Tag: Thanksgiving

Not Reminding You Not to Overeat

I thought I’d post a reminder to myself not to overeat, and share it with you, telling you not to overeat, if you’re celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday. But I hear people think that’s body-shaming, so I’m going to refrain.

I was reminding myself not to overeat because it’s not good for my general physical disposition. As I’m in my sixties and know my family history on Dad’s side, cardiovascular problems challenge the males. Overeating doesn’t help, especially when it’s food that I enjoy, like cheese and buttery mashed potatoes, washed down with wine, followed by pie with ice cream and whip cream. Dad is still alive and doing well at eighty-five, but I lost a cousin to a heart-attack when he was forty-three, an uncle has had several bypasses and stents (starting in his mid-thirties), and Grandpa died of a massive coronary when he was sixty-five.

But I don’t want to body-shame anyone, especially myself, so I’m not going to remind you or me not to overeat this Thanksgiving. Of course, the one accused of body-shaming, Sarah Michelle Gellar, added a throwback lingerie shot of herself with her reminder. I’m not going to post such a photo, because I don’t have any decent shots of myself in lingerie. Something goes horribly awry with the camera whenever I take one. I don’t know why. I guess it’s fate.

I will also not mention how I grimace with guilt and sadness when I think of our Thanksgiving traditions of over-indulgence in a world and country where so many are starving and suffering, or that we’re giving thanks for being safe when so many are displaced by war and natural disasters.

Whether you overeat or not, or celebrate Thanksgiving or not, I hope you’re not one of those suffering, and you have a wonderful day today and Thursday, and hell, let’s go for broke and wish you a great life. I also hope that you don’t suffer from being body-shamed, and that you realize that you’re more than your body.

This has not been a public service announcement.

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Floofgiving

Floofgiving (floofinition) – an observance to show affectation and gratitude to housepet(s).

In use: “Every morning when he got up, again when he returned home, and again before going to bed, he showered his pets with kisses, and gave them treats, making everyday Floofgiving in his home.”

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The Pirates’ Thanksgiving Dream

To begin, it’s Thanksgiving. I’ve volunteered to feed the pirates a Thanksgiving meal.

Setting: a modern port city. I don’t know its name. The pirates are not a baseball or football team. They’re not a social organization. They’re pirates on sailing ships.

My offer to feed the pirates pleases them. I set about getting the ingredients. It all comes together. Strangely, though, I’ve put the meal in someplace that turns out to be a toilet, and the meal is gone when I automatically flush.

It’s freak out time. OMG, the food is gone. OMG, why’d I put it in the toilet? Why’d I flush? Well, did the flushing part matter? I mean, once it’s in the toilet….

Panic time. Find replacement food. I scurry about, reaching out and begging for help. Promises are exchanged but time is growing short. Thanksgiving is almost here, it’s almost time for the meal – but there’s also a storm coming.

People are fleeing the storm. The sky is darkening. Storm surge waves are growing larger and more powerful. I’m on a plaza by a hotel, and the waves are half of the hotel’s height.

But strangely, on that plaza, I’m in sunlight. I know the storm is coming. but the waves and wind don’t touch me. I’m less worried about the storm than I worry about feeding the pirates. I know my opportunity is slipping away. People have evacuated. Ships are sailing away. I’m not certain of the pirates’ location now, but I’m certain that I won’t be able to feed them a Thanksgiving meal, and I’m sad.

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Eating

You ever have the good fortune to eat so much that you think, I am never going to eat again?

Yes, I’ve been lucky enough to do that many times in my life. Yesterday was one of those times.

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Thanksgiving Thursday

If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope the day is joyful, the food and drink is plentiful, and you have a chance to relax and enjoy yourself.

If you’re not celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope the day is joyful, the food and drink is plentiful, and you have a chance to relax and enjoy yourself.

That’s my hope for everyone for everyday.

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Thanksgiving

Our glasses were refilled from the pitchers, with the usual comments about head. I grinned at Ed as I slid his glass to him. “There you go, my friend,” I said. “Drink up.”

“Thanks,” he said. He seemed suddenly subdued. He’s a moody guy but he’d just been laughing and joking. I wondered what threw the switch.

“You okay?” I said.

He nodded and took a quick sip of beer.

“What are your Thanksgiving plans?” I said.

Ed shrugged. “Don’t know yet. Still firming.” Sitting up, he turned and looked at me. “I just realized while sitting here, that I don’t have any memories of Thanksgiving with Dad.”

“Sorry,” I said. “Wow. Did he pass early?”

“No, he’s still alive, almost ninety,” Ed said. “I guess he was either gone or working in the early years, and then he and Mom divorced. I visited with him after the divorce, but I guess I never spent Thanksgiving with him. It’s just a surprise to realize that.”

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Today’s Theme Music

This is it in America. Finally, a world-shaking significant event has taken place:

Thanksgiving…has arrived.

Others will scoff. I scoff at the scoffers. Go ahead and scoff back at me scoffing at you for scoffing. You want a scoff off?

Let’s scoff.

But Thanksgiving happens every year, doubters say.

Oh, you doubters, I scoff. Yes, Thanksgiving happens every year, which is a large part of its importance. It’s one of the big holiday anchors in America, the others being Christmas, the Super Bowl, and the Academy Awards. Their annual occurrence don’t make them any less special and amazing anew every year. Thanksgiving is especially important for America because the holiday season that commences on the Black Friday the day after T-Day is economically critical for America’s commerce and pop-culture. The only thing not going on sale in this period is healthcare. I’m sure they’ll get around to it. Without Thanksgiving and Black Friday, they wouldn’t be Christmas, and then that damn music that’s been playing in stores since early October would go and on and on, like that damn pink Energizer bunny.

So you need a theme song that will carry you as you sit down with relatives and play twenty questions to catch up, confront a spread of food and gorge on dessert, or rush out the door to shop. Something to hum to yourself to gird your courage for these gritty, daunting moments.

I give you the theme to ‘Dragnet’.

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I Lament

I lament that there doesn’t seem to be any good Thanksgiving songs in America. Christmas songs are being played in many stores. Why didn’t those Pilgrims and others write some good Thanksgiving songs? What happened to, “Hark, the herald Pilgrims sing, Thanksgiving has come again?”

Nobody sang, “I’ll be home for Thanksgiving, if only in my dreams.”

Nobody marched to the chant, “I don’t know but I’ve been told, the Thanksgiving dinner is getting cold. I don’t know but I concede, roasted turkey makes me sleep.”

Disappointing.

Perhaps, per my wife’s view, Thanksgiving doesn’t deserve a celebration because of all the Native Americans killed as they took over the ‘new world’.

I lament that I don’t know much about Christmas in other countries. It’s been a few decades since I was overseas for the holidays. Are Christmas songs being played in stores in Japan, Europe, Australia, et cetera, already? Do other countries have their versions of Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Do citizens in other nations have any idea what I’m writing about?

I lament that my rear end falls asleep so easily. By ‘falls asleep’, I mean it becomes uncomfortable and grows numb. I want to know: have studies been done? Does writer’s butt affect other writers besides me?

I lament that I have but one lap to give to my cats. Tucker is a big fella and takes up the entire lap. That doesn’t stop Quinn, a small fellow, from making the attempt. If Quinn is already occupying my lap, Tucker will go high and attempt to perch on my chest or shoulder. Not comfortable.

Our two recent rescues, Boo Radley and Meep, haven’t demonstrated any lap interests. Boo likes sleeping alongside us, following the standard cat practice of tucking up against a leg or hip. Meep keeps his distant. He’s not socialized to co-exist with humans well. We’re working on it.

I lament that so much fake news and false information permeates the Internet. Worse than relying on this information, when it turns out to be false, or worse, deliberately false, it undermines other information. I come more and more to distrust news on the net. It requires greater due diligence on my part to vet information, and that’s just damn wearying. It’s nice to impossible to fix false information once it’s out there. Stories that were proven false as far back as 1998 get some cosmetic updates and become circulated as a new truth.

Of course, I lament that I tend toward globalization. When one corporation or politician is caught lying, I tend to brand them all. But then, there is a rich history of corporations and politicians lying to us and misleading us.

Likewise, I lament that there seems to be some seriously flawed understanding of the star system, when people give one to five stars to hotels and restaurants.

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Happy Monday, Writers

You may not have noticed but Monday has struck. Here we are, the first Monday of this week, probably the only one planned for this week, for all I know. I believe that might be true.

Here in ‘Merica, we’re planning hard for the Next Big Holiday. That’s right, Christmas! Woo-hoo! Between now and then, we’ll also celebrate Black Friday. YOU CAN GET YOUR BLACK FRIDAY PRICES NOW if you’re a smart shopper. But I’ll bet many smart shoppers are holding back, nodding (perhaps mentally), concluding, “They say these are Black Friday prices, but I’ll bet the prices will be lower on Black Friday. I’ll bet that if they’re offering these great deals this early, they’ll have a better deal on Friday. So I’ll wait.” Cuz they know the deal. They didn’t just start shoppin’ yesterday, ya know. They got their first credit card when they were five years old. Came in the mail, unsolicited, like.

To help pass time until Black Friday and Christmas, we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving, in which a week’s worth of calories are consumed in one day. Many try to eat it all in one sitting, perhaps preparing themselves for the new Fox Reality Show, ‘How Much Can You Eat?’

Eat, as they’re calling it in the biz shorthand, pitch people agin one another in a celebration of food and eating. Each show focuses on one culture’s food, holiday meal or special occasion. We start with fifty-three contestants for this weekly extravaganza. We’ll include side-dishes about the contestants and what eating means to them and why they like to eat, along with fave dish recipes. Domino’s has signed up as a maj sponsor. Domino’s, where, “We love pizza so much, we’ve added salads.”

That’s all fer now. I’m gonna chug my ten shot mocha – “It’s decadent!” — and start writing like a fiend. Happy Monday, everyone!

Happy Monday!

 

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