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If you are still in the GOP, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

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I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

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You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Open Thread: Balloon Juice Thanksgiving #2 at 2pm

Open Thread: Balloon Juice Thanksgiving #2 at 2pm

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Happy Thanksgiving!

The practice session this morning unexpectedly turned into a delightful zoom!  The first official get-together at 10 was a great success.  Imm was a spectacular host!  For a minute, I learned the correct pronunciation of his name, and now I’ve forgotten it already.

Imm and I both thought it was great fun; hope the others thoughts so, as well!

John Cole stopped by for a nice chat with all of us.  I’m sure he realizes that since he came to the first one, he has to come to all of them, right?  I mean, it’s right there in Emily Post.

The next one starts in 30 minutes – I will put up these open threads half an hour before the next one starts.  I already have them scheduled, so I won’t forget.

Info on all the Get-Togethers is here:

Thanksgiving at Balloon Juice – 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm Eastern

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    Is it turning into blog tradition to attend these naked? Asking for a friend. And by friend I mean me.

    I think I’ll aim for the 10pm Zoom then.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: oh, gosh.  the practice thread at 9 was probably fewer than 10 people at a time, and it was really great.

    The 10am went to 2 screens of people, so maybe 35+ people in all, with some people there for the whole thing and others coming in and out.

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    Is anyone else eating in stages today?  I put the stuffing together during the 10am zoom, and then ate a snack of stuffing and cranberry relish when the stuffing was cooked.  Then I put the whole chicken in to roast about 30 minutes ago, so when that comes out, I’ll have chicken, stuffing and cranberry relish.

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    I tried my niece’s recipe for cranberry relish.  One bag of cranberries and one peeled orange go for a good spin in the food processor.  Then add sugar and chill.

    It was not as good as when she made it last year, but maybe that’s because I added an extra orange because it was kind of small and I ate some right way and then put it in the fridge to chill.  I can report back when I have it the second time.

  16. 16.

    mali muso

    Our little feast for 2.5 (2 adults and one picky 4 year old) is fine and dusted. The Instant Pot turkey breast turned out decent and the rest of the reduced menu included cornbread dressing (stuffing), cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed cauliflower and pumpkin pie.  Kitchen cleaned, dishwasher running and turkey carcass back in the instant pot to make stock. Hope to join the last zoom when the kiddo is asleep!

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    @FelonyGovt:  phone or computer?

    On a computer hover over your box, you’ll see 3 little dots in your upper right corner.  click on that and choose rename.

    On a phone, you have to look for “participants” and then select yourself (and maybe MORE?) and then choose rename.

  24. 24.

    scav

    @WaterGirl: That’s essentially our forever cranberry relish recipe — originally all stuffed through a meat grinder before these snazzy spinny bladey things were invented.  I always headed for the heavy on the cranberry end of the spectrum. Enjoy!

    Happy zooming to those that fo and those that don’t!

  25. 25.

    grandmaBear

    Taking a break while the pumpkin pie is in the oven. Son’s doing the turkey, DIL the sweet potatoes & green beans, I’m doing chestnut-sausage dressing, gravy& pie. Made cranberry relish & sourdough bread yesterday. A group effort for the 5 of us in the household plus packaged stuff to other two grandparents. Hope to join a zoom session soon.

  28. 28.

    Poe Larity

    Perhaps use zoom for a mass Parler sign up. Everyone post #CrookedPerdue and #CrookedKelly and screech “P0WN THE LIBS!”

  33. 33.

    zhena gogolia

    I enjoyed 10 AM so much I might try to make one of the other ones. 6 is a possibility. But if I don’t make it, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone again! So glad about Mom Sense’s dad!

  38. 38.

    debbie

    Took a walk while the butter to be mixed with rosemary and thyme and smooshed under the Cornish hen breast skin was softening. First walk in a couple of weeks and was surprised there were still some Biden/Harris yard signs up. Ten by my count.

  49. 49.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl: I have a 4pm Zoom meeting with my sister and parents.  I might show up later tonight if things go well.

    Haha, Zoom meeting!  We’re gonna talk business!

  53. 53.

    something fabulous

    slept IN, then bustling about with cat related set ups til just now! hope to join one of the evening ones– in pants.

  60. 60.

    Kent

    I joined the 2 pm zoom for a spell then had to get back to cooking. Nice to see faces. We are a bunch of old white people!

  61. 61.

    danielx

    Joined briefly but got drafted for turkey tasks, be back later. Currently being subjected to a lot of lying meows about imminent starvation.

  62. 62.

    pamelabrown53

    @Kent:

    Happy Thanksgiving! Would love to have faces to put with nyms. Alas, couldn’t sign in. I’m starting to get in the thick of the cooking anyway. Will try this evening again…

  67. 67.

    frosty

    This has been a great idea! Thanks for organizing this on a moment’s notice, WG. It’s a busy day but I might be able to make the 10:00 Zoom.

  69. 69.

    WaterGirl

    @frosty: Will look for you then, if you can make it.

    My chicken finished roasting, and now it’s completed its 30-minutes under the tent, so I am off to eat chicken, stuffing and cranberry relish.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    I thought about just listening in to you guys but I realized that’s what creepy people do. Then I remembered that I’m a little creepy, but by then I had made other plans.

    In all seriousness, it’s amazing that you did all this and I was very tempted to see you and everyone in the flesh. But in the end, I’m still a little shy about mixing my real life with my online life. I’m sorry.

  72. 72.

    There go two miscreants

    I joined the 2PM for about an hour; very nice! Thank you WaterGirl for setting these up. It was interesting to put faces to names. I had only seen a few from meetup pix. Also the house (partial) tours and discussions were fascinating.

    Expecting to have a Skype call with my grandkids later, so this will be a video Thanksgiving without even watching any TV!

  73. 73.

    Delk

    @WaterGirl: I wrote down the 312 number on the original post and kept getting into a room that sounded like a dialup modem.
    I went to the new post to see if anybody else was having trouble and saw the different number. Used that and it worked. You may want to delete all those extra numbers. You also should put a warning up that the number has one more number than a regular phone number.

  76. 76.

    MazeDancer

    Got my 5:30 T-Day Zoom 4 moved to 2:00, so hope to make the 6:00 shift.

    Looking forward to “meeting” everyone.

  78. 78.

    J R in WV

    I have made the cranberry relish, and chopped the celery and onions for the stuffing/dressing in a casserole.

    Then I was struck with inspiration and made French 75s, a gin and champagne mixed cocktail, with simple syrup and lemon juice. NExt door neighbor made these at a small dinner party in the before times, loved them then, these are great too! Toast to all the Jackals, thanks for the socializing, without which we would be much crazier than we are!!

    They can also be made with cognac, and I have some Fr apple brandy, so might try that for the second round. The drink was invented during WW I, in France, named for a Fr field cannon that kicked like a mule.

    We always eat dinner late, since wife was often late getting home back when we both worked. Reporters, it is impossible to know ahead of time when one of those guys will be getting home!

    I hope to join the evening 10pm Zoom, after dinner. If I can still type!!!

  90. 90.

    Lyrebird

    @Baud: But in the end, I’m still a little shy about mixing my real life with my online life.

    Very understandable.

    I had a nervous hiccup at first when I thought of the chance of one of my students recognizing me/my room, but I don’t think that happened.  Or had a greater than .001 chance of happening.

    Got lots of reminders of how talented so many BJ commenters are.  It was also good to have something outside of the house to keep track of.

  91. 91.

    prostratedragon

    Stages it will probably be for me. Going to get the first stage going shortly by assembling and baking the dressing; cranberries are chilled and set, and a little taste of them a while ago was pretty good. I had reduced the sugar a bit but will try it with dressing later before deciding whether to adjust that. While dressing bakes, rutabaga gets peeled to go in with the pork roast. I’d planned also for macaroni and cheese, but that might be for later in the weekend, we’ll see. Frozen broccoli, easy.

  92. 92.

    Phylllis

    Also want to shout out to Water Girl for putting this together with no notice. I joined the 10 am and it was delightful. Will try to get on again at 6 for a bit. Unlikely to make the 10 pm, as I’ve been up since 5-ish. It always takes me several days to get out of the work wake up routine. Usually just in time to go back to work.

  93. 93.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Lyrebird: Part of the success of being a good commenter is preserving the mystery and intrigue. Look to Blogfather John’s example.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    @satby:

    I just put in a request for a “business as usual” open thread for those who want to vent but don’t want to harsh the T-day vibe.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I have video turned off, as does Cole, and some other peeps as well.  So that’s an option for those who want it.

    I’m not doing a lot of talking, and some people aren’t talking either or talking much, but it’s all very interesting and people can participate at any level they want, or not at all.

    Either way, Happy Thanksgiving!

  103. 103.

    japa21

    @WaterGirl: I didn’t say a word, just made people look at my face. Was there for the books talk. Always amazed at the knowledge that is represented by this group.  I think I good ask “What does anyone know about ping pong balls?” and two or three would be able to expound at great length on proper materials, pressure, etc.

  105. 105.

    JaySinWA

    I neglected to introduce the session, busy trying to check id’s I guess.

    The participants were better behaved than I expected.

    I have been working from a pro account for so long I didn’t realize the co-host feature isn’t available for free. I should have bought a month of pro.

    Zoom did allow the extended meeting for free as promised.

  106. 106.

    Lyrebird

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Also needed: punchy sense of humor.

    As an on and off reader for years, I think I recall you know just how to talk to said Blogfather.

    I still miss General Stuck.  My sense of humor’s more like his.

     

    :-)

  108. 108.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Lyrebird:One person’s sense of humor is another person’s outrage du jour. I’m sorry to hear you don’t have a sense of humor.

  110. 110.

    sab

    Cannot believe that I only just noticed this. My dad’s blind cat is navigating around the house by his whiskers. He is relatively happy as long as a familiar wall or furniture piece is just a whisker away.

  111. 111.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: 
    The funny thing this morning was that some of us got started using the chat as a kind of blog comment thread. Old habits die hard.
    I’m not sure I’ll be able to join at 6:00, since cooking rhythms have taken over. I’ll see. At least now my hair is dry and I have on a nice top, not my Tunch hoodie.

  112. 112.

    Miss Bianca

    Hi, folks! Between horse tending, dog walking, and cooking, I am having kind of a busy Thanksgiving, so don’t know if I’ll make to to any Zoom sessions, but nice to know you’re all meeting and greeting. I have pumpkin pudding baking, and roast chicken and Brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes will be starting up after that. Yum! Yay! Feeling pretty thankful – of course, the Gruet Brut is also helping in that regard.

    Have a happy Thanksgiving!

  115. 115.

    sab

    @Miss Bianca: You have the only household in America not having green bean casserole. What convinced America that this was a thing? We have it every Thanksgiving, and it is the only day of the year that we have it.

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack

    @sab:

    Is it any good? This is one thing I have been occasionally tempted to make after seeing reboots of it by Alton Brown and (I think) America’s Test Kitchen.

  117. 117.

    Miss Bianca

    @sab: That’s cuz I loathe green bean casserole, to be perfectly frank. Always have to smile and take a micro-spoonful when we’re doing a regular Thanksgiving, and then find either a potted plant or a hopeful doggo to dump it on!

  122. 122.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    But in the end, I’m still a little shy about mixing my real life with my online life.

    I so understand this but couldn’t find the right words. Thank you for saying it so well.

  123. 123.

    J R in WV

    Hard to believe (pantless) presidential candidate Baud 2012/2016/2020… is shy.

    But that’s OK.

    I’m kinda shy too.

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