I’ve written about Black Friday before and still marvel at the spooked herd mentality of people responding, like Pavlov’s dogs, to the ring of the shameless loss leader. But this year may be a little different given the state of our economy. While I expect crowds will still be ridiculous by normal standards, it will be interesting to see, when the numbers are tallied, whether tight money dampened or ignited shoppers’ enthusiasm for bargains.

Me, I’m writing this Thursday night for auto-posting tomorrow at 5 A.M. because we plan on sleeping in. Happy Black Friday!

We’ll be taking tomorrow “off” to enjoy the long holiday weekend. See you Monday!

Dawn and I have a great deal to be thankful for, so making “thanks” a big part of our Thanksgiving is important to us. And a great way to begin is to remember and reflect upon how it all began.

We learned in school that the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, starred the Pilgrims, Squanto and the friendly Wampanoag tribe led by Massasoit, who celebrated a bountiful harvest and the promise of making it through the harsh New England winter. But here are some lesser-known facts about that first Thanksgiving in 1621:

Squanto was a Patuxet Indian who almost single-handedly saved the first Pilgrims from starving to death. He taught them how to catch eels and trap fish during their spring run, plant corn and pumpkins and trap beavers. He helped the Pilgrims despite having been captured and sold into slavery by an English sea captain. According to Peter Marshall and David Manuel in The Light and the Glory, Squanto was shipped to Malaga, Spain, where he was rescued by local friars, and eventually returned to Plymouth, where he discovered not one member of his tribe was left alive.

During that first Thanksgiving celebration, the Wampanoags brought fat wild turkeys to the feast and introduced the Pilgrims to a local delicacy called popcorn. Next time you enjoy some at the movies, thank the Wampanoags, not Orville Reddenbacher.

They celebrated that first Thanksgiving in October, not November. In 1941, Congress issued a national proclamation setting our observance of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.

During the winter of 1621-22, an influx of new settlers eventually forced the pilgrims to each live on a daily ration of five kernels of corn. At the following Thanksgiving, Marshall and Manuel noted, “the first course was served ‘…on an empty plate and in front of each person were five kernels of corn… lest anyone should forget.’”

We have a lot to be thankful for, as did those first pilgrims. And for all its faults, we live in a country where we can write, speak and worship freely, and where we can attempt to right wrongs without being thrown in jail or exiled. Solomon wrote, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Well, where there is no thankfulness, people sour, slowly, like leftover cranberry sauce. We need Thanksgiving, if for no other reason than to remember that, while there may be only five kernels of corn on our plate, there are still five, and the promise of harvest is only a season or two away.

Thanks Todd!

Heather sends this informative, short quiz reasoning, I suspect, that since most of us will be enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner in a couple days, we should know something about the critters we’re about to devour. What’s to know, you ask? Well, take the quiz. You may discover you don’t know jack about turkeys and learn something new in the process. Gobble, gobble!

It’s time for out 2nd Annual Hand Turkey Drawing Contest. I know, the 1st Annual got off to a late start, but we’re starting a little earlier this year. Draw a hand turkey, scan it and email it to me (see “Contact” in Navigation Bar at right) and I’ll post the “winners”. The usual valuable prizes will be awarded! Kids’ efforts get extra points and the deadline is midnight Thursday.

For those of you who’ve forgotten how to draw a hand turkey, here’s an animated GIF from my old website to help jog your memories:

Stunning Break with Last Eight Years

In the first few weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama’s appearance on CBS’ “Sixty Minutes” on Sunday witnessed the president-elect’s unorthodox verbal tic, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama’s decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it “alienating” to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

“Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement,” says Mr. Logsdon. “If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist.”

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, “Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off.”

The President-elect’s stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

“Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can’t really do there, I think needing to do that isn’t tapping into what Americans are needing also,” she said.

Via Andy Borowitz

Got this yesterday from Cousin Mike. I always wondered how the trend got started…

A man is at work one day when he notices that his co-worker is wearing an earring. He knows him to be an otherwise conservative fellow and is curious about his sudden change in “fashion sense.”

Finally, he approaches the co-worker and says, “I didn’t know you were into earrings…”

“Don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s only an earring,” the co-worker sheepishly replies.

“So, how long have you been wearing one?”

“Ever since my wife found it in my truck…”

Got this Onion News Network spoof (putting the “party” back in party politics) via Dan Piraro…

Warning: It’s political satire. If you’re completely burned out on politics, if watching even one more attempt at political humor will make your head explode, just say no… and walk away. Really.

Personally, I found this amusing.

So, how’s that bailout working for us? Not so well, I’m afraid. Read John Hawkins’ assessment. Maybe it’s time we start taking things “a little more seriously”…

Many rock purists and music snobs (myself included) often lament the quality of most modern pop/rock music. “Music these days is so trite and derivative,” they say. “It’s just been downhill since the 60’s and 70’s. Those were the days.”

A few years ago, Rolling Stone magazine added fuel to the music snobbery fire with its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list. Anyone casually paging through the list would notice that the bulk of the list was comprised of songs from the 60’s and 70’s, just like the music snobs always say.

Lee at Overthinking It, however, wasn’t content with the casual analysis. So he punched the list into Excel, crunched some numbers, and found an interesting parallel between the decline of rock music quality and, of all things, the decline in US oil discovery and production:

Click image to enlargersize it

Notice that after the birth of rock & roll in the 1950’s, the production of “great songs” peaked in the 60’s, remained strong in the 70’s, but drastically fell in the subsequent decades. It would seem that, like oil, the supply of great musical ideas is finite. By the end of the 70’s, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Motown greats, and other genre innovators quickly extracted the best their respective genres had to offer, leaving little supply for future musicians. …

I don’t think I’m being pessimistic about the outlook on pop/rock music or snobbish about my retro music tastes. I think the same idea applies to other creative fields that follow a similar arc of rapid exploration followed by derivative works. Assuming some constraints on the definition of the form, the amount of innovation that can be done within that form is finite. Most of it will come early and fast, then decline after the peak. Impressionist paintings. Star Wars movies. I could go on. …

Read the entire article…

An oldie from Jessica…

A seminar on “Psychic Phenomena” was in progress when the speaker decided to involve his audience.

“I’d like everyone who believes they have seen a ghost to please stand”, he directed. Nearly the entire audience stood up.

“Now, those of you who have had a close encounter with a ghost, please remain standing.” About two dozen people continued standing.

“All right, now how many of those still standing believe they have been in the same room with a ghost?” Six people remained standing.

“Okay”, he said, grinning, “anyone who believes they’ve had sex with a ghost, remain standing.” Everyone chuckled as they took their seats except one elderly gentleman who continued standing.

“Sir, are you claiming to have actually had sex with a ghost?”

“Oh, I’m very sorry, I thought you said ‘goat’…”

Got this from Mike. I fear some folks are going to be left high and dry come February…

Today is my wonderful wife’s birthday. We celebrated with friends Saturday at TSO’s annual Sacramento concert from a suite at Arco Arena, then spent yesterday with son Rick, Kim and grandsons Chris and Jacob. The Sandhill Cranes are migrating, so we all drove down to Lodi to witness their “gathering”, a spectacle of several thousand birds descending for the evening on a small patch of wilderness preserve. Afterward, we shared a birthday dinner at BJ’s, vowed to photograph the cranes’ sunrise liftoff next weekend, and finally called it a great day.

Happy birthday, Sweetheart.