… for a holiday greeting!
My hometown is socked in with snow at the moment. It probably isn’t a whole lot of fun for the people living in it, but it sure does look pretty from a distance! I discovered this morning that little ole Batavia has a blog, which provides lots and lots of images from this week’s snow storm (and also directs us to this gallery from the Daily News, which finally has a web site!).
This is pretty big news for someone who likes to feel connected to home, even while living far away. ::happy dance!::
It’s my most favorite holiday of the year, kids! Simple, sincere, uncomplicated… the centerpiece of the day is a wonderful meal with loved ones (here’s a tip regarding that from Mignon McLaughlin!) with cooking before — and after, some napping, sports, games, strolling, and general fun. It doesn’t get any better that that! So, here’s your Thanksgiving post, largely assembled last night, after I finished up a bit of prep for today’s cooking. But I’ll add to it if I find any additional delights throughout the day, so if you have a chance, check back before you lapse into your l-tryptophan-enduced coma later this afternoon!
First off, here’s the soundtrack to this post, because of course, it’s Thanksgiving, so you have to listen to Alice’s Restaurant Massacree (I certainly suffered enough as a child because of it, so you damn well better listen and enjoy!) ;-D
[Note: if you want to buy this album, be careful to get the 30th Anniversary Edition (which is RIAA-free), and not the original album (which is not).]
And if anyone’s curious, here’s our menu for this year: turkey (we got a 15 lb. free-range, organic bird this year), oyster stuffing, Ralph’s mashed potatoes (which are becoming famouser by the year), gravy, cranberry sauce, broccoli-corn bake, whiskey glazed carrots, pumpkin bread, Emmie’s fantastic cheddar bay biscuits, and apple pie. We’ll be a fairly small group of just four or five people, so that ought to fill us up. (Sorry, no turbaconducken, and no turgooduccochiqua!)
But on with the turkey day links…
Have you turned on the TV yet? What are you waiting for? The holiday weekend marathons may have already started!
Get it right! Here are your Top 6 Thanksgiving Myths!
Sorry to be Captain Bringdown here, but all that food on the table… have you thought about who participated in getting it there?
A few great Thanksgiving special TV episodes!
10 ways to give back on Thanksgiving.
8 Thanksgiving specials no one is thankful for!
For the Nate Silver in each of us: Thanksgiving charts and stats!
Thanksgiving isn’t original — here are some other harvest festivals (and some crazy ones).
The worst things about Thanksgiving.
Top 5 Thanksgiving Movies — wait, no — or is it Top 10 Thanksgiving Movies?
Things to talk about on Thanksgiving.
Tips for getting along with difficult relatives today.
Ten things you can only say on Thanksgiving!
Charles Phoenix’s Tiki-Turkey Dinner.
Five Novels That Serve Up Thanksgiving Dinners.
A humanist Thanksgiving proclamation.
An awesome moment from this morning’s Macy’s parade (see it here, too)!
Vintage photos of past Macy’s parades.
Political turkeys of the year.
Charlie Chaplin’s Thanksgiving.
Bartlet calls the Butterball Hotline.
Let Us Remember the True Meaning of Thanksgiving Before It’s Abolished.
What’s Bush eating today? Here’s the menu!
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Check out these pet costumes! |
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Global Voices Online “is an international, volunteer-led project that collects, summarizes, and gives context to some of the best self-published content found on blogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, and videoblogs from around the world, with a particular emphasis on countries outside of Europe and North America.” Want to find out what bloggers who write in a language you can’t read are saying? This is a great place to start. For example, here’s an entry on pepsikolka’s livejournal in which she talks about the bombing of Poti. And here’s the translation.
Around midnight I heard some roaring, ran up to the window and saw shaft of fire, explosions at the port and heard a deafening noise. I didn’t even have the time to get scared, I just knew that if a cistern with oil at the terminal gets hit, there’ll be fire and an explosion, so I grabbed the phone, called Tengo, Vika answered, screaming - Samira, the port is being bombed. Mama with Alina and our niece were running aimlessly around the apartment, the explosions continued, and we ran downstairs. There were people in the street, they were crying and everyone looked terribly alarmed.
It’s a confusing conflict (there’s been a lot of he said-she said), and in seeking some perspective, I’ve found it helpful and/or interesting to browse entries by country, and check out not only the first-hand accounts, but also the comments in various threads — there are some lively discussions taking place (at the same time, though, some of the comments can be just heartbreaking).
- If you are trying to follow all the news from Sunday’s tragic church shooting in Knoxville, Michael Silence has all the details. Just scroll down.
- When it comes to supporting the troops…
- Amazing auditory illusion
- Quite a fiscal legacy
- McCain attack ad is “literally not true”
- How to survive a plane crash
- Don’t talk to the cops!
- Not only is John McCain a spoiled whiner, but he’s also wrong about the press (and — oh, dear! — a liar!)
- Your next car?
- Speaking of cars, VW plant could spur high-speed rail link!
- Lego album covers
- Obama’s VEEP announcement any moment now?
- Scholars & Rogues: How to win the Iraq war debate against your dumb friends
- Firedoglake: 4 Stories Illustrate Bush’s Unrelenting Dishonesty
- truthout: The Petraeus-Crocker Show Gets the Hook
- Free Range Kids: Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone
- Pensito Review: Turley: Cheney, Rice, Powell and Other White House Officials Committed War Crimes ~ ACLU Calls for Independent Prosecutor to Investigate Bush-Cheney Torture Authorization
- New York Times: Poor Gonzo! Job hunt not going well as most law firms avoid hiring known liars
- Crooks and Liars: Where’s the outrage over Bush’s knowledge and approval of torture?
- Nerve.com and IFC.com: The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time (I snorked my breakfast the other morning while watching #46)
- Newscoma: Blogging in Tennessee
- One Good Move: 1-88 Duh
A few St. Patrick’s Day links:
- The wiki treatment
- White People like it!
- A little Irish-ish music (along with a story that make you go “awww”!)
- wearing o’ the black
- St. Patrick’s Day won’t occur during Holy Week again until 2160. Thank goodness, since there’s been some controversy over the timing!
- UPDATE (one more): Check out these Guinness Cupcakes!
(regarding the subject line)
Happy March, everyone! Here’s the chatter from the internet in the past day or so…
Barack Obama: he reached out to the LGBT community this week, and then later took a step further, calling homophobia “unchristian.”
John McCain: his campaign bus is filled with lobbyists and he’s having all kinds of problems with those pesky campaign finance laws. And now he’s making smoochie face with a scary, bigoted, catholic-hating wingnut and end-times kook (yeah he really is that charming), James Hagee, and he refuses to take it back (and he was warned about this!).
Tim Russert: has one set of rules for Democrats and another set for Republicans? But is anyone really surprised? There’s a reason he’s Cheney’s favorite press patsy.
George W. Bush: incoherent as ever, garbled, out of touch, and not at all self-aware (did Bush really think it sent the wrong message when Reagan had summits with Gorbachev?!?).
Jack Kingston: refuses to wear a flag on his lapel! Why does he hate America?
Rush Holt: calls Bush a “miserable lying twit” — and calls him on his disingenuous FISA theatrics.
Three Families of Privilege: the Windsors, the Romneys and the Bushes. (btw, how much do you think Harry hates Drudge?)
Prisons: More than 1% of Americans are incarcerated. I’m thinking we need to keep the violent offenders locked up, but a lot of those people could be supporting themselves, instead of being burdens to the taxpayer. I’m sure we could do better than we’re doing now.
Autism and immunizations: another perspective.
Final thoughts: what people don’t say on their deathbeds.
