Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Happy Thanksgiving!

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  2. 2.

    Patricia Kayden

    Happy Thanksgiving to John and BAlloon Juicers. One thing I am thankful about is that I have no wingnut friends/family. Reading about them on blogs such as this one is more than enough.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    When I first moved to this neighborhood, I was appalled that they had trash and recycle pickup today. I went out and gave some sodas and treats. It was actually their decision, since most people don’t put out the trash and it’s an early day. They take Friday off instead.

  5. 5.

    PsiFighter37

    Happy Turkey Day guys – hope it’s spent eating food and being merry! Or, at the least, take everyone’s mind off of the depressing state of American politics.

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    Upon looking up Thanksgiving Day in the Wikipedia, I am surprised to learn that Grenada celebrates a holiday of that name on the anniversary of the US invasion in 1983.

  13. 13.

    Botsplainer

    Seeking Consensus – dog diarrhea seems nearly spent. I can’t figure how he has any more runny shit in his gut, and having a puppy seems to distract him from discomfort.

    Should I fast him completely, giving only water, or should I provide him with light amounts of food?

  15. 15.

    Lavocat

    Now where’s the fun in that? Hell, the WHOLE reason I go to Thanksgiving dinner is to purposely rile all the rightwing nutjobs in my family. Otherwise, WTF is the point of Thanksgiving? I give thanks for being able to inflict indigestion on those I love but with whom I vehemently disagree.

  17. 17.

    scav

    Greetings and condolences to all those with turkeys as guests instead of just served as the main course! At temporary chez scav, we’re going for deconstructed. We cook the classics, and eat them when they’re done, NO attempt at coordinating timing. A rolling feast.

  18. 18.

    Debbie(aussie)

    In case you are a late riser, I repeat- Happy Thanksgiving, may you have a safe, enjoyable and low conflict day(s for those celebrating later). To all the USian Juicers. I am certainly thankful for this wonderful forum, the great and diverse front pagers, as well as the superb and even more diverse commenters.

  21. 21.

    Tommy

    @Lavocat: Oh I hear you there. I am the only liberal in the room when my family/extended family gets together. Last Christmas I didn’t even have my coat off before my brother’s wife’s father started in on me on Obamacare. But we still kind of have a truce, because they have learned through the years I don’t lie to them. I am honest. I will criticize my party when I don’t agree. In fact the family my brother married into (which is HUGE) I think have come to respect me because I stand up for myself. I don’t belittle them, if I might correct them from time to time. I don’t yell. And about 95% of the time I tend to know what I am talking about.

  22. 22.

    beth

    Remember when you could watch the Macy’s parade on tv and actually see the parade? Now it’s just Today Show assholes interspersed with lip-synced Broadway show numbers and interviews with NBC tv show stars who just happen to be in the audience! Bring on the balloons and marching bands! Grumble grumble…

  25. 25.

    Soonergrunt

    I am thankful for three years access to the front page. While I haven’t had much to say in the long form lately, I am as deeply honored as I am deeply astounded that Anne Laurie recommended me and that John Cole took her up on it.
    The last year has been pretty rough on many fronts, but I think I’ll be able to contribute more in the coming year as things settle down in my life.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    @beth:

    Is there anything NBC hasn’t crassified and commercialized? Appalled how “Today” show means “Regis and Kathy Lee” with more highly paid talent.

  27. 27.

    WereBear

    @scav: We cook the classics, and eat them when they’re done, NO attempt at coordinating timing. A rolling feast.

    Brilliant. The pressure of making everything come out at the same time is what I dislike most about the process.

    Thus, our Orphan’s Thanksgiving at a local buffet this afternoon. We have six people this year!

    @JPL: (Raises hand.) I was a teen in the ’70’s.

    Yes, it was a very strange place, children. All earthtones, even the appliances. People walking around google-eyed was not from Botox, but the hard glass contact lenses. The cop shows used that bow-chicka-wow-wow music. And there were a lot of them.

    One had to get down and boogie. It was the law.

  28. 28.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    and if you just ignore them they will (be super annoyed and) shut up

    So, bonus.

    Happy Turkey Day, everyone. Enjoy your inevitable food coma.

  31. 31.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @beth:

    Remember when you could watch the Macy’s parade on tv and actually see the parade? Now it’s just Today Show assholes interspersed with lip-synced Broadway show numbers and interviews with NBC tv show stars who just happen to be in the audience! Bring on the balloons and marching bands! Grumble grumble…

    The old way was too slow for modern brief attention spans. Nothing that happens at a walking pace can be allowed on TV for more than 8 seconds at a time.
    Wait long enough and they’ll start jazzing it up with grotesque NFL broadcast style graphics.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    @WereBear

    A not insignificant amount of the boogie-ing came from chafing caused by wearing polyester. Remember fluorescent Qiana shirts?

    Also was the time of Earth shoes. Gone but unforgettable.

  34. 34.

    K488

    @JPL: I can say it too. A friend called me up to ask if he had actually seen what we had seen. Funniest line in my memory.

  36. 36.

    Keith G

    Important holiday question:

    There are 7 X Men movies out and there seem to be overlapping time lines. So, if one is going to binge-watch X Men, what is the best order.

  38. 38.

    WereBear

    @NotMax: Dear heavens, the polyester! It was everywhere, but especially in the South, which cries out for natural fabrics as a basic survival tactic.

    I was at the doctor’s office for my flu shot, and it had on Today (not Fox, fortunately.) It was a frenzied stream of bizarre and incoherent information, like the segment on using caffeine for sleep problems.

    If that is how some Americans think… they can’t think at all.

  40. 40.

    Linda Featheringill

    I’m thankful to be alive this year. I had an opportunity to die this spring and apparently decided not to take it, in spite of the odds.

    Besides, dead people don’t get salted caramel ice cream.

    ETA: Or mince meat pie.

  41. 41.

    Tommy

    @Keith G: I can’t help because I’ve not seen them all, nor a huge X-Men fan. I am about to start binge watch Vikings on Hulu. Saw the entire first season but none of the second.

  44. 44.

    Bobby B.

    You…punks! don’t know what is was like to see this WKRP on the orthicon tube that had the original Pink Floyd “Animals” record playing in Johnny’s booth.

  45. 45.

    mikefromArlington

    “Wingnuts like to argue, and if you just ignore them they will shut up”

    I completely disagree. Reducio ad absurdum is a better technique.

  46. 46.

    bemused

    @WereBear:

    My brief acquaintance with polyester is that it was hot as hell and didn’t breathe. How could people in the south stand wearing it? Maybe the feature of indestructibility was worth putting up with heat rash.

  47. 47.

    WereBear

    @bemused: It was cheap and didn’t have to be ironed. This is why my girlfriend in the South keeps buying suits made from it.

    Linen breathes… and makes you look like you slept in an alley.

  48. 48.

    Tommy

    @mikefromArlington: You know what works for me. I listen. Even when I want to yell “no, no, no you are dead wrong” I let them talk. I find they walk themselves into a corner they can’t get out of. Showing their “true colors.”

  50. 50.

    realbtl

    Happy T-day folks. I’m about to start the coals for BBQ turkey. Yesterday’s snow has stopped so for that I’m thankful.

  51. 51.

    TR

    @Keith G:

    XMen
    X2
    First Class
    Days of Future Past

    Skip XMen 3 (they wind up undoing some of it with the prequels), avoid Wolverine Origins like the plague, and hit The Wolverine only at the end if you want.

  54. 54.

    delk

    Happy Thanksgiving Everybody, and some special thoughts to all those who suffer during these holiday times.

  56. 56.

    Tommy

    @realbtl: I love people cook stuff so many different ways. Coals for a chicken or even a pizza. Got that. Not thought this for a turkey if I wasn’t smoking it. For the first time my family is letting me fry a turkey in a vat of peanut oil (Saturday, when we all get together). Something I learned in Baton Rouge many years ago (early 90s). They think it isn’t possible, which is strange because I am the foodie in the family. Done it about ten times (my best friend in DC was from LA). They will experience something amazing!

  57. 57.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    PD James has died. I knew she was past 90, and the last Dalgliesh novel kind of rode him in to the sunset, but I was hoping for one more.

  59. 59.

    Citizen_X

    @WereBear:

    All earthtones, even the appliances.

    If some small part of your brain still processes the word “avocado” as a color, then you will never fully recover.

  61. 61.

    BGinCHI

    Happy T’giving to all you jackals.

    Wishing you safe travels, good meals, and joy in drinking the tears of your tea party relatives.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    @Citizen X

    Got a brand spanking new stove about a month ago. The old one waved bye-bye to was avocado.

    Could never decide whether the turquoise appliances of the 1950s/early 60s or the later avocado ones were more offputting.

  65. 65.

    Lavocat

    @JPL: I remember this episode very well, if only because my grandmother was in the room and found the whole episode to be thoroughly disgusting. I guess this sort of humor didn’t translate well across the generations. I laugh @ this clip to this day.

    Good times.

    Happy As God As My Witness I Thought Turkeys Could Fly Day!

  66. 66.

    CarolDuhart2 (Aquariusmoon)

    @NotMax: But those things are/were pretty sturdy. Even today, I can run into (Salvation Army, Thrift Stores), stuff that’s still in working order even used. And the unused stuff I bought works fine. (I have a coffeepot from the 70’s that stayed in its box in storage-just started using this year). It’s okay.

    Just don’t like those ugly colors then or now I hated losing that bright hippie palette)

  67. 67.

    Tommy

    @NotMax: When I bought my house I ended up replacing every appliance in the kitchen over a few years. Outside of my early 70s stove. Magic Chef. Beige BTW. It is so low tech to what everybody else I know owns but I FUCKING love it. Don’t laugh, I went to nine stores a month or so ago just to find the drip pans that fit the gas top.

  68. 68.

    Lavocat

    @Tommy: Yeah, I hear ya. Facts have such a liberal bias that the rightwingers don’t know whether to shit or go blind. These “arguments” usually end w/ the other side apoplectic and stammering “but, but, but …”.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

  70. 70.

    Suzanne

    I am thankful for many things this year, but one of them is most assuredly this wonderful community of intelligent, moral, funny people who always teach me something new, make me laugh, and occasionally screw my head back on when I need it. Happy Thanksgiving, Balloon Juicers!

  71. 71.

    J R in WV

    @Soonergrunt:

    Happy thanksgiving, Sooners!

    Hope yer youngster is doing well, last reports were so good.

    I saw that turkey show, it was very funny. But of course most turkeys can fly, if they don’t have a 20 lb breast!

    We were working to finish this house I’m in, and there was a pipeline welding truck in the front running a big generator while a neighbor welded the railings on the back porch deck.

    Suddenly, while grinding and pounding on steel was going on, a huge (HUGE) wild turkey cam flying across the hollow from West to East overhead. 6 foot wingspan if it was an inch!

    Maybe more…

    ‘Cause he had to tilt left or right to go between the small saplings growing close together!

    It was amazing, they are so beautiful, especially when they are all wing spread like that, bronze and umber and brown, all glowing!

    I’m thankful for Wild Turkey!! (Yes, that’s both true and a joke!)

  73. 73.

    Schlemazel

    Here is the Thanksgiving meal you you:
    cnbc.com/id/102216897#.

    New York City restaurant Old Homestead Steakhouse is hosting a $35,000 Thanksgiving dinner

    They claim to have a reservation for a party of 4 already.

    May you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving day & may the wingnuts all get food poisoning.

  74. 74.

    Just One More Canuck

    @JPL: There is apparently a deal in place to use at least most of the original music for dvd release, so I am looking for that in my stocking this year

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @TR:

    Wing nuts like to assert. When challenged with facts in an actual argument, they fold easily.

    Facts are wasted on wingnuts. Ask them how many guns they bought in the last year and then tell them that won’t be enough. Then take a knowing sip from whatever beverage you happen to be holding, while maintaining eye contact at all times. Then enjoy the stony silence.

  78. 78.

    WereBear

    @J R in WV: Around this time of year, my old commute took me through some wild turkey territory.

    To have several of these huge birds flying across the road in front of one, so slowly it seems impossible and dreamlike, is amazing.

    They are very different from the domestic version.

  80. 80.

    Mike in NC

    @NotMax: We can never be thankful enough that the 70s are over with. Avocado-colored kitchen appliances, eight-track players, bell bottom leisure suits, mullets and big hair. Ugh.

  81. 81.

    bemused

    @TR:

    Not so easily in my experience. Some start to insult and name call, most often they are “Christians” which makes it even more surreal. One that visits my husband’s workplace, a typical dimwitted old white fart, starts gulping, hemming and hawing when some of the employees really gang up on him with a barrage of facts. He becomes literally speechless, turns tail and leaves.

  82. 82.

    ruemara

    Happy Thanksgiving! Just served the house guest some orange coconut pancakes covered in Turkish honey and an asparagus frittata with a big cup of English Breakfast. This will be her first time watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I, of course, couldn’t be happier to have a guest to spoil and a young person to indoctrinate. I hope you all are having similar food and fun. If not, next year you should visit me.

  83. 83.

    JoyfulA

    A turkey hen waddled across the road in front of me on my way to Thanksgiving dinner last year. This was in a dense suburban development.

  85. 85.

    geg6

    Happy Thanksgiving to you, John, and all Juicers! My favorite holiday!

    I am thankful that there are no wingnut relatives expected at the Gray family homestead today.

  88. 88.

    bemused

    @Tommy:

    Do they know they have backed themselves into a corner? I mean, how can you tell when it has dawned on them? Is there some good tell I can look for because I haven’t spotted it so far.

  89. 89.

    wmd

    @Linda Featheringill:

    Mince pie was a Thanksgiving tradition when I was a child. I don’t think I’ve ever made one myself.

    The rest of this comment is a bit of a non sequitur.

    When you don’t want to just be slient, disengage from politics by using the conversational version of the pie filter.

    I like pie. Which kind of pie to you prefer? I like whipped cream on my pie, but apple pie ala mode is also really good. Lots of follow up topics too.

    Pie discussions aren’t likely to cause rancor. Heresies like cheddar cheese with apple pie aren’t going to lead to anything more disagreeable than noting there’s no accounting for taste.

    If you’re geeky you can head down a mathematics path, but that may lead to some folks feeling their intelligence is being insulted.

  91. 91.

    shelley

    Remember when you could watch the Macy’s parade on tv and actually see the parade?

    CBS broadcasts the Macy’s parade as well. Still lots of banter but it’s no way as over-produced as the NBC broadcast.

    Saw Sting performing a bit from his Broadway show ‘The Last Ship.” I don’t know if it’s gonna pack them in.

    Just my Mom and me this Thanksgiving. No whole bird, just cooking the parts I like, turkey thighs. Braising th;em a la America’s Test Kitchens.

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:
    Agreed on the old foggy numbers here. Nice that there are some youngsters among us.

    Also liked your turkey with candles image. A little harder to stick them into the surface than a cake, I mean turkey skin is a lot tougher than icing.

  95. 95.

    gogol's wife

    Happy Thanksgiving, Juicers! I decided to knock off work now. We’re going to have dinner with friends in a few hours. No wingnuts but a contrarian Canadian who thinks it doesn’t matter who’s POTUS.

  99. 99.

    Tommy

    @realbtl: I have no doubt your bird will be amazing. Something I’d almost like to watch. I feel I am a near expert on a Weber grill. NEVER tried to cook a turkey on it. I am not sure how I’d do that.

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Baroness James had an excellent sense of timing. She’s gone on Thanksgiving, and on later Thanksgivings I will think of her and be grateful for her complex and humane novels. About murder, one of man’s darkest impulses, and what drove it. Wonderful writer.

    I like how she did not overexplain.

    Her title character, in The Private Patient, appeared at a clinic to have a childhood scar removed. When asked “why now?” (she was in her 30s or 40s, and a successful journalist), she responded “I have no need of it any longer.” And said nothing further.

  102. 102.

    p.a.

    @NotMax: Do those online questionaires cost much? I’d love to see the demographics of BJ.

    Also too, (from previous thread) Happy Thanksgiving!

  103. 103.

    Elizabelle

    @gogol’s wife:

    I need to reread them; can’t remember which book had the whistling killer (but do remember the, uh, dog walking one).

    Started rereading with “Cover Her Face”, her first, a few years ago, and it was hard to get into.

    It was published in 1962, and seemed more a 1950s novel, or even 1940s. The others are more modern. (If memory serves … have them all and can see. Know I consumed each of them rapidly, first read, because you just have to know how it turns out.)

  106. 106.

    Cookie Monster

    @Botsplainer: overcooked white rice that has too much water so it’s kinda “brothy”. A tablespoon every hour or two. If that stays down, add a little bit of low-sodium broth after a while, and maybe a little bit of plain canned pumpkin — NOT pie. Again, about a tablespoon.

  108. 108.

    Tommy

    Go …. I don’t care about a single NFL game today. Thinking the NFL needs to schedule better games. I just wish for competitive games.

  109. 109.

    gogol's wife

    @Elizabelle:

    Yes, I mean the dog walking one. I think it’s Devices and Desires.

    Generally I’m Team Rendell, but that one was a corker. The Skull Beneath the Skin is another great one.

  110. 110.

    beltane

    Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate. To those who merely endure, it will all be over in a few hours.

    I am thankful my dog does not have diarrhea. That is the worst.

  112. 112.

    Ruckus

    Over at Digby’s place Undercover Blue posted about the Wally World strikes. His ending line was a possibility about WW changing their slogan.

    Walmart: We make poor affordable

    Except they really don’t. It should read:
    Walmart:
    We make being poor easy. Work for us

  113. 113.

    bemused

    @Tommy:

    Sure, I’ve seen that but it doesn’t make a dent in their ideology. They still firmly believe even if they are faltering and stuttering. And repeating is just clicking their heels three times saying I want to go home to Foxland.

  117. 117.

    beltane

    @bemused: Exactly. Conservatives are driven by emotion. They do not think, they feel. When they stutter it’s because their brain processes have been overloaded. They need to be connected to Fox for a reboot.

  118. 118.

    WereBear

    @Ruckus: I agree, I don’t believe most people save much money at WalMart. All the time I’m running into people saying they have to go to WalMart, again. Because what they bought last time has shredded, shrunk, or blown up.

    If the cheap thing you buy lasts three months, just how much money are they saving? I shop sales at places which offer better stuff, and it lasts for years.

  119. 119.

    Corner Stone

    @Tommy:

    Thinking the NFL needs to schedule better games. I just wish for competitive games.

    You’re kidding, right? Two 8-3 teams going against each other in division (PHI-DAL), two 7-4 teams chasing AZ (SF-SEA), and Detroit needing this game to stay within striking distance of challenging GB.
    Not caring about the outcomes is fine, of course. But to say these aren’t for competition is missing something.

  120. 120.

    Tommy

    @WereBear: Fucking LOL. I tend to like to buy nice stuff and take care of it. Make it last. I went to Wal-mart the other day and bought some Dickies work socks (I’d call them hiking). A rip in the toe on the first wearing. And by wearing I mean walking around my house. Told myself I’d never buy anything there again.

  121. 121.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @JPL: My husband and I have our own Thanksgiving tradition. It starts the night before, like this:

    Me: Tomorrow is trash day. Don’t forget to pull the cans out before you go to bed.

    He: I don’t think they pick up on Thanksgiving.

    (8 hours pass.)

    Me: Babe, wake up! The garbage truck is here and the cans aren’t out!

    He: [profanity] [haste] [stubbed toe]

    We do this every year. I love traditions!

  122. 122.

    CaseyL

    Happy Turkey Day to all my fellow BJers! Thank you all for helping keep me sane and laughing in these parlous times :)

    Leaving in a little while to go to a friend’s house, and then going to another friend’s house tomorrow.

    Friends: the family you chose.

  123. 123.

    Corner Stone

    @WereBear:

    If the cheap thing you buy lasts three months, just how much money are they saving?

    We have visited how much it costs to be poor here at BJ, and this is a well used example. Need work boots? If you’re poor you can’t afford those Red Wings that will last for years if you take care of them. Go to WM, spend 2/3rds the cost to buy junk from overseas and watch it disintegrate before the year is over.

  125. 125.

    Tommy

    @Corner Stone: Amen. I like nice hiking sandals. I buy Keen. Cost me $200. They last a decade plus. I have a pair that is 16 years old to work in the yard. You are so right. The people that can’t afford stuff buy shit again and again. Not their fault.

  126. 126.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Corner Stone: I have a couple of pairs from LLBean that have lasted me over a decade, their Blucher mocs and hiking shoes.

    As for Walmart, I only buy stuff that I can only get there, Borax for one, I also picked a Casio scientific calculator there that I couldn’t find elsewhere.

  127. 127.

    p.a.

    @Corner Stone: not just Wally World. Check out mowers, snow blowers and tractors at the mega-home stores. They’re always cheaper than the same models at the Brand’s dealers. BUT, and remember we’re talking the same model numbers, check out the various parts, switches, hoses etc. Mega-box: plastic or lightweight substitutes compared to the dealer’s items. And you better be a pretty good repairperson, because they won’t be much help compared to a dealer.

  128. 128.

    Bruuuuce

    I know he’s no longer politically correct, but (after Arlo and WKRP), my third Thanksgiving tradition is to watch Woody Allen’s best movie ever, _Hannah and Her Sisters_. Heading there momentarily while the bird’s proteins denature deliciously.

    May all of your ritual sacrifices be joyous and wingnut free. With pie.

  129. 129.

    Corner Stone

    @p.a.: Oh, I agree. People buy cheaper alternatives because they say, “What the heck? Same item X for $25 less? Why would I spend more when all I need it to do is (whatever)?”
    Clothing, appliances, tools. Some times you really do get what you pay for.

  130. 130.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Elizabelle:

    Started rereading with “Cover Her Face”, her first, a few years ago, and it was hard to get into.

    It was published in 1962, and seemed more a 1950s novel, or even 1940s. The others are more modern. (If memory serves … have them all and can see. Know I consumed each of them rapidly, first read, because you just have to know how it turns out.)

    Really mixed feelings about her. I like her style and her character development, but got bored with her obsession with WWII war crimes/atrocities. That seemed so unrealistic as a plot driver well into the 1980s and 1990s. What really turned me off was the book where the murderer’s revenge was foiled because he had killed his old enemy’s children, but they weren’t really his children because they were just adopted, not his “real” kids. I wasn’t yet the mother of an adopted child when I read that one, but thought it was extraordinarily offensive and wrong-headed even then.

  135. 135.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I’m at the Roseville Perkins and likely will be all day. No one to celebrate Thanksgiving with this year; I’m going to my parents for Christmas instead. I couldn’t find a place with both WiFi and TVs for the football that was open. So here I am.

    I’m actually working today.

  137. 137.

    Kathleen

    @WereBear: Ha! I was in my 20’s, married with a daughter! I’m OLD. WKRP is one of my all time favorite programs, and this episode is one of the best. A true classic. I needed the laugh this morning. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

  139. 139.

    Kathleen

    @efgoldman: My dad was “livin’ on the air in Cincinnati” during WKRP’s run (he was a morning drive guy). His station manager was friends with Hugh Wilson, and I think one of the writers worked at a radio station in Cincinnati for awhile (Cincinnati has WKRC AM). My whole family loved the show.

  141. 141.

    shelley

    Re: the WKRP epi. Still love Nessman’s line ‘the turkey’s mounted a counter attack. It was almost as if….they were organized,”

  142. 142.

    Mike E

    @JPL: I never missed that show…Bailey Quarters, amirite?

    Everybody must be tucking into their early Thanksgiving Day meal, so I’ll wish you all a happy day! Go Iggles!

  144. 144.

    phoebes-in-santa fe

    Best TV episode, ever. I saw it live and I laughed myself silly then, and I do it when I see it now.

    I am off to have a late lunch/early dinner at the Hotel La Fonda here in Santa Fe. Ten of us and no one has to cook and clean; we just have to go back and forth to the buffet tables. Great times. Fun group to go out with.

    Bye bye, Baroness James. I have enjoyed all her books except for the one about Pemberly.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. And, Cole, could we have some animal pictures???

  146. 146.

    Ruckus

    @phoebes-in-santa fe:
    Stayed in Santa Fe for a couple of nights 10-12 yrs ago and I believe that’s the place. If it is, it is a wonderful old hotel.

    Just found out 10 min ago that the home that I live in is going to be sold out from under my landlady and her subs(me for example). So moving again in a couple of months. To no one knows where. Maybe it will be better. That 1/8 cup full optimism is going to be my downfall one of these days.

  147. 147.

    dance around in your bones

    First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to all us Juicers! We’re good enough, we’re smart enough, and doggone it – we like each other!

    Hannah and her Sisters is one of my favorite movies. Setting aside Woody’s personal life (yeah, I know) he is a brilliant film maker. Last two movies of his that I saw were Midnight in Paris (charming, funny, watch it!) and Fading Gigolo, which I found interesting,,,,,his films are also beautifully made, glowing with color and light.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @satby:
    Thanks.
    But I find that rents are cheaper where it snows a lot for a reason. One that I am no longer willing to endure, a decade was enough.

  150. 150.

    PurpleGirl

    Alice’s Restaurant (Massacre), original 1967 version.

    youtube.com/watch?v=m57gzA2JCcM

    I remember when the WNEW-FM tradition was to play this on Thanksgiving. Had a friend in the Newman Club at NYU who learned the whole song and would play it at odd times, when he brought his guitar to school. (ETA: Mildly surprised there was one reference to the song and no one else found a YouTube of it. What kind of DFH can you be without playing Alice’s Restaurant?)

    Happy Thanksgiving, BJers, John, front pagers and commentariate. (I’m thankful there is a Balloon Juice to hang out at.)

  153. 153.

    Bruuuuce

    @PurpleGirl: Q 104.3 FM here in NYC still plays Arlo at noon on Thanksgiving Day. But, having missed it myself, I brought out a live recording from 1984-07-15 Longbranch Park, Liverpool, NY. Fun stuff, with Reagan and Carter references, and a section at the end about how the gap in Nixon’s tapes was the same length as the album version, and what a coinkidink!

    Okay, so I’m a DFH geek.

  154. 154.

    MattR

    @Bruuuuce: @PurpleGirl: I catch that almost every year as I am driving to my mother’s house, but we are doing Thanksgiving tomorrow so I missed it this year. Will have to watch the youtube version instead.

    @FlipYrWhig: Happy birthday. You born on Thanksgiving or just rotate into it this year? I was born at 6:30 pm Thanksgiving day (40 years ago tomorrow). I also grew up in a mixed religion household that celebrates Hanukkah so last year I had the magical threesome – Thanksbirthukkah.

    @Botsplainer – I have never had to try it, but have heard that a little bit of canned pumpkin will help settle your dog’s stomach (surprisingly it is good for both diarrhea and constipation)

  156. 156.

    Nutella

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    Really mixed feelings about her.

    Oh, god, I had forgotten that adoption story. It was horrible and PD James was horrible to write it as if it were a perfectly reasonable attitude for anyone to take.

    The more recent one I can’t forgive PD James for is the character in Death in Holy Orders who had been banished to a remote seminary for molesting choir boys. All the characters and the author herself were indignant that such a fine upstanding clergyman had been punished for such a non-event. The molester himself resented the choir boys who had reported him since the little nobodies should have been honored by any attention at all from a high-class person like himself.

    That was horrible, too, and PD James was horrible to write it.

    (edited for clarity)

  158. 158.

    different-church-lady

    Wingnuts like to argue, and if you just ignore them they will shut up.

    Most true thing Cole has ever said.

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