Happy Thanksgiving

I haven’t been blogging much lately, but I today should be a blogging extravaganza. I have the laptop next to the couch in front of the widescreen, and I intend to blog, eat, and watch football for 15 hours. Yeehaw! NFL for eight hours and then the Backyard Brawl, the annual grudge match between WVU and Pittsburgh. Go Eers!

At any rate, Happy Thanksgiving, and if you want to read an interesting story about immigrants and Thanksgiving, check this piece in the NY Times:

The desire to celebrate Thanksgiving was so strong for Leticia Maravilla, a Mexican immigrant, that she roasted her first turkey before she had her green card, struggling through a newspaper recipe in English.

“I wanted to do it the same way Americans did it,” she said, speaking from Los Angeles though an interpreter.

Ms. Maravilla ended up with the most American of problems. The breast meat was bone dry. Now, with several Thanksgivings under her belt, she has the culinary conundrum solved. Ms. Maravilla will simmer her turkey on the stove with garlic and onions before she roasts it, a little tip from her mother in Mexico City.

Thanksgiving, which began as a party for immigrants, remains the most accessible American holiday for many newcomers. It requires no specific religious or political allegiance. Even if an immigrant is from a culture where whole roast turkey is never on the menu – and that is nearly everywhere except North America – most are willing to give it a try.

Remember to be thankful and grateful today, and a special thanks to our heroes in combat overseas, but also remember how lucky we are to live in this country. We have our problems and our mistakes, but despite what the naysayers at home and abroad want us to believe, we are the greatest nation on earth. Just ask our newest citizens.