BS: Happy Thanksgiving

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 23 Nov 05 - 09:55 PM

Happy Thanksgiving, all! I know Jimmy and Jayne will have the most bountiful, beautifully prepared meal of all. We're doing an African/Danish/Brooklyn/Wisconsin Thanksgiving at our daughters. I'm supplying the Danish/Wisconsin part of the menu.

Actually, there's a Brooklyn,Wisconsin so we can have the best of both worlds.

I mistook this for the What are you Thankful for thread at first. It's worth contributing to, too.

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Nov 05 - 09:15 PM

Oh Boy!!!!

Thanksgivin' with my brother-in-law... The guy is ex Special Forces and at one time prolly very knowledgeable about troop movements and battels but he has slipped a cog and now he spends his days talking sun-up to sun-down about various campaigns and troop movement except now he gets the actual wars mixed up....

Plus he a Bushite Republican...

Fun, fun, fun....

Can't wait...

Pass the razor baldes...

Oh, what men will do fir a womanz!!!!

Like I said, pass the razor blades...

But you all have a great Thanksgivin' and whilst yer havin' fun watchin' football games and yuckin' it up you all think of the poor ol' Bobert havin' to listen to hours of my brother-in-law...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: gnu
Date: 23 Nov 05 - 09:06 PM

Yes Amos, tranquil gratitude. I have so very much to be thankful for on this solemn day of reflection.... now... ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL? Awwwwll my rowdy friends are comin over tonight!!! And askin, "Hank, why do you drank the way you do?"

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: Amos
Date: 23 Nov 05 - 08:07 PM

I wish you all warm friends and full bellies on Thanksgiving, and a replenishment of tranquil gratitude.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: Barry Finn
Date: 23 Nov 05 - 07:12 PM

I like Thanksgiving, mostly because it's a long holiday, it's a day when families get together, there are loads of sales & I just baked 4 pies & made the cranberry sause in preperation for tommorrow's feast. It's the sentiment that I have trouble getting my lips around. If there are any here that are of the first nation (Native American) would you care to let us know here how your community feels & thinks about this holiday & how this observe, if at all, this day.

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: InOBU
Date: 23 Nov 05 - 06:00 PM

Well... it is that time again...
Happy All lor

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 27 Nov 03 - 12:34 PM

Thanksgiving in the US is important so many ways -- one of them is celebrating commonalities, as in recognizing your own kind:

A Republican Beakjob?

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: open mike
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 04:43 PM

and plenty of tofurkey for all you veggies out there!
or un-turkey. and pumpkin pie and cranberries.
the secret ingredient in my meatless stuffing
is green toamtoes...and it is stuffed into bread
pans and casserole dishes, not into a bird!
as one song i have heard says:

"we're gonna have a big dead bird for dinner tonite"

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: Amos
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 03:14 PM

Aw, Swanno -- don't he say things nicely? Thanks, and back atcha!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: Dave Swan
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 03:04 PM

Thanksgiving is my most favorite of the holidays (Hogmany runs a close second) and I wish everyone here a very happy Thanksgiving.

Below I've pasted a column written by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle. It's altered a bit annually, but this archived copy will serve. Here's his grat etude:



A few years ago I wrote a Thanksgiving column that people seemed to like, so I've reprinted it annually. Here it is again, slightly revised:

THANKSGIVING HAS ALWAYS been my favorite holiday. It is comfortably free of the strident religious and/or militaristic overtones that give the other holidays their soft emanations of uneasiness.

At Christmas, for instance, we are required to deal with the divinity of Christ -- I know some of you folks have made up your minds about that one, but not me-- and on the Fourth of July we must wrestle with the question of whether all those simulated aerial bombardments represent the most useful form of nationalism available.

At Thanksgiving, all we have to worry about is whether we can wholeheartedly support A) roasted turkey, B) friends and C) gratitude. My opinions on these matters are unambiguous; I am in favor of them all. The Squanto-give- corn stuff has been blessedly eliminated from the iconography, so the thrill of Thanksgiving is undiminished by caveats, codicils or carps. That alone is something to be thankful for. Thanksgiving provides a formal context in which to consider the instances of kindness that have enlightened our lives, for moments of grace that have gotten us through when all seemed lost. These are fine and sentimental subjects for contemplation.

First, there are the public personalities, artists and entertainers and philosophers, who have been there when they were needed, whether they knew it or not. Let us think kind thoughts about Sharon Ott and Mario Savio, Sandra Phillips and Teresa Edwards, Anna Paquin and Mary Eisenhart, Celia W. Dugger and Jerry Rice, Mike Greensill and Ellen Ullman -- this is my partial list; feel free to create your own.

AND THE teachers, the men and women who took the time to fire a passion for the abstract, to give us each a visceral sense of the continuity of history and the adventure of the future. Our society seems determined to denigrate its teachers -- at its peril, and at ours. This is their day as well. Even closer. Companions. We all learned about good sex from somebody, and that person deserves a moment. Somebody taught us some hard lesson of life, told us something for our own good, and that willingness to risk conflict for friendship is worth a pause this day. And somebody sat with us through one long night, and listened to our crazy talk and turned it toward sanity; that person has earned this moment, too.

And a moment for old friends now estranged, victims of the flux of alliances and changing perceptions. There was something there once, and that something is worth honoring as well.

Our parents, of course, and our children; our grandparents and our grandchildren. We are caught in the dance of life with them and, however tedious that dance can sometimes seem, it is the music of our lives. To deny it is to deny our heritage and our legacy.

AND THANKS, too, for all the past Thanksgivings, and for all the people we shared them with. Thanks for the time the turkey fell on the floor during the carving process; for the time Uncle Benny was persuaded to sing ``Peg o' My Heart''; for the time two strangers fell in love, and two lovers fell asleep, in front of the fire, even before the pumpkin pie.

And the final bead on the string is for this very Thanksgiving, this particular Thursday, and the people with whom we will be sharing it. Whoever they are and whatever the circumstances that have brought us together, we will today be celebrating with them the gift of life and the persistence of charity in a world that seems bent on ending one and denying the other.

Thanks. A lot.

E-mail Jon Carroll at jrcsfgate.com


Happy T'day and thanks from Dave too.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: jeffp
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 02:44 PM

Larry's post reminds me of this old chestnut from Art Buchwald, which the Washington Post trots out each Thanksgiving:

One of the most important holidays is Thanksgiving Day, known in France as le Jour de Merci Donnant.

Le Jour de Merci Donnant was first started by a group of pilgrims (Pelerins) who fled from l'Angleterre before the McCarran Act to found a colony in the New World (le Nouveau Monde), where they could shoot Indians (les Peaux-Rouges) and eat turkey (dinde) to their hearts' content.

They landed at a place called Plymouth (now a famous voiture Americaine) in a wooden sailing ship named the Mayflower, or Fleur de Mai, in 1620. But while the Pelerins were killing the dindes, the Peaux-Rouges were killing the Pelerins, and there were several hard winters ahead for both of them. The only way the Peaux-Rouges helped the Pelerins was when they taught them how to grow corn (mais). They did this because they liked corn with their Pelerins.

In 1623, after another harsh year, the Pelerins' crops were so good they decided to have a celebration and because more mais was raised by the Pelerins than Pelerins were killed by the Peaux-Rouges.

Every year on le Jour de Merci Donnant, parents tell their children an amusing story about the first celebration.

It concerns a brave capitaine named Miles Standish (known in France as Kilometres Deboutish) and a shy young lieutenant named Jean Alden. Both of them were in love with a flower of Plymouth called Priscilla Mullens (no translation). The vieux capitaine said to the jeune lieutenant:

"Go to the damsel Priscilla (Allez tres vite chez Priscilla), the loveliest maiden of Plymouth (la plus jolie demoiselle de Plymouth). Say that a blunt old captain, a man not of words but of action (un vieux Fanfan la Tulipe), offers his hand and his heart -- the hand and heart of a soldier. Not in these words, you understand, but this, in short, is my meaning.

"I am a maker of war (Je suis un fabricant de la guerre) and not a maker of phrases. You, bred as a scholar (Vous, qui e^tes pain comme un etudiant), can say it in elegant language, such as you read in your books of the pleadings and wooings of lovers, such as you think best suited to win the heart of the maiden."

Although Jean was fit to be tied (convenable a e^tre emballe), friendship prevailed over love and went to his duty. But instead of using elegant language, he blurted out his mission. Priscilla was muted with amazement and sorrow (rendue muette par l'etonnement et la tristesse).

At length she exclaimed, breaking the ominous silence, "If the great captain of Plymouth is so very eager to wed me, why does he not come himself and take the trouble to woo me?" ("Ou est-il, le vieux Kilometres? Pourquoi ne vient-il pas aupres de moi pour tenter sa chance?")

Jean said that Kilometres Deboutish was very busy and didn't have time for such things. He staggered on, telling her what a wonderful husband Kilometres would make. Finally, Priscilla arched her eyebrows and said in a tremulous voice, "Why don't you speak for yourself, Jean?" ("Chacun a son gout.")

And so, on the fourth Thursday in November, American families sit down at a large table brimming with tasty dishes, and for the only time during the year eat better than the French do.

No one can deny that le Jour de Merci Donnant is a grand fe^te, and no matter how well fed American families are, they never forget to give thanks to Kilometres Deboutish, who made this great day possible.



Happy Turkey Day, everybody,
jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 01:05 PM

Great story Larry, but you forgot to tell about the farting. My father, who was just a wee lad at that first Thanksgiving, remembered quite clearly how boistrous and voluminous was the Pilgrim's passing of gas at that historic event.

So each year at our family's annual Thanksgiving feast, to the great horror of my poor mother, my father would wax nostalgic about our Flatulistic Heritage. And with great glee, our demented family would carry on the Pilgrim tradition of trying to out-blast all others.

Ah, what great memories,

Happy Holidays to All,
Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: jimmyt
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 12:41 PM

Larry, you are too funny! I will remember the thought of gathering the family around and making sure each has a fresh gin and tonic. I had always thought the drink was related to the British Empire in India, and the quinine water for Malaria, but I can see that it was definitely Pilgrim Inspired!

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: InOBU
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 01:12 AM

To repete our old family tradition for you all, a wee reprint...

Ever since the first Otway fell off the boat into the new world, we celbrate Thanksgiving by remembering the story of the frist thanksgiving. They youngest child, generally the only one sober enough to speak, tells this story, before joining the adults in a gin and tonic.... Story of the First Thanksgiving…

It was the night before Christmas, and the Pilgrims where feeling a bit peckish, after the long swim from England, the Mayflower having hit an iceberg and sank. Captain Smith ordered the woman and children into the life boats first, as he knew that there were not enough boats for all, an old tradition in the British maritime, only to find they had forgotten the life boats all together. Although they were still in the Themes Estuary and a scant 10 minute swim to Wapping, they decided that as long as they were already wet, they'd go for it and struck out for New York. On the way they talked it over and decided that as long as they were going through all the trouble they might as well swim to Massachusetts so that their grandkids would all be rich New Englanders in stead of poor New Yorkers, and who wanted to live in a city where the Mayor was a bad tempered Dutch guy with a wooden leg who called the place New Amsterdam anyway, so I am getting off the point, it was time for dinner.
So there were Indians there also, John Smith and his wife Pocahontas, because she was tired of her dad chasing her husband John around with an axe every time he made the same old joke "Hey, did the White guys pay the rent yet?".
Christopher Columbus got the place of honor at the head of the table. He was very old at this point, and probably dead, but was such a figure of respect that no one told him, but rather made sure the head of the table was down wind from everyone and they didn't ask Chris to carve the turkey or they'd all starve. The Turkeys were much larger then, as it was a long time ago and they were still evolving from their Dinosaur ancestors, so one or two fed all of New England, and there was still some left to make clothes out of. So, now you know why we pardon a Turkey at the white house every year, then chop its head off and eat it. Happy Thanks Giving to all and to all a good night, after a little Alka-Seltzer
Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 12:41 AM

Well thank you kindly jimmyt. I think that this thread is very gracious and, lord knows, we can all do with a poco de gracias now and then. I trust that you will have a lovely turkey day too. We are going to have it at the "newlyweds" new house. This is the first family event in their new home. They are a sweet couple of kids, and haven't a clue what they are letting themselves in for (the thanksgiving dinner, that is).

So jimmyt, from our house to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

CB

Subject: BS: Happy Thanksgiving
From: jimmyt
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 10:24 PM

I just wanted to send out my Thanksgiving greetings to all Mudcatters wherever you are. In America, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to not only overindulge in great traditional food, and spend time with family and friends, but to reflect on what you are thankful for. I am very thankful to have met you all on the threads and the chat room as well as a few very neat folks in England when travelling there last month. Wherever you are, I am glad to have made your acquaintance. jimmyt