests before the dinner begins.

Former law student, thank you for the Lincoln quote.

Dinner in less than 5 hours. 2 25# turkeys. 50+ guests coming and going throughout the afternoon and evening - some for the entire time, others making the rounds of relatives and friends homes. After 30 years, we are part of numerous people's traditions.

Best part: and I usually hate this word as a conservative, but: the 'diversity' of people who come every year. Friends, new friends of old friends, conservatives, liberals, churchgoers, agnostics, gay, straight, foreign born, redneck, radical, pretty much most colors. All fascinating.

2 rules:

1) Political discussions off limits. If you are a political operative (we've had quite a few over the years), you can tell us why and how you became one, and no one will criticize your position. Otherwise, no politics.

2) Before leaving, you must tell the entire house of something you learned newly this year to be thankful for.

Board Games in various rooms. Once we had a 42 member Balderdash game. It was over before we got 2/3rds of the way through everyone in the room. My favorite game started about 10 years ago with an English Assistant Professor from the nearby U of California campus: someone creates a story beginning with 4 sentences or less, establishing a character in the first 4 sentences. It then goes around the room with each person adding more to the story. Frankly, several of the years it was so funny, I never laughed harder. One year, it took a macabre turn. Usually 4 times around the room gives a good memory.

This year our son is across the country in the Marine Corps - we'll miss him.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
God bless us, Everyone!

Fen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I'd really like to try wild turkey (the bird, not the bourbon, though that's fine too). It's said to be much more flavorful than the factory-farmed domestic version. While there are wild turkeys in this area, and a hunting season for them, I've never heard of any being offered for sale. I guess you're out of luck unless you know someone who hunts.

Peter

Fen said...

And No, FLS, we haven’t “sanitized” our myths, because people like you continue to INSIST on “Speaking the Truth to Power” and informing us, continually of our “sins.”

And I can't help but notice that those harping about America's treatment of my ancestors are still squatting on my land.

If it really bugs you, go back to Europe. Put up or shut up.

Irene said...

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

I am thankful to be here.

fboness said...

A cherry pie is going in the oven now.

Stephen A. Meigs said...

Sacredness greatly has to do with attention to domestic matters such as what one eats. Females in particular seem to have a natural capacity for easily being sacred and moderate, arising I suppose from the constancy needs in child-raising and the extra importance in females of anti-addiction defenses. Somehow this admirable domestic tendency toward a sacred ability to not underestimate the importance of constantly eating appropriately and moderately with good taste twistedly gets misunderstood as a desire to think cooking very important because there needs to be feasts that are ginormously satiating. Unless I suppose one is starving, food is not the most appropriate way to ginormously satisfy, I should think.

When I was 10, about when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as president (perhaps his pleas for self-denial had their effect), I decided it was appropriate temperance to refrain from all candy (except for a while I allowed myself chewing gum), cookies, and sweetened carbonated beverages. I still essentially don't eat those things, though more particularly I always avoid chocolate and vanilla, which I particularly suspect to be addictive. And in grad school I stopped eating meat, and about 10 years ago dairy as well (unless I'm somewhere where there is no other available protein). I don't regret at all being so careful about my diet. There was a time, as an undergraduate amid the sea of drunken degradation that is college life, where parts of me wondered whether sex was addictive and something like chocolate to be very wary of except in the most sacred reproductive marriagey contexts. But fortunately, through much reflection, I within a few years came to see that in fact it is sodomy rather than sex that is addictive, and that in fact it is very wrongly severe to view affectionate real sexual behavior from females as anything but very loving and the opposite of something deserving censure. The best girls are those for whom loving through sex is something very special and natural to them. Our culture mostly denies girls the opportunity to be greatly loving through sex, and so females try instead to be loving with occasional feast orgies of pies, cake, and even turkeys, or maybe they are just terrified of being viewed as some sort of addictive object.

For our family's feast, I am preparing swiss chard, brussels sprouts, and Fordhook (large) lima beans.

A high percentage of heart attacks occur after having indulged in large meals.

Probably over 99% of people will think me pompous to view eating sacredly as so important, but I don't care, they are all wrong. After a while, if one's opinions about the evil of addiction are so obviously superior and well-thought out in comparison with what is common, the opinion of others has insignificant influence on the pride one takes in being sacred oneself, because one knows others are mostly all not very appropriately sacred about things. And yet one knows it is always highly useful to be more sacred and discriminating of the difference between food eaten from addiction and food that tastes good because it is beneficial and needed.

FedkaTheConvict said...

Thanksgiving dinner should involve a multi-generational extended family with at least 20 people present. When it's just a four-person immediate family, as it will be for us today and has been for years, it's somehow depressing.

That may be so but I don't know otherwise. My wife and I are both immigrants so Thanksgiving isn't much of a tradition for us and our closest relatives are about 900 miles away.

We're still going all out but its mainly for our two kids.

That said, having personally experienced the Cooperative Socialism of Nkrumah, Nyrere, Kaunda, and Odinga (Obama), I'm thankful that I now live in the greatest country on earth and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Titus said...

I constantly worry about EVERYTHING!

Today is a day to be grateful about things rather than worry.

So today I am going to stop worrying and be grateful...for an amazing family, a wonderful husband and incredible friends.

The rest of life is not as important.

Everyone say LOVE.

john said...

Stephen A. Meigs - Wow. You lost me at the chocolate part. But you are probably correct about the 99%.

Is there whipping afterward, like instead of desert? (I don't mean cream.)

Titus said...

I also heard something interesting on the radio about, "guess who's coming to dinner for thanksgiving"?

The family is certainly different now. Before it was mom and dad and many kids.

My family is evidenced by that: My sister and her husband, who has been married 3 times, in their 50's have no kids, my sister's brother in law is 60 single and no kids, her sister in law is 50 married to a black man no kids, the uncle's gay, my other sister adopted a kid from Russia, she will be there with her husband and his two kids from a previous marriage with their 6 kids from 3 previous marriages.

Is this common?

I guess times change.

Titus said...

I guess what I am saying is that I am the only really normal one in my family.

Also, one tidbit I read is that you should eat a light snack before attending Thanksgiving at relatives. Hope that helps dolls.

ndspinelli said...

I read posts from folks like Former Law Student and Patricia and I give thanks I am not like those soulless, joyless people. Life is beautiful, Happy Thanksgiving to all, paticularly soulless, joyless, people...they need it the most.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to be eating dinner with Big Joe & Family.

After that Big Joe and I will pull out the guitars and play a few songs.

Titus said...

The National Dog Show is on NBC right now.

If you are in Madison the first dog group is Sporting Dog and you can see rare clumbers!

Rabel said...

fls asked:
"How many Soviet Jews went up Nazi chimneys?'

Around 2 million acccording to wikipedia. But to give you credit, many were shot and buried rather than gassed and burned.

Here's a little peek into the mind of the mass murderers you're defending:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Murdered_Poets

jungatheart said...

Happy Thanksgiving, Meadehouse, and the rest of the Althouse karass.

Mrs. Obama as our National Mother. Hope that sticks, I love it.

Chip, the turkey can be thawed by the cold water method...in the BATHTUB.

Hugs all around.

Peter Hoh said...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I started cooking a few days ago. The family meal is a collective effort, and I was assigned squash, again.

I'm using squash from my garden -- oversized, and harvested a little late. I was concerned that maybe they might not roast up properly, so I started early, in case I needed to get some grocery store squash to replace them.

Not to worry. They taste just fine. Perhaps a few more "strings" along the outside than on a smaller butternut, but tasty all the same.

Ann Althouse said...

Lunch at Meadehouse: Eggs scrambled and fried in the bacon grease left in the pan from breakfast.

DaveW said...

I put in a new kitchen faucet a couple months ago, much like this one (but not that exact one).

When the girls saw it they didn't like it. I don't have an exact quote but my wife used the word "monstrosity". I admit it was a bit fashion forward for me.

It has become a big favorite since then. The height makes it easy to get big pots under there to wash them and the sprayer being on a spring is much easier to use than one of the pull-out ones. Mine is in brushed nickle so it's easier to keep it looking nice.

On a day like today when you have tons of stuff to wash it really performs. I highly recommend them.

I overcame my turkey with sheer will. I just pulled it out of the oven, thigh is at 178, breast is at 167. That's as close as I've ever come to the recommended 180/170 outcome. Now comes furious activity to prepare all the last minute stuff.

bagoh20 said...

Meigs, you sound addicted. Good thing you channeled it to a safe target. Enjoy.


WV: "lente". No way.

traditionalguy said...

Eat, drink and make merry.

Unknown said...

fls is right about Old Abe creating the first US Thanksgiving (Kit Carson's victory over the Southern Plains Indians at Adobe Walls was on the second official Thanksgiving in 1864), but I don't think it was a Federal holiday, so DaveW gets some props; however, fls is wrong about everything else, particularly Soviet Jewry.

One of the dirty little secrets that came out after the fall of the Soviet Union is that Uncle Joe intended to take up where his old pal Adolf left off and finish off the Jews of Eastern Europe. Luckily, he died before he could get it rolling.

Ann Althouse said...

Lunch at Meadehouse: Eggs scrambled and fried in the bacon grease left in the pan from breakfast.

Hey, there are a lot of people who say, "A bird is just too much work".

Alex said...

Avoid overdoing it, you might just trigger a heart attack

Can a single meal trigger a heart attack?

According to researchers, a huge meal similar to what many eat at Thanksgiving or Christmas, can actually set the stage for a heart attack, in those at risk for heart disease.

The study of 1,986 heart attack patients in 2000, suggested that an unusually large meal quadrupled the chance of having a heart attack within the next two hours.


Scary stuff, I'll eat like a bird!

Derve Swanson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bill said...

Thank you for your blog, Ann. It's an enjoyable and informative part of my day.

Plus it's pretty much the only blog where I'll allow myself to read the comments. You really do have some of the most intelligent commenters on the web (with one or two exceptions (okay, eight)).

wv; merre (indeed)

Paul Mitchell said...

Let them eat pie!

Hector Owen said...

I'm thankful for Chip's story, and the delightful parody speech in the original post, which required me to read it out loud -- and I'm thankful that I have someone to read it to.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

BJM said...

@Chase

Thanks for the 4 sentence story idea!

We've played variations on "Who Am I" but sometimes that can turn into a know-it-all contest.

Here's my first idea for the starter sentence.

As the moon rose, a soft light streamed through the trees. Ariel slowly crept forward. Each step carefully chosen. Snap!

We may end up with a Bulwer-Lytton entry! I'll let you know how it goes.

chuck b. said...

Lunch at Meadehouse sounds great. I like breakfast food at any time of day. I like protracted breakfast service too.

I'm making Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon for supper. I like turkey, but we have it at Christmas. In my family, Christmas is pretty much the same as Thanksgiving but with different decorations.

Anyway, I started cooking the BB yesterday because it's supposed to taste better that way. Just skimmed off the fat after refrigerating it overnight. So far, so good. I'm serving it over buttered pasta with sides of Oprah's Brussels sprouts, roasted fennel and broccolini. A guest is bringing avocado pie for dessert (makes a cheesecake w/out cheese--not that there's anything wrong with cheese).

For entertainment, I rented some movies... The Girl Who Played With Fire, Mildred Pierce, and I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. Festive!

Kurt said...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I actually am going to be making a pie in a bit, but it's a new recipe that looked fascinating and it doesn't have a crust. Had I known that Michelle had given me permission to eat pie, maybe I would have decided to make a more traditional version!

former law student said...

Trying to support an argument with a factoid like "[the US] saved the Jews from the Nazis," which in hard actuality boils down to "By the time the Allies stopped the Nazis, 10% of non-Soviet European Jews were still alive," is foolish. Especially when the US actively turned away refugees in the 30s.

And I was foolish to get sidetracked on a discussion of Stalin.

Rose said...

Happy Thanksgiving, Ann and Meade. We'll have way too much food, everything from mashed potatoes to white chocolate crème brûlée, a mix of family traditional recipes with interesting twists, fresh bread, cranberry margaritas and yes, pie. Best of all, it is a gathering of family and friends - and with any luck, we will avoid talking politics and preserve family harmony.

Beth said...

I for one am thankful for bacon grease. Happy Thanksgiving eggs, Althouse and Meade. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving all. Really thankful for this blog and the pleasure I've had reading it. Great blog, ma'am.

Peter Hoh said...

Beth -- did you enjoy the Saints' win as much as I enjoyed the Cowboys' loss?

Happy Thanksgiving, indeed.

Sir Archy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sir Archy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sir Archy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beth said...

Peter, it was a hard win to just enjoy. Reggie Bush tried his best to give it away! That Malcolm Jenkins steal was amazing, though, as were the final three minutes. Couldn't happen to a better team.

Now the Packers need to school Atlanta and I'll be even happier.

Sir Archy said...

To Professor Althouse.

Madam,

As the Ghost of a Gentleman, dead these 260 Years and more, I should tell you the Story of the American Colonists' first ordain'd Day of Thanksgiving at Plymouth in New-England was unfamiliar to me from my Youth.  I may have read an Account of it, as an Instance of proper Christian Gratitude for GOD's manifest Favour; but, it made as little Impression as one of the good Rev. Dimwiddie's ancient Sixty Sermons Saving Sinners' Sicke Soules that was forc'd upon me about the same Time. I had rather have read Pilgrim's Progress, and at least found Pleasure in a lively Style, than to have had my tiring Eye fall on such dreary Examples of Christian Perseverance as the Story of the bare 'scape by the so-call'd Pilgrims of New-England from the Ill-Effects of their own Bungling, all puff'd up as Providence, nay, Divine Favour.

Every Nation ought to have its Legends & Fables in order to bind the common People more closely together. The Arms, including my own, of many a Family in Scotland bear some heraldick Device from the Age of Robert the Bruce, whose Exploits were the Subject of several accurate Accounts from his own Day; yet, whose Legends abound in Scotch Lore, the Details of which may be not wholly truthful.  Nay, they are too often foolish Concoctions, dreamt up hundreds of Years after the Events they purport to describe. That does not prevent such Legends from serving their Purpose, which is the maintenance of an Ardour among the People for the Liberty & Unity of the Scottish Nation.

You similarly should not be asham'd of your own National Traditions, such as that of your first Thanksgiving, whose main Import & Thrust are the noble and good ones of human Brotherhood; Fortitude in the Face of Adversity; and, Trust in the Beneficience of a Supreme Being.  A People who value these Ideals will never willingly thrust their Necks into the Yokes ready'd for them by those who sneer at such Principles and the Tales by which they are inculcated.

Altho' the Account of the first American Thanksgiving in its Original is thin Gruel indeed (as I above aver), I cannot forbear to remark, by way of closing, that, were I alive, I should be very glad to get such a Dinner as is commonly cook'd in its Honour.

Praying your own Thanksgiving Dinner, and those of the Audience at this, your Theatre of Topicks (as I call it), should, in no wise, consist in Gruel, I am,
      Madam,
           Your Humble & Obt. Servant
                Archibald B—

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)

yeah it is FOOLISH to discuss the Soviet Human RIghts Record FLS, especially Stalin's...I'd keep quiet about it too.

Chip Ahoy said...

Hi, Archibald.

Gary Rosen said...

"The Soviets saved their Jews from the Nazis. But by the time the Nazis were defeated, ninety percent of the remainder of Europe's Jews were wiped out."

A large proportion of Jews wiped out in the Holocaust were from Russian territory. Then after the war the Soviet Union and the puppet Eastern European states viciously persecuted Jews, which is why so many emigrated to Israel.

But your concern for Jews is touching, fls, considering what an antisemite you are. Have you and C-fudd ever been seen in the same place at the same time?

Gary Rosen said...

"I know better. My first wife was a Ukranian Jew."

Don't confuse fls with the facts. Like all antisemites (e. g. his butt buddy C-fudd) he is a nitwit, misfuck and born loser.

Rose said...

For the record - 3 pies, 3 cheesecakes, a pumpkin roll and white chocolate creme brulee... 6 families, all stuffed.

Thankful for sharp knives and dishwashers.

former law student said...

Again, Gary Rosen substitutes name calling for argument. But he did point out one fact I neglected: the part of the Soviet Union that the Nazis occupied during World War II did lose most of its Jews -- to the Nazi occupiers.

Kurt said...

Even though the pie I made had no crust, it was amazingly good! I can't wait to have some for breakfast in the morning! just don't tell Michelle.

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)

Ahhhh the Left's contortions, somehow Stalin is NOT as bad as Hitler, but the US is certainly close...