Them: Don't talk about gerrymandering during Thanksgiving
Me: pic.twitter.com/5ZRSVywfbD
— The Redistrict Network (@RedistrictNet) November 22, 2023
How to avoid talking politics at Thanksgiving? Consider a 'NO MAGA ALLOWED' sign.
Please enjoy my sensible holiday suggestions:https://t.co/O1q5KOQzKy
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) November 19, 2023
Schadenfreude interlude: Rex Huppke, at USAToday, on “How to avoid talking politics at Thanksgiving? Consider a ‘NO MAGA ALLOWED’ sign”:
It’s almost Thanksgiving, that special day of the year when most Americans are forced to spend time with relatives they don’t like in return for large amounts of food they do like.
While the whole social/gastronomic experiment unfolds, one topic invariably pops up and transforms the day from “Well, this is annoying, but at least there’s pie” to “Oh God, I have to get out of here before I stab cousin Melvin with the wishbone.” That topic, of course, is politics.
It has never been a good subject to float during family gatherings. But in the age of former president and overachieving criminal defendant Donald Trump, it has become more explosive than your drunk uncle adding “just a bit more oil” to the turkey fryer…
NO MAGA ALLOWED, or something along those lines
If you don’t like Donald Trump and hope he is sentenced to live under a bridge with a particularly ill-tempered troll named Gnarlfart the Gaseous, simply post a “prohibited” sign on your front door that shows the word “MAGA” with a large red slash through it…If mee-maw says ‘Hunter Biden’ at Thanksgiving, run!
Keep your ears peeled for red-flag words and be prepared to create a diversion. For example, if you hear a grandparent say the words “rigged election” or “COVID hoax” or “Biden crime family,” you should immediately set the tablecloth on fire. By the time it’s put out and everyone has settled down, the toxic subject will hopefully be forgotten and everyone can eat their sweet potatoes in peace.Find the Libertarian everybody hates
One way to keep Thanksgiving tolerable is to invite what I call an ELR, or “emergency libertarian relative.” While technically nobody wants to hear anything from a libertarian at any point in time, ever, their presence can be unifying, in that both MAGA and non-MAGA relatives will find them insufferable. Nothing brings people together quite like a shared enemy. The ideal approach is to keep your ELR in a soundproof, human-size glass container and then, if needed, break the glass…
Geo Wilcox
Happy Turkey Day!
Baud
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
NotMax
The other obligatory Thanksgiving clip.
:)
Van Buren
I think my pup has been listening carefully to those ” If you see something, say something” PSAs, because my son came home, put his backpack where there usually is not a backpack, and Rosie would not shut up about it until I shoved it in a closet.
Lapassionara
Happy Thanksgiving, jackals.
Betty Cracker
My sister and I are guests of the deplorati branch of the family this year, so if there were a sign posted, it would say “No Demoncraps!” We’re ready if anyone is unwise enough to start some shit.
E.
From a grocery store employee at work right now, thank you for not shopping today.
OzarkHillbilly
.Blech.
Nelle
Good morning! The eastern sky has hints of pink and orange. Last year, on Thanksgiving morning, it was warm enough to walk to the nearby woods and listen to the Great Horned Owl pair hoot at each other in pre-dawn darkness. This year, it is cold and we are both coughing. Time for some hot tea. Inside.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I hope you’ll be armed. It’s actually a sign of respect in their culture.
evap
Happy Thanksgiving, ya’ll! So happy that everyone who will be at our table is a bleeding-heart lefty commie pinko Democrat. May it ever be so!
sab
@E.: My dad’s nurse’s aide is going to work today even though ai gave her the day off… We are so lucky.
NotMax
@Baud
And thus began the war with the Minbari.
;)
SiubhanDuinne
Happy Thanksgiving, all!
JPL
@Baud: Isn’t she bringing the pie? hmm
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: My wife is working today, just couldn’t say no to the double holiday pay. Seeing as we don’t bother with T-day, she’s not missing anything.
E.
@sab: Medical, fire, police; there are some services that need to be available. Slicing bologna and running the soda machine are not among them.
brantl
I’m going to my in-laws, where the turkey is below average, the politics are 2/3 Reagan & 1/3 Stump, and I don’t understand how their IQs are so selective. They are nice enough people, otherwise.
sab
@E.: I agree. If I forgot to buy a gravy packet then I can just make my own from scratch or do without.
Baud
@sab:
She works for chatGPT?
dmsilev
@brantl: Someone needs to be the counterbalance to Lake Woebegone; sorry that your relatives drew the short straw.
OzarkHillbilly
A PSA: Nearly 40% of conventional baby food contains toxic pesticides, US study finds
Anyone with little ones in their extended families might want to pass this on to the parents.
A small ray of sunshine anyway.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Given that I’m in ATH-GR, today is just another working day for me. My parents who retired to Greece are going to be having a sort-of traditional Thanksgiving dinner tonight, though it’s slightly hampered by the fact that whole turkeys are pretty much strictly a Christmas thing around here, so a sort of turkey-roll roast is the centerpiece of the plans.
Weirdly, Black Friday is a thing here, even though Thanksgiving isn’t.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, all. I’ll be thinking of the jackaltariat as I grind through my translations.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Happy Family Dysfunction Awareness Day!
We have no family so go to friends each year. Don’t talk politics, at least not national politics, it’s easy to talk local. Plus, they want to see our new Bolt EV. He owns two Porches (around 12-15 years old, they’re rockets), two Tacomas, a Ford King Ranch, a convertible Mustang and a new E-class Benz “mild” hybrid station wagon that goes from 0-60 in 4.4 seconds.
Yes, they’re wealthy.
Nukular Biskits
Hoping all have a happy and safe (and political-discourse-less) Thanksgiving Day.
OzarkHillbilly
Well! Ah nevah would’ve guessed!
Anyway
Happy Turkey Day to US jackals from TÜRKIYE!
Been traveling around the country for ten days and it’s been an absolute blast. Ankara, Cappadoccia, Pamukkale, Izmir, Ephesus, Kusadasi, Troy, Canakkale, Bursa and now a few days in Istanbul before heading home.
Hope everyone has a nice thanksgiving…
geg6
Happy Thanksgiving to all Jackals, near and far.
Just my John and I today. Family is celebrating T-day and my birthday on Saturday (all are flaming liberals like me), so a cozy day at home. Got pre-made turkey dinner from Giant Eagle Marketplace, so no fuss here today. Reheat and eat. A good day in store.
dmsilev
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
A Canadian colleague told me a year or two ago that the same was true there; even though Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, Black Friday is in late November.
Baud
Layer8Problem
@Anyway: Hope you’re taking pictures!
Geminid
The proposed “NO MAGA ALLOWED” sign reminded me of the sign I saw Saturday outside Stanardsville Farmers Market:
montanareddog
@Anyway: How have you been getting around? I am curious about a visit to Türkiye and would prefer to avoid hiring cars as much as possible.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
HOOCUHDAHNODE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
LiminalOwl
@dmsilev: And here I thought Night Vale was the counterpart to Lake Wobegon.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Brazil has Black Friday too. As part of it, fast food places have some sort of bargain too. We saw big lines outside a McDonalds.
@Anyway: Isn’t Ephesus amazing? That and Istanbul are the only places I’ve been in Turkey. You really are getting around.
LiminalOwl
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.
We plan to go to my brother’s, in which household the name of *45 is not to be spoken. (The middle nibling might be a supporter, but he knows to keep quiet. My brother is more centrist than I, as is my SIL, but has never voted Republican so far as I know.)
Marmot
@Betty Cracker: What’s the rhyming phrase wishing a silver tongue for somebody? That.
Geminid
@Anyway: That sounds like a nice trip. I’d love to see those places, especially Istanbul. I hope you work some photos up for an On the Road post.
I’m curious though: how have the local Turkish people treated you? What are your impressions of Turkish people and society?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I wonder how much the poverty rate has increased.
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was wondering the same, although I’m sure it would be difficult to tease out, given all the other factors, particularly here in MS.
But, just know that our Trump-lovin’ guv, Tate Reeves, will be more than happy to blame President Biden for it.
Kay
mrmoshpotato
@sab:
Wait. Wait. Some people still know how to cook? (faints)
Marmot
@Geminid: Wait, wait—is that on private land? And does registering voters count?
mrmoshpotato
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
LMAO!
Kay
@Nukular Biskits:
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Anyway:
Turkey is wonderful. Istanbul is more wonderful.
We actually stayed a couple of nights nearby at Selcuk which itself had some cool stuff (the ruins of the Basilica of St John, the former Temple of Artemis). So close we walked to Ephesus for the day.
While there, one of the many tour groups that came in was led by none other than Mike Fucking Huckabee. He does these religious cruise tours. I hung around to hear him talk for a couple of minutes then realized I had better things to do with my life.
Layer8Problem
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Ephesus was our one stop in Türkiye on a Greek islands cruise and it was excellent. I very much want to see Istanbul before I kick off.
Layer8Problem
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: ” . . . Mike Fucking Huckabee . . . ”
Jesus, what a buzzkill.
Nukular Biskits
@Kay:
Yeah, I had just read that and posted it on my Twitter feed.
Not trying to sour Happy Dysfunctional Awareness Day, but the a-holes who pushed this “pro-life” agenda knew this would happen … but their “sincerely-held religious convictions” require that others suffer IAW their God’s plan.
What is interesting to me on this subject is that, according to KFF, the overwhelming majority of women getting abortions are of color. This undercuts the push by so many white conservative evangelicals to get the birth rates of the “right” people up; i.e., the ticking of the demographic clock here in MS which will make whites a minority just accelerated.
[Edit: Forgot to include link]
Reported Legal Abortions by Race of Women Who Obtained Abortion by the State of Occurrence
WaterGirl
@Van Buren: Sweet story!
mrmoshpotato
No one has mentioned The Thanksgiving Song.
Shake your food coma bones in a big brown shoe.
Baud
@Kay:
Payday loans, Kay.
OzarkHillbilly
Commenter Sleeping Dog over at OTB: Here’s why much of the rural South is in economic crisis
The article touches on the why, but it’s real focus is the how.
mrmoshpotato
@Layer8Problem: Gobble! Gobble!
Ksmiami
@Betty Cracker: you brave, unfortunate, poor soul… we’ll at least there will be pie/ thanks to you.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Well, well, well, won’t the Republicans whose goals are more white babies going to be disappointed.
LiminalOwl
@LiminalOwl: *sigh* Plans canceled. Tested negative but my brother is concerned about even a cold. So I get to spend a day with my beloved and join the Jackalzoom in the evening.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Our farmer’s market sign says:
No Dogs
No Smoking
No Smoking Dogs
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, but it’s still Biden’s fault.
/sarcasm
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
Reminds me of a story I read somewhere in which a family with the name “King” named their dog “Nosmo”.
Geminid
@Marmot: I think this is on land owned by Greene County. It’s the corner of a much larger parcel containing Greene County High School- home of the many “Greene Dragons” sports teams.
I don’t know if the prohibition of political activities would extend to a voter registration booth. It would definitely keep out someone selling MAGA crap.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Excellent question. The pro-forced-birth people won’t care, of course.
WaterGirl
@Kay: That’s great.
Of course, that must be why my Soros checks have stopped coming.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Me: “Gravy comes in packets?”
WaterGirl
@Kay: That’s distressing.
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: I am not familiar with KFF.
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
They were formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Phylllis
@OzarkHillbilly: Absolutely the case in the small town/county I lived & worked in until moving five years ago and retiring in June. Lost their hospital, and most of their manufacturing jobs. The county is down to about 12000 residents and basically a ghost town. The school district is about all that’s keeping it afloat.
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: The should have stuck with that!
Chief Oshkosh
@Ksmiami: Yes, good luck, Betty! Make sure your phone is fully charged so you can document the atrocities!
WaterGirl
@LiminalOwl: Their loss, our gain!
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: Heh.
Marmot
@Geminid:
Well, if that’s the case, I guess I might look the other way. But on public land, you can’t prohibit political activities, as far as I know. Weird.
Maybe one of the lawyers here know better?
Adding: I like a place with dozens of Greene Dragons, though.
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
The main reason I knew that is that they are (and have been?) NPR sponsors for many years.
Trivia Man
@Anyway: Fantastic, Istanbul is on my bucket list. I’m about halfway through a podcast about the History of Byzantium and it is gripping.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
We’re having dinner with the daughters and their spouses & the grandkids. And they’re doing all the cooking! Plus no MAGAs will be at that table.
I already cooked & ate a bunch of turkey yesterday, the free 14-pounder we earned from points at the grocery store. No such thing as too much (dark) turkey. The dog agrees.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
I wonder if the increase in our (already sky-high) infant mortality rates will erase any net increase in births. Nothing on the mothers mortality rate (very high in the US, especially for AA women) – I wonder if they’re even studying it.
twbrandt
I’m reading, as I do every Thanksgiving, my friend David Erik Nelson’s essay on Michigan, traveling in Michigan, Thanksgiving in Michigan, and being Jewish while traveling during Thanksgiving in Michigan. It is wonderful.
JMG
We have Alice, myself, my son and his wife and George, their six-month old child and our first grandchild. They are implementing a plan to introduce him to solid food that skips commercial baby food for various real foods, prepared so he can grab them. For instance, he had a slice of plain omelet this morning. He kind of sucks on it, then tosses it around. On the other hand, a spare rib left over from takeout barbecue was a big hit. He could hold it and sucking on it at least gave him flavor. Also allowed him to get messily dirty, which all babies adore. Today he’ll get a carefully prepared (everything removed but a small piece of meat) drumstick!
Geminid
@Phylllis: Even though Virginia as a whole has had steady economic growth for decades now, Southside and Southwest Virginia economies have been stagnant.
The demographic consequences have reinforced the economic problem. When Hyundai made its final selection of a new factory site recently, Southside Virginia’s candidate lost out to a county outside Savannah, Georgia. A big reason: the population near the Savannah site had a median age in the mid-thirties, while that around the Southside site was ten years older.
Nukular Biskits
@Kay: @WaterGirl:
Not only what Kay said but (not that you need me mansplainin’ it) seems a LOT of folks simply do not understand what pregnancy even is:
Harvard Center for American Political Studies/Harris poll
From the DailyKos diary where I first saw this
Jeffg166
We will talk politics only because there will be no MAGAts in attendance.
I had to turn the heat up last night to 67° because my guests think 55° is a little chilly for them. Such wennies.
We are eating at noon. The sun is out full. The high today is 54°. After we eat we will go sit on the south facing front porch. They will comment how pleasant 54° is outiside.
BellyCat
Was there for two weeks a little more than a decade ago, primarily Istanbul and Izmir. Absolutely lovely, incredibly generous people if you’re lucky enough to be hosted!
BellyCat
@OzarkHillbilly: “It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
Was there 5 years ago. The Turks were fantastic.
They also love their cats. Cats everywhere. Just another reason to visit.
We flew to Izmir, then rented a car for my Hellenistic Tour of SW Turkey hitting Ephesus, Miletus, Apollo at Didum, Aphrodisias and Priene. I trod in Alexander the Great’s footsteps.
Then took a 5-day gullet cruise out of Marmaris.
I need to go back to go to Hattusa and spend more time in Istanbul.
Again, people and culture are great.
narya
Gobble gobble and felicitations to the jackaltariat! Dough for the rolls is raising, and the tart shell is par-baked, but there’s still a list to get through and a couple of problems to solve. And I want to go for a run (or walk, if need be) before we start chowing down.
I hope you all have some good food and some laughs and some moments of peace and grace today.
Steeplejack
Just now rousing myself for coffee and an orange-cranberry scone. Due at Sighthound Hall at 11:00 for a vague brunch-y snack thing and then the big meal around 4:00. Don’t know if I can do the whole stretch—my social stamina has declined greatly since the pandemic—but I’m delivering wine. Should have taken it over there yesterday and begged off from brunch. Oh, well, at least no MAGATs.
Layer8Problem
Laying around this morning steeling myself for this afternoon’s jaunt. We have my stepkids up from Our Nation’s Capital and their tiny tots (they’re eight these days; if they heard me say that they’d pelt me with Lego parts and stuffed unicorns) and they hied off to the parade before we got up. Later on we all meet up at the other stepkid’s and stepkid spouse’s place in the Greater Hoboken area. Very family there, much politically agreed, so it’ll be good, although when faced with the journey (“Lessee, Holland Tunnel to New Jersey with eighty million other people, or George Washington Bridge to New Jersey with eighty million other people?”) one thinks fond thoughts of a quiet pint at the local public house. Which can’t happen since this is one of the two days of the year it’s closed.
narya
@Nukular Biskits: That sounds like an educational opportunity . . . “Here’s a lentil. Here’s a lime. Here’s an avocado. Here’s a fetus at 7-8 months (i.e., viability). Here’s a baby at birth.”
WaterGirl
@Kay: I would hope that the people doing / funding the research would be paying attention to the mothers, but the politicians behind all of this could give two shits (sorry) about the mothers, or even the babies after they are born.
It’s maddening.
rikyrah
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone😊🐓🦃🍁🍂🍛🍽🤗
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Happy T-day!
Trivia Man
@Layer8Problem: Fantasy trolling scene: Hey! Aren’t you the old governor of Arkansas??? (He smiles real big, That’s right.)
is your daughter that crooked governor I’ve been hearing about? I’m so sorry, you must be devastated.
What the hell can he do about it in Turkie? And I bet his guests aren’t packing,
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
Is she actually getting paid double? I’ve run into a metric ton of people over the years who get confused about this, ‘this’ being how much they’re being paid for working on a paid holiday.
They’ll tell me, “I’m getting paid double time and a half for working on [name of paid holiday], how can I turn that down?” But they’re already getting paid regular time for not working that day, and on top of that they’re getting paid the same time and a half that they’d get paid for working a normal Saturday.
Sure, double time and a half total, but they’d only be getting paid time and a half more than if they’d stayed in bed all day. But they always believed that they made more for working on the paid holiday than working overtime any other time, and there was no way to convince them otherwise.
raven
I’m down at the beach fishing, It was about 43 when I got here but it’s probably 50 now. It’s really pretty and it’s entertaining watching a family with 4 little girls try to use the timer on their dslr!
Frankensteinbeck
@Nukular Biskits:
This is a big part of the point, and always has been. Stopping abortion is unrelated to the “Whites must breed more!” freakshow. As Palin let slip once, the racists think black people are sexually irresponsible and they are the primary sluts the racists imagine are being punished. I heard this a lot growing up in the South.
mali muso
Happy 7th birthday to my adored little widget! She showed up on this day in 2016 and was the only ray of hope in our lives during that very dark November. Lots of celebrating today, both for the holiday and for her birthday.
I’m making my mom’s traditional cornbread dressing (NOT stuffing) to bring to our large friendsgiving party later today. Wishing all jackals a great day!
Layer8Problem
@rikyrah: And a Happy Thanksgiving to you! 😁
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: If you’re an hourly worker, that’s very different from a salaried person who has benefits and gets paid for holidays.
I put myself thru college as a grocery store cashier.
Workers were part of a union. If a holiday was on a Sunday, you literally got paid double time and a half. On those days, I would stand there (on and off during the time I was there) and calculate the money that was piling up. I made $11.50 an hour, and part-times could never have a longer shift than 7 hours. That was $201.25 for a 7-hour shift.
Totally worth it to work the holiday.
Dorothy A. Winsor
If anyone’s interested, I blogged about my new project: Read a book from each of the 15 categories Goodreads used in its current best book contest. The first category was an easy one: fiction. I read Meg Shaffer’s The Wishing Game, which I had mixed reactions to.
schrodingers_cat
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Here is Day 2 of my drawing challenge for the morning crew.
Beagleowned
Y’all are my favorite turkeys, I would pardon each of you! Gobble, gobble!
Kay
@JMG:
My daughter and son in law did this with great success. She’s three now and eats everything (but uses utensils) – I think it made her bolder with trying new foods.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@schrodingers_cat: Cripes. I could no more draw that than I could fly.
WaterGirl
@mali muso: Sounds like you will be otherwise occupied during the zoom this evening. We will miss your shining face.
Happy holiday and birthday to your little one. Little widget, I love that!
hueyplong
We don’t do MAGAts in our house.
King Henry (the cat) keeps his politics to himself, but we assume cats, dogs and other housepets have cognitive function sufficient to be immune to Trumpism.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Sounds like a great project, but I would definitely skip the horror category!
WaterGirl
@Kay: Helps them be more open to food textures, too, I would imagine.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Happy Thanksgiving.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl: My problem with horror is that I’m usually not horrified. Maybe real life has left me too caloused!
The Pale Scot
@Betty Cracker:
Original cut;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCAkHFavEdw
zhena gogolia
Happy Thanksgiving. We’ll be at a friend’s later today — just four of us. No MAGA, but there may be some choice Biden concern-trolling. Suggestions that Sherrod Brown take his place on the ticket, that sort of thing. I’ll be good.
Jeffg166
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I do look through those books for ideas of what to read.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Glad to hear that they’ve got some stanards.
(I know the accent’s on the second syllable, but like that was gonna stop me. :-)
Suzanne
My MIL is here visiting, and SuzMom lives here, so we are doing the traditional stuff. And enjoying the new puppy! Soft launching the name today: Dulce. Seeing how it feels. So far, so good.
She’s little right now, but we brought out Luna’s old dog bed for her, and she loves it. Luna was a big girl (75 pounds Lab/pit mix). So Dulce looks tiny on this big bed.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffg166: For obvious reasons, I’m interested in what makes people choose a book to read. A recent survey showed that the most common reason was a good experience with a previous book by that writer. Second most common reason was a recommendation by someone you trusted. I’d guess these books are more or less in that second category.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: I like.
Layer8Problem
@zhena gogolia: ” . . . there may be some choice Biden concern-trolling.”
Shoot, I forgot that might be a possibility at mine. Time to rev up the old sarcasm sharpener.
zhena gogolia
@Layer8Problem: Get ready to praise Kamala and diss the polls.
kalakal
@schrodingers_cat:
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
I like the feather. It must be a tough subject to draw
Glidwrith
@E.: I’ve made it a holiday rule, no shopping on the holiday in the hope that employers get the hint and give everyone the day off.
Marmot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Say, was it you who recommended the rhubarb crisp yesterday? The kid n’ I ended up making a pie with a crisp-style top crust, thanks to you!
Should be great—I barely fended the family off from eating it last night.
Edit: Wait, no—was it a commenter with an “A…” name?
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: People here seem to accent the first syllable of Stanardsville. And the farther one gets from Greene County, the likelier it is to hear the town called, “Standardsville.”
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
Aw c’mon, nobody could’ve seen this coming!
Except just about anyone who’d thought about it for half a minute, of course.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: You know that name will morph to “Dutchie” and “Ducky.” 😉❤️
Layer8Problem
@zhena gogolia:
With regard to polls our own H.E.Wolf had an excellent and useful link a few weeks ago: https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2023/Items/Nov07-3.html
WaterGirl
@Marmot: I’m pretty sure you’re right, I think it was Dorothy. I remember because that sounded good.
Someone at the farmer’s market used to sell amazing apple pies, but around the holiday they did apple-rhubarb, and I would kill for one of those pies.
BlueGuitarist
Happy thanksgiving all.
here’s a link to the original newspaper story about Arlo Guthrie’ and friend having to pay $50 and pick up the garbage on an infamous thanksgiving long ago
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-berkshire-eagle-alices-restaurant/3747386/
schrodingers_cat
@kalakal: It was difficult to color, the drawing part was easier. This is my second attempt, I used watercolor for the first one and it ended up looking heavy handed. I used watercolor pencils for this one.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Given that I haven’t spent much time in those environs in the past ~35 years, maybe pronunciations have changed. Or maybe I just remember wrong – that’s always a possibility too.
Another Scott
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Meanwhile, … Reuters.com has a scary headline, but make sure to read deeper into the story.
We’ll see what happens.
Hang in there everyone. Enjoy the holiday.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s high praise. Thanks!
mali muso
@WaterGirl:
Thanks, WG! Hope it’s a great chat and that people aren’t too sleep from eating turkey. lol
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks! I still have to use my Derwent Drawing pencils!
I am hoping to use supplies that I don’t reach for often for this challenge.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Marmot: I think it was me, though others may have said the same thing. Enjoy!
lowtechcyclist
@BlueGuitarist:
Our county trash collection sites double as recycling sites, and yesterday I was gathering some stuff to take down to the nearest one (aka ‘the dump’) in its latter capacity, my wife asked me when I was going. I replied, “It won’t be tomorrow, dear, we all know about dumps being closed on Thanksgiving.”
RevRick
In yesterday’s discussion about the meal, I found myself experiencing a rising irritability over comments lambasting the turkey. As I said then, for me the turkey is inseparable from the feeling of family togetherness. Turkey tastes like love.
But upon reflection, there’s more to it.
For the first eight and a half years of my life we lived in public housing. Our meals were a regular rotation of simple dishes, including vegetables out of a can. I often wore hand-me-down clothes. Christmas presents included a lot of new clothes.
Here in Allentown PA, with a majority Hispanic population (mostly Puerto Rican) with a significant amount of low income families, it has always struck me as strange for Hispanic people to be lined up at the Salvation Army to get free turkeys, because culturally turkey is a weird food in their culture. But then it hit me. Thanksgiving is about inclusion. It’s about feeling that you are a part of the larger community despite your circumstances.
I think that is what undergirds and reinforces the myth of Pilgrims and Native Americans happily sharing a meal, fellowship and games together, when in truth it was an uneasy alliance of convenience. (The Pilgrims provided firepower to help the Wampanoag ward off the aggressive Narragansett; the Wampanoag provided food and warning of attacks.)
Thanksgiving is not only about gratitude, it’s also about inclusion.
HeartlandLiberal
This is our first Thanksgiving in forever not to prepare a feast. Last year I roasted two Amish chickens and a duck. We moved seven months ago to a retirement community. Last week we closed on our house, which we lived for thirty years. It was three stories, 3400 sq ft. But getting up and down the stairs was becoming dangerous for both of us. We moved to a cottage of 1400 sq ft. You can imagine the downsizing we did. We let go of a lifetime collection of vinyl LPs, over 1,200, most from the sixties, seventies, and eighties. We just could not keep them anymore.
This year we are going to experience our first buffet meal at Thanksgiving. We invited our son to eat with us. The food here is very, very good. But I hope they have gravy.
Happy Thanksgiving to all the jackalariat.
Marmot
@WaterGirl: Good thing we stumbled upon that pile of rhubarb. I don’t think I grasped the stakes! 😉
trnc
@Betty Cracker: l bet you are!
We’re also guests of maga, but everyone has learned to keep it to themselves. Well, mostly
Gin & Tonic
Happy Thanksgiving, all. It’s been a very challenging year in the G&T household, and I’m hoping for a bit of respite today. NB – there will be no MAGA at this repast.
Kathleen
@Kay: I expect Rethugs’ next power move will be to jail women who die in childbirth.
E.
@Glidwrith: It’s working! Wal-mart caved. It is very slow here in my store. I hope the company loses money today.
Wapiti
@OzarkHillbilly: Interesting article. I expect there are areas outside the rural south that have persistent poverty. The solutions – if there are solutions – would be similar, I imagine.
Kathleen
@OzarkHillbilly: Here’s an interesting take on how racial disparities are hurting Ohio’s economic growth:
ocapitaljournal.com/2023/07/20/billions-available-to-ohio-economy-if-racial-disparities-were-eliminated-study-shows/
WaterGirl
@mali muso: And we won’t be able to nudge them if they fall asleep while zooming!
Jeffro
Happy Thanksgiving, jackals!
I started wondering how my RWNJ relatives will try to edge into political conversations on Sunday (when we’ll be seeing them for Other Thanksgiving) but then realized that’s not worth my time, either. =)
BellyCat
@lowtechcyclist: Total monthly income goes up as a result, which is the major benefit and motivation when living hand to mouth.
WaterGirl
@Marmot: That was the figurative kill, not the literal one. :-)
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
BINGO!
And that’s why MS Republicans had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to expanding post-natal Medicaid coverage to 12 months.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Really nice work on the feather.
BellyCat
@mali muso: Awesome! I recall that 2016 November clearly. After the election was called for Trump, my (also aged 7) infant’s parents (me and mama) were so dismayed they forgot to change his diaper for 24 hours. This resulted in a “diaper explosion” at 4 a.m. 😂
BlueGuitarist
@lowtechcyclist:
👍
Jeffro
Good idea.
Couple it with “Here’s a lime…93% of all abortions happen at or before this point in a pregnancy.”
Maybe it doesn’t matter: fundies, like MAGAts, always already know what they know.
Brachiator
Woke up early, but am still late to the thread.
I hope that those celebrating the day have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Jeffro
@Geminid: this is educational – I’ve been accenting the first/wrong syllable all this time! Thank you.
(Hey at least I get “Staunton” and “Rivanna” and “Rio Road” right! =)
PS: my father-in-law calls Crozet “cro-ZETT”, which cracks us all up here in Fro-ville
Kathleen
Happy Thanksgiving to all. I’m in Tampa with daughter, SIL, granddog and 2 grandsons one of whom is engaged to be married to a lovely young woman.
Villago Delenda Est
Happy Thanksgiving, all! I like this idea of a MAGAt free zone.
Dangerman
As God as my witness, this episode (NOT WKRP, which can’t be topped) makes me LOL so hard. It’s a tradition. Hardest laugh starts around 17:00,
BellyCat
fro-VILLE?
kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: Interesting. It sounds very similar to bits of rural Ohio where Mrs kalakal hails from. She spent many years in Chillicothe about 50 miles south of Columbus. Chillicothe isn’t a big place ( around 20,000 ) and isn’t exactly prosperous but the smaller places around it are dying. As the farms get mechanized and bought up by big ag local employment vanishes. Chillicothe survives by having a paper mill and the state pen. Somewhere like Greenfield has been dying for decades, since the horse blanket factory closed. It’s truly depressing, everyone works in the prison or the medical care industry. I like the area and my family and their friends but everyone who can get out, gets out.
Trivia Man
I’m about to test the holiday travel gauntlet. Airports in TX and GA and WI. I’m expecting it to be very sparse crowds, hope to get through most of my book (Asimov short stories and essays, it’s comfort reading)
Danielx
Turkey recipe called for bottle of champagne poured over the bird before placing in oven. Cork popped and hit my glasses as soon as I got the wire off, which is a first in 40-odd years of opening sparkling wine bottles. About half the bottle exploded all over the kitchen. Grateful to be wearing glasses for once, as this debacle would have cost me an eye. I hope this is not a harbinger for the rest of the day…
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: Sounds like congratulations are in order!
zhena gogolia
@Danielx: Ugh. I’m glad you were protected! I did know about someone who lost an eye that way.
CaseyL
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Today will be a cooking and laundry day for me. “Thanksgiving: The Gathering” isn’t until tomorrow, when I go to my friends’ house.
wenchacha
@Baud: I want the new numbers of maternal death and infant mortality in those Gilead states.
Soprano2
@E.: Sorry, I had to buy milk this morning.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. 😊
frosty
@raven: Good to hear you’re fishing!!
Geminid
@Jeffro: If you accent the first syllable of Stanardsville you are confirming to local practice.
Claudius Crozet was quite an engineer. His railroad tunnel through Afton Mountain involved digging from the Valley side and the Piedmont side, and the two tunnels met each other almost perfectly. This was in 1856; now it’s been made into a park and I believe you can walk through Crozet’s tunnel and see where the two sections connected.
Colonel Crozet’s journey from Napoleonic Army officer to American civil engineer must have been interesting. Someone should write a novel about Crozet and title it,”Yo, Claudius.”
Miss Bianca
I decided to follow TaMara’s recipe suggestion for this year’s Thanksgiving turkey and all I gotta say right now is: it’s not *nearly* as easy to spatchcock a turkey as that guy in the video makes it look, LOL! But it’s done, hanging out in the fridge, waiting for roasting. We decided to give the Brussels sprouts that maple-bourbon treatment too, with the addition of some bacon bits. I’m going to take them for a drive while I tend to my boss’s critters this morning, so that the mixture gets all bounced around and evenly distributed over the sprouts. Happy Thanksgiving!
Sure Lurkalot
It was close to 70 degrees yesterday…today might hit 40 and then snow tonight. While I’m more than used to the “if you don’t like the weather, wait a day” variety in Denver, it would have been nice to have yesterday’s weather today for the travelers. Might have a BIL stay 2 nights instead of one if we get the maximum predicted.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Have to make some side dishes and get the app tray assembled so I better get to it!
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: That feather looks really good!
Ms. F is doing online lessons in Zentangle. Small (3 1/2) tiles with a fine-tipped pens, learning different patterns. It’s both art and meditation. I think you’d like it.
ETA I’m glad you’re still here.
Eunicecycle
@kalakal: I spent some of my childhood 30 miles north in Circleville. I went back for a reunion about 9 years ago and it was so depressing. A lot of us that went to college didn’t go back but there was a large group that stayed and made a living somehow.
frosty
@Geminid: That’s a Baltimore pronunciation of Standardsville. Except it’s still got too many consonants. In Bawlmer it would be: “Stanarsville”. Or maybe Starnsville LOL.
zhena gogolia
God, my e-mail is pinging constantly and it’s all ads and politicians. Why can’t they take a rest on Thanksgiving? I don’t need a Thanksgiving greeting from my dentist!
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
How about half-smokes? ;-)
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: I have seen some videos, it does look interesting.
Thanks for your kind words.
kalakal
@Eunicecycle: Circleville holds bitter memories for Mrs kalakal. She’s never forgiven her cousin for being crowned “Little Miss Pumpkin 1960*” instead of her 😂😂😂. I can imagine just how depressing it is to go back. Mrs kalakal moved to Cincinnati as soon as she could
*or around then
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
Another Scott
Speaking of childhood memories, I remember going with a friend to a county fair and seeing the blaring signs and sounds of the shows. “See the Giant Rats from the sewers of Paris!!!” (with “illusion” in microscopic print). The carney made us move along because we were snickering and talking too loudly about the fine print. ;-)
Meanwhile, … Phys.org:
:-(
The journal article is open access.
Cheers,
Scott.
realbtl
Quiet T day here in MT, my friend wasn’t feeling well so we’re having T day on Sat.
And thanks again to all of you who are supporting WG’s Montana fund drive, I think the state can still be salvaged.
West of the Rockies
What is a “plugger” (the first comic above)? Is that a regional word?
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Thanks WG!
Jeffro
@BellyCat: the Fro household, our home, nuestro casa…Fro-ville! =)
(Not to be confused with C-ville!)
Jeffro
It is kind of unbelievable that they were that close!
Folks keep tell me that I should walk or bike the tunnel, but it’s pretty low on my to-do list. It’s juuust long enough to start stressing out about all. that. rock. overhead.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@West of the Rockies: I only know it from that comic.
And I only know that comic from the wonderful Comics Curmudgeon.
Seems to be a particular kind of old fart which I hope never to be. Possibly a word coined by the artist.
Layer8Problem
@Another Scott: I’m sorry but the world is still not prepared for stories like that. 😁
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
I was thinking primarily about hourly workers, who once upon a time did get paid holidays. Salaried people usually get paid holidays, but usually don’t get OT pay at all. Though on those occasions as a government worker when I was asked to work OT if I could, I got paid time and a half.
But the interaction of holiday and OT pay worked the same as a security guard in 1977, a paralegal in 1980, and a GS-12 in 2000.
opiejeanne
My husband had an older cousin named Melvin, and one memorable Thanksgiving we hosted all of my husband’s family within 400 miles: grandparents, great aunts and uncles, first and second cousins some of whom should have been removed, including Cousin Melvin and his POSSILQ. While the twins at the kids’ table were throwing olives at each other as my kids watched in fascinated horror and my MIL laughed at how cute their naughtiness was, Cousin Melvin followed me into the kitchen when I went to check on the turkey, in order to argue why evolution is wrong and the Earth is only 5,000 years old. He didn’t understand the limits of carbon dating, like, it can’t date rocks and can only date things more than X years old (50,000?). I tossed him out of my kitchen by brandishing a carving knife, my go-to method of getting people out of there when the turkey is lollygagging and not quite done yet.
A few minutes later his girlfriend came in and tearfully apologized for them living in sin. I looked her in the eye and said something to the effect of “if you’re ashamed of it, stop doing it. Just get married.”
That day I found out that Grandma was expecting my FIL when she married Grandpa, but that it goes back another generation before that, with her own father having abandoned his girlfriend when she began to show. Also, her daughter was expecting when she got hitched to Dave’s uncle. Grandma and Auntie Kathleen were my favorites among my in-laws; I think gossipy Great Uncle Dick was trying to make me feel right at home, which was odd since this was my home.
It was a swell party.
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
So if you hadn’t been scheduled to work on that Sunday, you would have gotten bupkis for that holiday?
Because how much you really got paid for working on a holiday is the difference between what you got paid, having worked the holiday, and how much you would have got paid if you hadn’t worked that day.
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
As an ex employer that paid hourly, people did specifically not get paid for their time off unless a holiday came during the week, such as thanksgiving this year. Sunday was a day of rest, for both them and my bank account. They got time and a half for overtime (8hrs/day) or working on Saturday and paid time off for holidays during the work week. Now it’s been 3 decades since I’ve been in a position to create paychecks, so it’s quite possible the laws have changed, but I’m doubting that hourly workers get paid for weekend holidays, unless for them it is a workday.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: That is correct!
When you’re an hourly worker, you don’t get paid for holidays you don’t work. At least, that’s how it was for us.
Geminid
@Jeffro: A friend and I walked through the new tunnel once. It’s lower and longer than the old one, I think 1.2 miles. We got most of the way through before it curved and we could see the exit. I would not do that again.
The new tunnel’s entrance has “1942” cast into the concrete entrance wall, but I read that it started operating in 1941. It was one of a number of infrastructure improvements the Roosevelt administration made to get the nation ready for war.
There was a big DuPont plant in Waynesboro; during the war it produced explosives 7 days a week, 3 shifts a day. The tunnel leads to the Hampton Roads area going east, and going west it connects to Huntington, West Virginia and Ohio beyond.
lowtechcyclist
@BellyCat:
Well sure, but the question is: would total monthly income go up any more from working on a holiday than from working on a random Saturday?
In the situations I was in, the answer was always ‘no’ but people were convinced it was ‘yes.’
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl:
OK, that’s different then. Of course I haven’t been an hourly worker in 40 years, but back then, full-time hourly workers typically got paid holidays. Most hourly workers weren’t unionized, but enough were in the northeast U.S. that paid holidays were the norm. Part-timers, probably not even back then.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
Sounds like an almost normal family……
I may have just insinuated too much about my own extended family. I think that families are generally more alike than many think. Seems to me that in any medium sized extended family there is the entire range of humanity, or at least close to the entire range. Hell in my experience of families I’ve known (one’s I’m not related to!) (but did go to church and school with) there is someone who has spent over 50 yrs in prison for murder. Seems to me that a lot of humanity belongs within the definition of humanity simply because they walk upright and look similar to at least 1/2 of the rest of us. And we might know them or even be related to them. What’s the old saying, “There’s no excuse for humanity.”
kalakal
@Ruckus:
Terry Pratchett had a character who was
Another Scott
@opiejeanne: Makes a good story! :-)
Made me look…
During the late 1950s, over 50% of women who were single when they conceived their first child married before the child’s birth…
Shotgun weddings (with or without the shotgun) were very, very common back before reliable birth control was available.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
@Nukular Biskits: That is shocking. I would think everyone has known someone who was pregnant, and thus knows how long it lasts. Is that deficient education, or people punking the surveyor?
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I used to work at, and then own a business in the center of the city of Los Angeles and have seen rats as big as a normal cat.
kalakal
@Another Scott:
My ex-wife’s parents were farmers in rural Lancashire. Whenever they and their friends heard of a wedding announcement there was a chorus of “When’s it due?”
CaseyL
@opiejeanne:
@Another Scott:
Many years ago, I learned that “bundling” was a common practice in the US during the 18th and possibly 19th Centuries in the frontier territories. A courting couple would sleep in a bed together, separated by a wooden rail. It was commonly assumed they would manage to have sex anyway (the rail being for social propriety’s sake) and the young woman would be pregnant by the wedding date.
IIRC, this was a sort of fertility test, to make sure the couple could have children. (The more children, the better, back then, for all sorts of reasons.) I don’t know if that meant the wedding would be cancelled if it didn’t work and she didn’t get pregnant.
Ruckus
@Danielx:
Naw. You got it out of the way early – the something that always goes wrong. It’s often minor and of very little consequence so no one notices all that much, in this case it was a bit more of an issue but now it’s done and the rest of the day can go just fine.
NotMax
@CaseyL
Planks put to such use were known as bundling boards.
Nukular Biskits
@Soprano2:
Good question, but I doubt it’s much of the latter.
My pet theory is that, given “conservatives” are generally hostile to education, their ignorance tends to skew the results.
Trivia Man
@frosty: My Mrs teaches zen tangle, it is very meditative. It helped her tremendously when she had severe pain and endless medical issues. Sitting in waiting rooms, bed ridden and recovering, trying to get through each day. So she teaches to pass it on.
Glidwrith
@Nukular Biskits: The forced birthers don’t distinguish between a fertilized egg and a viable child. They don’t distinguish between a woman with her own heart, feelings and worth and have now stripped us down to fewer rights than a corpse.
It’s not lack of education but willful denial that half the human race deserves to be more than a walking incubator.
Ealbert
It was my mother (born in 1933) who taught me the comment “New wives are more industrious than older wives, they manage to get done in seven months what older wives take nine months to do.”
Citizen Alan
@Glidwrith:
Women have fewer rights than a corpse in the sense that internal anatomy of someone who has declined to sign an Organ donor card Is sancrasant after their death. But not the bodies of living breathing women who become pregnant unexpectedly.
TooTallTom
@West of the Rockies:
The artist is from the Richmond VA Times Dispatch (where I used to live). A “Plugger” refers to someone who keeps on plugging away until the job is done.
Chris T.
@Nukular Biskits: He or she should have a companion named “Nopar”. (I always liked the idea of future archeologists discussing the two famous kings of the 20th Century, “Nosmo” and “Nopar”, whose had adherents everywhere.)