From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Among the things I'm thankful for: that 80-something bloggers and "best friends for sixty years and counting" Margaret (the Mainer) and Helen (The Texan) are still at it. Helen is having the clan over for turkey again, and setting out some rules. Some snips from her annual letter:
» As always you can leave your electronic devices in the basket by the door and I suggest you do the same with your political opinions. My turkey has both white and dark meat. That means at my table you can be someone who voted for Donald Trump but you do not need to be someone who acts like Donald Trump. If you don’t heed my warning, you’ll get the store-bought pies Gertrude brings rather than my homemade ones.
» Football is on all day long. The television is not. When the meal is ready the set is off, and it doesn’t go back on until the last person is done with their meal. God forbid we actually talk to one another.
» Cloe, I am tired of fighting with you, dear. Feel free to bring that disgusting dish you call Jell-O-salad. I question if it is really either. Honey, no one is going to eat it so make sure you have the appropriate container to take it back with you. I don’t need that left-over mess staring at me every time I open my fridge. However, if you want to make it with orange Jell-O this year, we can call it Trump Dump and at least laugh with you rather than at you.
» Parenting is a full-time job. You don’t get to take time off when you get to my house just because it’s a holiday. Little feet stay on the floor and off the furniture. Red drinks and other liquids that stain should either be avoided or consumed outside. My nice things stay out where I can see and enjoy them. Your children’s hands stay off. "Yes" is not the only word in the dictionary. There is also “No” and “Because-I-said-so” (all one word).
» I love each and every one of you and I am so glad to have yet another holiday together. Come hungry and leave full. Hug one another because you can. Argue if you must, but then agree to disagree. Try something new or let go of something old. Give more. Take less. Oh hell. Listen to me rattle on like I am some sort of philosopher. Screw it. Come for the food and stay for the company. Everything else can be made better with gravy. I mean it. Really.
Read the whole letter here. As usual, I'm disappointed there won’t be any livestreaming.
Happy Gobble Gobble, everyone. A few more goodies, including a Molly Ivins Thanksgiving mini-feast, below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, November 24, 2016
Note: As for the rest of the C&J posting week, nothing formal tomorrow although we may post a "Who won the week" poll in the diaries. Back Monday. Have a great holiday and may your end of the wishbone be the long one.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Lighting of the National Christmas Tree with Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, James Taylor, Kelly Clarkson and Yolanda Adams: 7
Date of Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation: 10/3/1863
Average number of calories consumed per person during a Thanksgiving feast, according to the Calorie Control Council: 4,500
Percent of Parade readers who believe calories don't exist on Thanksgiving: 69%
Minimum number of presidents who have called the Butterball hotline, per The West Wing: 1
Number of NFL games today: 3
Population of Turkey, Texas (hometown of Bob Wills): 410
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Your Turkey Day Molly Ivins Moment:
The Progress Report has come up with some dandy things to be thankful for, starting with American troops. It also lists:
- Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., for showing it's patriotic to speak your mind.
- The 90 senators who stood up to Cheney to say that torture is not an American value.
- The 79 senators who demanded the Bush administration detail a plan for Iraq.
- That Sen. Bill Frist is not our physician.
Consider these additional delights: Tom Delay is under indictment, Heckuva Job Brownie is no longer on the public payroll, and for some inexplicable reason, the administration found a Republican prosecutor in the Plame affair who seems to care more about the law than politics. […]
There's music in poor bleeding New Orleans again, Ted Koppel and his hair put in a commendable 25 years, some terrific new films are out, my puppy has not eaten a shoe for an entire month now, and the Mountain West is moving from red to purple. So let's all loosen our belts and get right down to the all-American tradition of overeating on Thanksgiving. It's still a great country, even if it is a little strange. I am grateful for all my fellow citizens -- how would we know it was America if we didn't hear regularly from the nincompoop faction? Happy turkey to you all.
---Thanksgiving, 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day. Just add turkey...
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Things For Which I Am Thankful: 2016 Edition
That the first and middle name of our 44th president is still Barack Hussein and not Donald John for one more Thanksgiving
Joe Biden
Michelle and the kids
Bernie
Hillary
Our troops over here and over there
Khizr and Ghazala Khan
ll the indigenous people of North America
The protesters defending sovereign rights and the environment at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation...and those turning out in the streets to protest the election of him.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
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Elizabeth Warren Democrats
Roy Cooper, who slew evil billionaire-backed North Carolina Pat McCrory
Newly-elected senators Kamala Harris (CA), Tammy Duckworth (IL), Chris Van Hollen (MD), Maggie Hassan (NH) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV).
Maine Senator Angus King (I), for proving to be a voice of sanity in the upper chamber
The Congressional Black, Hispanic and Progressive Caucus
Notorious RBG: stay healthy! (You, too, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor.)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
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The growing transgender rights movement
The expansion of legal recreational use of marijuana
Campaign volunteers and polling place workers
Walmart and fast-food worker protesters
Employers who gave their employees the day off
Employees who don’t get the day off so they can keep America running while the rest of us do
Minimum-wage hike supporters
Gun-safety advocates
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
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Samantha Bee, Larry Wilmore (“Bring him back! Bring him back!"), Stephen Colbert and John Oliver
SNL (special shoutout to Kate McKinnon’s Hillary, Larry David’s Bernie, Alec Baldwin’s Trump and Tom Hanks’ David S. Pumpkins), the cast of Hamilton, Comedy Central’s @Midnight
E.J. Dionne, Eugene Robinson, Paul Begala, Joy Reid, Joan Walsh, Charles Pierce, John Nichols, Howard Dean, David K. Johnston, Trump’s Art of the Deal co-author Tony Schwartz (for telling anyone who would listen about his subject’s awfulness)
Naomi Klein, Marcy Wheeler, Matt Taibbi, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, David Fahrenthold, Kurt Eichenwald, David Corn, Lawrence O’Donnell
Atrios, Digby, Charles M. Blow, Americablog, John Cole, Joe Jervis, Michelangelo Signorile, Dan Savage, Leonard Pitts, Stephanie Miller, Lizz Winstead
Think Progress, Media Matters, The Southern Poverty Law Center, PFAW, PFLAG, 350.org, Black Lives Matter, Planned Parenthood, NAACP, IAVA, ACLU and the many other advocacy organizations that are going to (hopefully) band together and prevent the worst of Trump’s abuses.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
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Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
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My partner, Michael, for growing old with me
All of my bosses (if you’re reading this, you’re one of them) at Daily Kos
The front-pagers and diarists here, for explaining stuff I don't know boo about
The rest of the progressive blogosphere, for having the wisdom to follow all the orders issued by “Keyboard Kingpin” Markos
Netroots Nation and its organizers
Sara R and winglion's quilts
Dirty Fucking Hippies
M'doggie. M'pootie.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
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This shiny object! No, wait...that shiny object over there! No no no...that other shiny object! And that one! And that one! And---ooh ooh---that one!
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
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Wineries
Distilleries
Breweries
The GREAT STATE OF MAINE
Clam chowder
Taco Tuesdays
Excedrin Migraine
Lucky Charms
Odwalla Mango Tango
Candy corn
Snow
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
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Evolution
Electric cars
High-speed rail
Unions
Diversity
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
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Peace. (Yeah, it's a word. Really. I looked it up.)
And, as ever, that magic moment every day at 6am when the Bacardi 151 crosses the blood-brain barrier.
And Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
How 'bout you?
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