Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

It’s a doggy dog world.

We’re not going back!

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Is It Just Me

Is It Just Me

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I’ve read all my newspapers and online magazines, and I have nothing to write about.

I guess I’m just pretty excited about eating turkey and stuffing until I get the meat sweats.

*** Update ***

Actually, now that I have thought about it, can you get meat sweats from turkey? I’m gonna try, but after some thought I guess those are normally reserved for red meats and italian meats.

Reader Interactions

173Comments

  2. 2.

    mellowjohn

    hope you don’t consider this a “gotcha question, ms. palin,” but what newspapers do you read?

  4. 4.

    demkat620

    What are meat sweats?

    I am having 14 for dinner tomorrow, I have a 22lb turkey, a turkey breast and a ham. Do I have enough?

  5. 5.

    Col. Klink

    It’s all pretty despressing right now. Eat the damn turkey and pass the stuffing. Obama is looking more and more like his hero Lincoln every day. A third of the country wants him dead on arrival or seeks to leave the Union altogether. His Left flank is pissed he isn’t moving fast enough despite the fact he inherited a house on fire that had been soaked in gasoline for 8 years. The freaking media meanwhile is obsessed with the utterly trivial and can’t believe Obama didn’t punch our glorious debt holders in the face. So enjoy thanksgiving this year because it may well be among our last.

  12. 12.

    Butch

    Not long ago I found a 1952 Noresco roaster; I think because it’s a smaller space than a regular oven it makes the best turkey I’ve ever had. (Even has the owner’s manual and all the inserts, and I paid $20 for it.)

  14. 14.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    Meat sweats? Huh?

    I figure if you eat enough turkey to cause wtf meat sweats are, you will have long-since lapsed into a tryptophane coma so deep any possible wingnut relatives would need a Schiavo-esque act of congress to preserve your “life”.

  15. 15.

    Zifnab

    This Turkey Day I will be celebrating the triumphant victory of the University of Texas football program against its arch-rival, Texas Agricultural and Medical, to conclude an undefeated 12-0 record for the year and set the stage for it’s second BCS championship victory in four years.

    Go Horns!

  16. 16.

    Sentient Puddle

    Upon looking up meat sweats, Wikipedia redirects me to competitive eating. I think that gives me a close enough idea as to what it is…

  17. 17.

    Chat Noir

    The news is too depressing for me. I scan the NY Times site but that’s about all I can take. I couldn’t even read Bob Herbert’s column yesterday.

  18. 18.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Never heard of meat sweats, assuming that isn’t just you being a very naughty boy, John Cole.

  19. 19.

    licensed to kill time

    I don’t know about meat sweats, but turkey/tryptophan doesn’t make you sleepy.

    But nutritionists and other experts say that the tryptophan in turkey probably won’t trigger the body to produce more seroton­in because tryptophan works best on an empty stomach. The tryptophan in a Thanksgiving turkey has to vie with all the other amino acids that the body is trying to use. So only part of the tryptophan makes it to the brain to help produce serotonin.

    Guess I’ll have to stick with the Wild Turkey. Sweats and sleepy!

  20. 20.

    tamied

    @Butch: My mom used to make our turkey in a roaster like that, except she’d start it the night before and cook the bejeezus out of it.

  21. 21.

    demkat620

    @Fern: Enough food. My husband is sicilian so there is always that worry from him. I figure we will have enough food leftover to keep us in turkey until christmas.

    He’s nervous.

  23. 23.

    Martin

    @demkat620:

    Depends on the guests. We had a family member who was a bodybuilder. He’d eat a 14lb turkey by himself. Was really something to behold.

    With normal people, you should be fine – the sides always carry over a big group.

  24. 24.

    Butch

    Tamied, so did my folks, and this one is identical to what they used except that it doesn’t have the stand. (I need to learn how to use that link thing….)

  26. 26.

    Chat Noir

    @tamied: My mom would take an orange, slice it, and cook it in the turkey’s neck. The meat would come out with a hint of orange and it was like ambrosia. I miss her Txgiving dinners; her bread stuffing was the best.

  27. 27.

    demkat620

    @Martin: Yeah, a friend is making her caesar salad with extra garlic and homemade croutons. I’d be happy with just that.

    This is my favorite holiday.

  28. 28.

    Mary

    I just read John’s archives from April, May, June 2005. Color me impressed. BTW, he has also evolved greatly on pets.

  29. 29.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @John Cole: Must be a West Virginia thing. I’m gonna try using it with my wife’s family (all from West Virginia) tomorrow and see if they slap their legs and guffaw.

    If they all blush and look away, I’m going to find you and kill you.

  30. 30.

    Sly

    If you’re bored, here’s a book book you can read that was published 150 years ago to the day. I heard it was pretty influential.

  33. 33.

    Legalize

    Good Grief. I just learned of the alleged “rapper,” Hi-Caliber. He has a video and everything. I made it 35 seconds. He reminds me of the fellas I see every day in court arguing that they shouldn’t have to pay child support because “all she ever done was warsh the dishes sometime.”

    The end is extremely fucking nigh.

  35. 35.

    matt

    I had not heard of “meat sweats”, but I know what they are. Something about metabolism going into higher gear whenever protein is to be digested.

  36. 36.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    “Foundered” is a term I’ll hear a lot tomorrow. It means to eat too much of something and become tired of it. Anyone else ever hear the term used that way or is this another West Virginia exclusive?

  37. 37.

    geg6

    Meat sweats?! Ew! Well, I will be having a belated birthday dinner out this evening. Don’t know where yet. Tomorrow is the family with the usual turkey and ham. Also as usual, I am in charge of the ham. There will be ten of us. Since there’s already been a sisterly phone chain argument over Christmas plans, what I’m most looking forward to is the wine. Oh, and screw politics for the next coupla days. Enough of the idiocracy. I’m on vacation.

  38. 38.

    mcd410x

    I’m going to guess that meat sweats has something to do with going completely overboard on salt intake. But what the hell do I know?

    (Darla in a box!)

  41. 41.

    Sentient Puddle

    @John Cole:

    I honestly can not believe none of you have heard of the meat sweats. It is not obscene… at least not in the XXX way.

    I’m still afraid of googling it (at least at work) because I think that could be subject to change at a moment’s notice on the Internet.

  42. 42.

    flukebucket

    @Zifnab: They can’t stay on the field with Alabama or Florida. The SEC championship game is the National Championship game. Everything else is just a meat sweat.

  43. 43.

    geg6

    AngusTheGodOfMeat: If anyone would know what meat sweats are, I would have counted on you to know. Damn, it must be really, really obscure, like a phenomenon only seen in the hollers of West By God Virginia.

  46. 46.

    licensed to kill time

    @drillfork:

    But since FDR talked of meeting “the unprecedented task before us” during his first inaugural address in 1933, presidents have used the word on almost 2,000 occasions to describe everything from the death of Elvis Presley (Carter) to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (Reagan).

    I like the one about Elvis. Totally unprecedented, fer sure!

  48. 48.

    Zifnab

    @flukebucket: UT has the number one running defense in the league. If Alabama shows up to play, Mark Ingram will be eated.

    As for Tim “Jesus Christ” Teebow – I hear he’s up for a Heisman. Now McCoy can join Vince Young in proving the Heisman committee doesn’t know wtf it’s talking about.

  51. 51.

    Butch

    Yeowie, Linkmeister – I never thought about checking the wattage. The thing with the Noresco is that it has an uninsulated aluminum lid; I used it a while back at a birthday party and had to put a sign on it warning folks about unintentional Noresco “tattoos.”

  53. 53.

    Tim (The Oher One)

    The SEC championship game is the National Championship game. Everything else is just a meat sweat

    SEC football. Isn’t that where they just make up school names and give them to pro teams ?

    Meat Sweats: I like their first CD best.\ before they sold out.

  54. 54.

    Arnon O'Miss but not really

    speaking of going galt,

    I think I actually feel some of that here in germany, i actually don’t work as much as i could because the taxes increase dramatically a little higher than my income but then again i’m at maybe double the amount where you begin pay taxes, which is around 7500 euros or so. but somehow it’s enough to more than get by.

    anyway, i am a total fan of the site but i think i have gone galt in germany. is there any cure?

  55. 55.

    Clifton

    You could call Richard Cohen an asshat. Though you’ve probably done that one too many times.

    You could compliment Obama’s Diplomacy efforts.

    Or, you could do what my father and I have been doing since about 10 this morning. Enjoying bourbon and laughing about the hundreds of awkward and silly family moments we’ve had over the years doing previous Thanksgivings.

  56. 56.

    Joshua Norton

    I should think a TurDuckIn would probably produce that affect. I usually have one every Xmas Eve.

    They’re expensive as hell and I still haven’t decided if I prefer it to a regular bird, but the guests seem to like it. It’s just a cold duck and turkey and chicken sandwich takes some getting used to.

  60. 60.

    tamied

    @Linkmeister: These are still pretty popular here in Western Pa. You see them at lots of bar-b-ques and firehall weddings. Usually filled with kielbassi and saurkraut or haluski.

  61. 61.

    Sly

    If you want an example of WaPo ink that isn’t a flagrant example of asshattery, Ruth Marcus wrote something that isn’t Village Nonsense. Shocking, yes?

    Tom Schaller did it better, though.

  62. 62.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    Obama is looking more and more like his hero Lincoln every day.

    Did Lincoln lock up people without charges because they might commit a crime some day, or abuse the state secrets privilege, or railroad detainees into military commissions? Did he back away from prosecuting people for torture?

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    You can definitely get the “itis” from a big turkey dinner.

    On to work. Retail. Ugh.

  65. 65.

    JasonF

    Joey got the meat sweats from turkey on the Thanksgiving episode of Friends where Monica made him eat a whole turkey.

    Yes, I know way too much about stupid sitcoms.

  66. 66.

    licensed to kill time

    @Cat Lady: Michelle really looks elegant. I heard her dress was made in India by 40 people in a local business, and I swear I thought “Now they will be saying she supports sweatshops or something”. What do you wanna bet?

  68. 68.

    slag

    @Cat Lady: Funny. I always think that the peeps in this admin wouldn’t be at all aesthetically appealing if they weren’t also fairly brainy and do-goodey. But I revise that assumption as far as Michelle Obama goes. She is prima facie gorgeous by pretty much any standard.

  71. 71.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @JasonF: Never saw a single episode of Friends. I had other priorities at the time.

    Never saw a single episode of Seinfeld either which I’m coming to regret now that they’ve all shown up on Curb Your Enthusiasm in positively brilliant sketches.

  72. 72.

    flukebucket

    @Zifnab:

    UT has the number one running defense in the league.

    That could be because the toughest team they have faced all year is Oklahoma State.

    If UT makes it to the BCS final against Florida or Alabama McCoy won’t even finish the game. He will be sitting on the bench with a towel over his head by the middle of the 3rd quarter.

  74. 74.

    licensed to kill time

    @Jay in Oregon: AFAIK, ol’ Palienator isn’t contributing jackshit to Alaska anymore, so she should STFU.

    She also hinted at starting another party – the Common Sense Conservative party, if “the Republican party doesn’t get their act together.”

    And there it is, folks – the meme is codified.

  80. 80.

    licensed to kill time

    @ellaesther: I’m trying to restrain myself in substituting other words for the new CSC party – Conservatives Sans Conscience is clean, but perhaps one could imagine a few others that are a tad less suitable for tender sensibilities….

  82. 82.

    licensed to kill time

    @ellaesther:

    And thus ended the party of Lincoln – not with a bang, but with an entitled whimper, spoken through a tea bag.

    Oh, oh! And who killed it? The Hollow Woman, that’s who!

  83. 83.

    Violet

    Never heard of meat sweats. Have heard of a “meatover” though. It’s like a hangover, but you get it after you’ve eaten too much meat.

  84. 84.

    Nellcote

    @licensed to kill time:

    I heard her dress was made in India by 40 people in a local business,

    The Indian-American designer is from a family of designers that goes back 3 generations and has a factory in India. They’ve been making clothing for royalty/richies for decades. The beading is sterling silver and all hand stitched henced the number of beaders required. She was absolutely beautiful in the dress.

  85. 85.

    Clifton

    @Sly:

    Tom’s post is really very good.@Notorious P.A.T.:

    As the Civil War started, in the very beginning of Lincoln’s presidential term, a group of “Peace Democrats” proposed a peaceful resolution to the developing Civil War by offering a truce with the South, and forming a constitutional convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to protect States’ rights. The proposal was ignored by the Unionists of the North and not taken seriously by the South. However, the Peace Democrats, also called copperheads by their enemies, publicly criticized Lincoln’s belief that violating the U.S. Constitution was required to save it as a whole. With Congress not in session until July, Lincoln assumed all powers not delegated in the Constitution, including the power to suspend habeas corpus. In 1861, Lincoln had already suspended civil law in territories where resistance to the North’s military power would be dangerous. In 1862, when copperhead democrats began criticizing Lincoln’s violation of the Constitution, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus throughout the nation and had many copperhead democrats arrested under military authority because he felt that the State Courts in the north west would not convict war protesters such as the copperheads. He proclaimed that all persons who discouraged enlistments or engaged in disloyal practices would come under Martial Law.

    Among the 13,000 people arrested under martial law was a Maryland Secessionist, John Merryman. Immediately, Hon. Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States issued a writ of habeas corpus commanding the military to bring Merryman before him. The military refused to follow the writ. Justice Taney, in Ex parte MERRYMAN, then ruled the suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional because the writ could not be suspended without an Act of Congress. President Lincoln and the military ignored Justice Taney’s ruling.

  88. 88.

    Nellcote

    Compare and contrast Prez. Obama’s good natured turkey pardon this morning with Palin’s infamous turkey slaughter last year.

  89. 89.

    Linkmeister

    @Butch: Mine only gets used twice a year, so I don’t worry overmuch about the watts. Thanksgiving and Christmas we buy the Safeway prepackaged dinner, and the mashed pots and stuffing taste better heated in an oven than in the microwave. If I put a 10-lb bird in the oven the other two items won’t fit, so out comes the roaster.

  90. 90.

    ellaesther

    @licensed to kill time: Oh god, it’s a day of admitting my ignorance, right left and center!

    The Hollow Woman…? I fear I should know of what you speak — indeed, I fear it may have something to do with the cultural trope to which I referred — but I got nuthin’.

    To the Google with me!

  91. 91.

    licensed to kill time

    @Martin: They might be happy that she’s using a meatsweatshop instead of organizing them with the SEIU ;-)

    Michelle and the Meatsweats would be an excellent name for a rock band.

  92. 92.

    ellaesther

    @ellaesther: Got it! T.S. Eliot! “A penny for the Old Guy”!

    Sorry…. I forget that that line actually comes from poetry!

    And it’s worth quoting a bit from the top, as it seems oddly appropriate to the CSC [ahem] party!

    “We are the hollow men
    We are the stuffed men
    Leaning together
    Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
    Our dried voices, when
    We whisper together
    Are quiet and meaningless
    As wind in dry grass
    Or rats’ feet over broken glass
    In our dry cellar”

  93. 93.

    bago

    What is valuable that comes from Alaska? People that see the value in getting the hell out of Alaska.
    People like myself.

  94. 94.

    Cat Lady

    @Darkrose:

    During the toast when Singh was speaking he mentioned their hosts’ graciousness, and Barack shot Michelle a look, like only a husband who deeply loves and respects his wife could give. It was unmistakable, and it gives me a happy to think that wingnuts will never, ever, ever get the kind of satisfaction that The Clenis allowed them to get.

  95. 95.

    licensed to kill time

    @ellaesther: Your line “not with a bang, but a whimper” is from T.S.Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”. My slightly clunky take on his title….is the Sarah!

  96. 96.

    monkeyboy

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Never saw a single episode of Seinfeld

    I never saw a complete single episode but I would occasionally see parts of one while channel flipping.

    That is until there was the hubub about the last show. I watched it from the beginning and was shocked, I say shocked, that Seinfeld wasn’t spelled “Steinfeld”.

  97. 97.

    valdivia

    @Cat Lady:

    This. They love each other and it is so clear that they are partners. Lovely and inspiring to see. It gives me a happy that they are so visibly moved by each other.

  98. 98.

    The Moar You Know

    Did Lincoln lock up people without charges because they might commit a crime some day, or abuse the state secrets privilege, or railroad detainees into military commissions? Did he back away from prosecuting people for torture?

    @Notorious P.A.T.: You need to read up on some history. Lincoln threw most of the Constitution right out the window during the Civil War.

  99. 99.

    Kirk Spencer

    John,

    Yes you can get meat sweats from Turkey, but it takes a lot more meat.

    Everyone else, as @matt noted it’s a body’s response to consuming an extremely large but imbalanced diet. Not protein, though; it’s due to the fat.

    It’s the body expelling ketones. Ketones are acids that occur when the body burns fats instead of carbs. If there are enough of those acids the body gets heated. Some of the ketones get into the skin’s capillary system and cross through to the sweat, which is where the smell comes from.

  100. 100.

    The Moar You Know

    @The Moar You Know: I really can’t wait for an edit button.

    As per Wikipedia: “During the Civil War, Lincoln appropriated powers no previous President had wielded: he used his war powers to proclaim a blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, spent money before Congress appropriated it, and imprisoned between 15,000 and 18,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers without trial.”

    There’s also some war crimes thrown in for good measures.

  101. 101.

    JenJen

    @Jay in Oregon: You know, I think it would be semi-awesome if Katie took her up on it. Stunt-like, probably dumb, but it would amuse me and that’s all that matters.

    (Am I already following you on Twitter? I hope so!)

  102. 102.

    ruemara

    @Cat Lady:

    I could be mildly rude and suggest a presidential 3-way but I must say, they look amazing and I love the way they love each other. It’s uplifting in a field of crap.

  105. 105.

    JeremyH

    You can certainly get the meat sweats from the brown meat of turkey, although it takes more work to get there than with red meats.

    I’ve experienced a particularly acute form of this condition from chinese-style bbq duck – known specifically as the Duck Sweats. This is largely a consequence of duck’s high fat content, though.

  106. 106.

    Zifnab

    @flukebucket:

    That could be because the toughest team they have faced all year is Oklahoma State.

    Hey, it’s been a slow year, I’ll admit. No one wants to play Boise, TCU, or Utah. I blame the BCS system.

    If UT makes it to the BCS final against Florida or Alabama McCoy won’t even finish the game. He will be sitting on the bench with a towel over his head by the middle of the 3rd quarter.

    Haha. McCoy doesn’t even get going until the second half. He’ll be tagging Shipley in the end zone while the SEC defense is still trying to figure out the ball was snapped. Neither Alabama nor Florida have the offensive strength necessary to go head to head with Texas. Once we’re done running up the score, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

  107. 107.

    chrome agnomen

    @JSF

    use ‘founder’ down here in teh country when cows get on fresh grass in the spring, (or bust down a fence to get at it), and overeat after a steady diet of hay all winter. often fatal.

  110. 110.

    Common Sense

    SEC fans have no clue what Will Muschamp will bring. The Horns D is nasty.

    If Alabama can get ahead than it may be a long game. The Tide can’t come from behind though, and if UT gets a lead they will pounce.

    I think Florida beats Alabama anyway, and I like UT’s chances against the Gators.

  111. 111.

    geg6

    Why oh why do people persist in believing the myths of our historical figures when the truth about them is so much more interesting and nuanced and human? Lincoln did whatever he thought he could get away with in order to save the Union. He didn’t free the slaves out of the goodness of his heart; he did it as a coldly calculated strategy to further his aims. In some ways, he operated just like W. The difference is that he had a vision for how it would all come back together again in the end. Oh, and that there was an ACTUAL THREAT against the nation that required extraordinary actions. If Obama’s motives for his actions on detainees and renditions and such (with which I disagree FTR) mirror Lincoln’s and his end goals eventually involve restoring the Constitution and the rule of law, then I’ll be fine with that outcome.

  112. 112.

    Anne Laurie

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    “Foundered” is a term I’ll hear a lot tomorrow. It means to eat too much of something and become tired of it. Anyone else ever hear the term used that way or is this another West Virginia exclusive?

    Widely used in veterinary/animal husbandry circles. It’s what happens to horses when they drink too much water too fast, or eat something that ferments in their guts, and their intestines torsion. Still kills a lot of expensive animals, unfortunately.

    The term for dogs that do the same thing is bloat, which loses some of its entertainment value once you’ve seen the autoposy films, but despite Mr. Creosote humans are hard to kill by overfeeding.

    I am currently dawdling on travel preparations for our personal version of the Boggie Bloat, which involves some of my favorite things (unrestrained eating, plus representatives of the very small portion of humanity I can stand to spend time with in person) surrounded by four days of my definition of absolute torture (travel, especially in company with the Spousal Unit and three dogs, one of whom has probably never stayed in a motel before, and jolly party time). If y’all never hear from me again, either I’ve committed a murder at an upstate NY rest stop, or I’ve been euthanized by my so-called “friends” for harshing the communal mellow.

  113. 113.

    chuck

    I’d have given W a bit of a pass if there were an *actual civil war* being fought.

    Lincoln _restored_ habeas corpus when it was over. Tell me, when is the War On Terra over?

  114. 114.

    burnspbesq

    @Zifnab:

    What is this silliness of which you speak? The only football match of any importance this weekend is Arsenal – Chelsea.

  116. 116.

    Ash Can

    Is it just me

    Nope. I’ve been feeling burnt out on teh stupid from both left and right for several days now. Dana Perino’s moronic attempt to rewrite history was the last straw. Fuck all that. Bring on the Macy’s Parade and the football, with cartoons filling the time in between. The husband and mother-in-law are going to do all the cooking tomorrow, as usual, and it’s going to be great.

  118. 118.

    ellaesther

    @licensed to kill time: No, no I figured that out! See, look up, just three comments! I’m not as sorry as I present!

    No, actually, I’m fairly sorry when it comes to poetry (indeed, I announced my bone-deep laziness when dealing with poetry just the other day), but as this is literally the fifth time in 24 hours that I have written something poetry-related on the intertubez, perhaps the universe/my subconscious is trying to tell me something!

  119. 119.

    Fern

    @Chuck Butcher:

    I live about as mid-continent as it is possible to be, but I have listened to Stan Rogers tunes – in this case “Make and Break Harbour”

    How still lies the bay, in the light western airs
    Which blow from the crimson horizon
    Once more we tack home, with a dry empty hold
    Saving gas with the breezes so fair
    She`s a kindly cape islander, old but still sound
    But so lost in the long liner`s shadow
    Make and Break and make do, but the fish are so few
    That she won`t be replaced should she founder

  120. 120.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    Ah, meat sweats, is it? I dunno about turkey, but this should do the trick:
    __

    Also for starters was a Strasburg Pie, which is simplicity itself: duck foie gras crammed into a puff pastry shell along with about a pound of bacon. Foie gras – fatty duck or goose liver – is the sort of foodstuff that causes PETA supporters to have brain hemorrhages. It is Concentrated Decadence, something that combines extreme costliness and exquisite taste with a nutritional profile that will have you grabbing for your heart medicine after merely looking at it. To make the pie, I used a whole duck liver: Clocking in at almost two pounds, it represented a chunk of meat worth more than a C-note.

    Be sure to check out the picture.

  121. 121.

    WereBear

    I am only feeding three people and my brother has requested a pizza. I have chosen two kinds of the Paul Newman Thin Crust Pizza. I salute Paul Newman’s palate.

    His wine is also good.

    Here at Thanksgiving time we are supposed to think of our leaders in fraternal ways. And all I can say is that the Obamas would probably make me feel at home, and the thought of spending it with W’s family always squicked me out. So I, too, am happy with that improvement.

    It’s not just how good-looking the Obamas are as a couple. It is also how well they wordlessly communicate which bespeaks two people who have been on each other’s wavelength, happily, for quite a while.

    And that, boys and girls, is how you have a satisfactory relationship.

    @J.: Dayum. I am going to say this all Thanksgiving. (Frontal lobes engaged, of course.)

    And see who reacts…

    Wishing everyone a happy and meat-sweat-free Thanksgiving…

    And from me too.

  122. 122.

    freelancer

    Shit, I’m burned out even on our guys.

    I haven’t watched Olbermann in a while. He’s more of an entertainer than a newscaster. I love his nightly message, I just have no proof of his sincerity. Especially since on Real Time, he says he hangs out with Hannity and that Hannity’s an okay guy, and they were all chummy with each other at Yankees games, taking goofy cameraphone pics of each other.

    Either you believe your own message when you accuse your fellow host of having no integrity when nightly raking him over the coals, or you’re just two millionaire celebs that are play-acting at a feud.

    As Wyatt Cenac said on Monday’s WTF podcast, Cable news has turned into the Pro-Wrestling Theatre of Fake Good guys calling out Fake Bad Guys. All this bluster gets their audiences in a fevered place of righteousness, but then they each go home to their neighboring Manhattan condos.

    I’m not saying KO is anywhere near as bad as Hannity (he’s not, he’s a vapid, dishonest, evil piece of shit), but to some extent what they’re both engaging in is irresponsible, and make no mistake, they are both Kabuki theater.

    Maddow and Bill Moyers seem to be the only truly intellectually and morally responsible newspeople left, and Moyers is retiring in April.

    I haz a sad, and iz feelin morally fatigued.

    Now bring on the Cornflake Potatoes and Pumpkin Pie!

  123. 123.

    jeffreyw

    Brining the turkey overnight, I made some pan dressing today just to save some time tomorrow. Menu will be fairly sparse, just the two of us. Classic green bean casserole, mashed taters, candied yams, cranberry salad, Parkerhouse rolls, plenty of gravy, and much turkey.

  124. 124.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @burnspbesq:

    In fairness to Lincoln, he actually was facing an existential threat. Unlike now.

    Well, yea, if you don’t count the Permanent Republican Majority. Poor bastards died on the vine, green as Kermit the Frog/ Somebody had to do something.

    Them Iraqi’s weren’t real Murrikins you know. More like libtards land panzies suckin’ Jacuzzi Water in Californication.

    Sarah will fix their wagon. Also.

  125. 125.

    licensed to kill time

    @ellaesther:
    I saw your comment, ellaesther – you were probably posting it while I was typing mine! It’s funny how bits of poetry stick in our subconscious mind and pop out when needed, whether we are aware of it at the time or not. I wonder if kids learn poetry in school anymore – when I was a kid, we used to have to memorize and recite poetry on a fairly regular basis. I cheated one year by reciting “The Night Before Christmas”. Sad, I know…

  126. 126.

    gnomedad

    @Jay in Oregon:

    Sarah Palin wants to interview Katie Couric, “want[s] to know if she understands yet what we have to contribute up there in the state of Alaska.”

    I see. Will she also give Katie a chance to be governor?

    Oops, too late.

  127. 127.

    canuckistani

    You need sufficient fat to get the meatsweats. Extra gravy works, as does wrapping the turkey in bacon. Have a good one, while us Canadians keep the world economy rolling.

  128. 128.

    General Winfield Stuck

    You need sufficient fat to get the meatsweats

    Wonder how much Lou Dobbs would sweat resting in a big bucket of Pineapple Slices, good’n brown with a thermometer sticking out his ass. With maybe some Mexican Pan Bread on the side.

  132. 132.

    Jager

    In my DFH days we invited a true DFH friend over for Thanksgiving Dinner here is how he “prepped his plate”

    Layer of gravy, layer of assorted turkey meat, layer various vegetables, layer of dressing, some more turkey, gravy, mashed potatos, more gravy, salt, pepper and then doused the 5 inch pile of food with Louisiana Hot Sauce. The plate weighed about 6 pounds! He prepped himself with 3 back to back “Boston Points” on the deck before dinner and 6 beers. He drank 4 glasses of wine with his meal, had another plate of food, a piece of pie with ice cream, coffee with Kahlua, fell asleep on the floor for a couple of hours, drank another beer and drove off into the night at the wheel of his ’68 VW bus. I’m still stunned years later! (my daughters were little kids at the time and every Thanksgiving since they bring up how much “Uncle Bill” ate for dinner.) BTW, I watched him eat a full size house pizza one night in Cambridge and he washed it down with 6 beers, he was 6-4 around 200 lbs at the time…

    Happy Thanksgiving from Mrs J, Straka the dog and I

  133. 133.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @jeffreyw

    You said the magic words, “plenty of gravy.” I could arguably do without all the sides (wouldn’t want to, but I *could*) but I have to have turkey gravy. On the day, and the the next day and the next, however long it lasts (usually not long). Bread and gravy. Just plain old white bread, the kind I wouldn’t touch any other time of year, and warmed-up gravy. Yum. Gravy sweats.

  136. 136.

    JK

    @freelancer:

    Maddow does too much comedy on her show just like Olbermann. Appearing on air in waders after Palin did her wader interviews was pretty lame. Last night, her executive producer Bill Wulf made another lame attempt at humor by pretending to pose questions to attendees at the White House state dinner. Olbermann and Maddow are better than this and it’s sad they have so little faith in their viewers that they feel compelled to compete with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Keith and Rachel should leave the comedy to the professionals.

  137. 137.

    jeffreyw

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yup, I always add several cups of chicken stock to the scrapings, and use corn starch to thicken it rather than reducing it so that I have that much more gravy. MMMM…dressing with gravy, gravy with mashed taters n gravy. Gravy with turkey n gravy.

  141. 141.

    Corner Stone

    I am mother F’ng disgusted to see the general lack of knowledge and/or experience re: meat sweats.
    Get thee unto a Fogo de Chao immediately!
    The horror!! The horror….

  142. 142.

    Corner Stone

    @Zifnab:

    This Turkey Day I will be celebrating the triumphant victory of the University of Texas football program against its arch-rival, Texas Agricultural and Medical, to conclude an undefeated 12-0 record for the year and set the stage for it’s second BCS championship victory in four years.

    Karma alert!

  145. 145.

    Svensker

    @mcd410x:

    They’re sweet potatoes. Yams are genetically different.

    My Southern MIL insists that “yams” are the real yeller gooshy sweet potatoes, and that “sweet potatoes” are the drier, whiter ones. When I try to tell her that “real yams” don’t mostly exist in the U.S. she just stops up her ears and refuses to listen. Southern “yams” are also apparently inseparable from pounds of butter, brown sugar and marshmallows.

  150. 150.

    licensed to kill time

    @Mike in NC:
    Really, Sarah’s party should be the Non Sequitur Party.
    __

    non sequitur (plural non sequiturs or non sequuntur)
    __
    1. Any abrupt and inexplicable transition or occurrence.
    2. (logical fallacy) Any invalid argument in which the conclusion cannot be logically deduced from the premises; a logical fallacy.
    3. (humor) A kind of pun that uses a change of word, subject, or meaning to make a joke of the listener’s expectation.

    All 3 definitions apply equally to The Sarah!.

  151. 151.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Makewi:

    That’s about average poll numbers for all liberals. It’s why we don’t need to bomb foreign peeps to make our little bittie wingnut wieners seem bigger. Think about it.

  153. 153.

    Anne Laurie

    @burnspbesq:

    Hinshaw is intrigued by success stories of patients treating ADHD with marijuana, but he cautions against euphoria in the absence of data. “People with ADHD are terrible at self-reporting; that’s one of the things that characterizes the condition. Still, this is worth looking into. Any hypothesis that adheres to the proper ethical limits is worth investigating.”

    As someone who regrets not getting her ADHD diagnosed until I was in my late 30s, I can see THC helping with the “hyperactivity” part — the distractibility/brain racing, not so much. On the other hand, yeah, some of us occasionally take speed as a sleep aid, so, as they say: non-neurotypical. I tried the demon weed exactly once, during my college days, and decided I could get a far more cost-effective buzz from chocolate and caffeine, myself. YMMV.

  154. 154.

    Anne Laurie

    @jeffreyw:

    Yup, I always add several cups of chicken stock to the scrapings, and use corn starch to thicken it rather than reducing it so that I have that much more gravy. MMMM…dressing with gravy, gravy with mashed taters n gravy. Gravy with turkey n gravy.

    Side note: A newly diabetic friend had a bad experience with corn starch in a soup he expected to be “safe”. So if you’re feeding your fine gravy to people on the shady side of 40, you might want to warn them about the “hidden” carbohydrates…

  155. 155.

    jeffreyw

    @Anne Laurie: I’m struck by the catch-22 I hear every time the issue comes up among the usual TV news suspects. You can’t prove that marijuana helps anyone, there haven’t been any studies. And, no, we won’t let you do any studies because the demon weed is too dangerous.

  158. 158.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Anne Laurie:

    It takes about 1 gal of strong coffee per day to keep my over amped self in order and socially acceptable. I’ve never had the drifty brain part, just the physical hyped end. Alcohol was a very bad idea, amounts sufficient to put beasts under a table only put my brain to sleep and still let me wander around doing damage.

  160. 160.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Makewi:

    If you have been following this blog for any length of time, and you have, you would know that we, by and large, don’t support the bombing going on in Af-pac using drones or in any way that kills civilians except in the most dire straits for troops on the ground under fire. The rest of it, and what little goes on now in Iraq is still on Bush for going there against our wishes. But the same rule applies by most of us for Iraq and Af-pack.

    And I am a moderate. The more liberal base of the dem party proper wants us to pack up our shit now and leave and not drop another goddamn bomb on anyone. I disagree to a degree, but surely do respect their position on this.

  161. 161.

    bemused

    Someone mentioned turducken. A friend once sent me a turducken cartoon…turkey, duck & chicken relaxing in bed after a 3-way before going their separate ways.

  163. 163.

    burnspbesq

    @Anne Laurie:

    “But, Daaaaaaaaddddd, it says right here that smoking dope will help my grades. Don’t you want me to get better grades?”

    I am unable to imagine a good end to that conversation.

  164. 164.

    CHoward

    OH MY! The meat sweats! I thought my fiance’s family members were the only to use such a term. At Christmas when we eat a lot of prime rib, we often get the meat sweats. I love it.

  165. 165.

    Wile E. Quixote

    Thank God and the Flying Spaghetti Monster that this wasn’t a state dinner hosted by the Dubya Bush administration. He probably would have had a barbecue and offered the Indian PM his choice of burgers, rare or medium.

  166. 166.

    chaos

    Maybe you could post about the struggle to figure out how the smartest bunch of folks to ever grace the White House could manage to spend ~300 billion dollars (the rest to be spent next year, and that’s just the stimulus) and have unemployment be 2% above your fearmongering projections with no end in sight to the lost jobs, you worthless arrogant piece of shit hack.

  167. 167.

    tjproudamerican

    ha! I am glad John took on “Chaos” and his right wing logic!!!!

    So Obama overestimated Unemployment to “fearmonger”, but then you could not wait even one more sentence to accuse him of underestimating unemployment!!!!

    John is so right!!! This is all we need to know about the state of so-called “conservative ideas”.

  170. 170.

    Tropical Fats

    @chaos:

    So true. From the housing crisis that began on 1/20/09, which triggered the global financial near-meltdown that began on 1/20/09, to the two crippling wars that he started on 1/20/09, to the federal debt which was actually a surplus until 1/20/09, the Obama administration has certainly managed to screw everything all up in the 10 months it has been in office. Quite impressive, really.

  171. 171.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    @Tropical Fats & chaos:

    Well, after all, Dana Perino did just inform us that there were indeed NO TERRORIST ATTACKS in the US during the Golden Bush Years™…

    And… Dana said it on Fox, to boot… so it Must Be True™!!!

  172. 172.

    RememberNovember

    @Notorious P.A.T.:
    Mark Sanford was set up! Palin’s an MIT grad! Bill Kristol is Nostra-damn-us! Chaos is Order!

    If a bubble headed bleach blond says Bush kept us “safe” it must be Gods own truth.

    I think BOB’s been creating aliases.

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