Happy Thanksgiving
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Franz Ferdinand
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I think I posted this before; but, here is quite humorous article on Thanksgiving dinner:
Calvin Trillin's Campaign to Make Spaghetti Carbonara the National Dish for Thanksgiving –the real story of the first Thanksgiving
[The following has been shamelessly excerpted from "Third Helpings," by Calvin Trillin. (These passages are quoted from Trillin, C. "The Tummy Trilogy," Farrar, Strauss and Giroux: New York, 1994, pp. 259-67.)]:
I have been campaigning to have the national Thanksgiving dish changed from turkey to spaghetti carbonara.
It does not take much historical research to uncover the fact that nobody knows if the Pilgrims really ate turkey at the first Thanksgiving dinner. The only thing we know for sure about what the Pilgrims ate is that it couldn't have tasted very good. Even today, well brought-up English girls are taught by their mothers to boil all veggies for at least a month and a half, just in case one of the dinner guests turns up without his teeth... (It is certainly unfair to say that the English lack both a cuisine and a sense of humor: their cooking is a joke in itself.)
It would also not require much digging to discover that Christopher Columbus, the man who may have brought linguine with clam sauce to this continent, was from Genoa, and obviously would have sooner acknowledged that the world was shaped like an isosceles triangle than to have eaten the sort of things that the English Puritans ate. Righting an ancient wrong against Columbus, a great man who certainly did not come all this way only to have a city in Ohio named after him, would be a serious historical contribution. Also, I happen to love spaghetti carbonara.
[In our family]...Thanksgiving has often been celebrated away from home. It was at other people's Thanksgiving tables that I first began to articulate my spaghetti carbonara campaign--although, since we were usually served turkey, I naturally did not mention that the campaign had been inspired partly by my belief that turkey is basically something college dormitories use to punish students for hanging around on Sunday... I reminded everyone how refreshing it would be to hear sports announcers call some annual tussle the Spaghetti Carbonara Day Classic.
I even had a ready answer to the occasional turkey fancier at those meals who insist that spaghetti carbonara was almost certainly not what our forebears ate at the first Thanksgiving dinner. As it happens, one of the things I give thanks for every year is that those people in the Plymouth Colony were not my forebears. Who wants forebears who put people in the stocks for playing the harpsichord on the Sabbath or having an innocent little game of pinch and giggle?
Finally there came a year when nobody invited us to Thanksgiving dinner. Alice's theory was that the word had got around town that I always made a pest out of myself berating the hostess for serving turkey instead of spaghetti carbonara...
However it came about, I was delighted at the opportunity we had been given to practice what I had been preaching--to sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner of spaghetti carbonara.
Naturally, the entire family went over to Rafetto's pasta store on Houston Street to see the spaghetti cut. I got the cheese at Joe's dairy, on Sullivan, a place that would have made Columbus feel right at home--there are plenty of Genoese on Sullivan; no Pilgrims--and then headed for the pork store on Carmine Street for the bacon and ham. Alice made the spaghetti carbonara. It was perfection. I love spaghetti carbonara. Then I began to tell the children the story of the first Thanksgiving:
In England, along time ago, there were people called Pilgrims who were very strict about making everyone observe the Sabbath and cooked food without any flavor and that sort of thing, and they decided to go to America, where they could enjoy Freedom to Nag. The other people in England said, "Glad to see the back of them." In America, the Pilgrims tried farming, but they couldn't get much done because they were always putting their best farmers in the stocks for crimes like Suspicion of Cheerfulness. The Indians took pity on the Pilgrims and helped them with their farming, even though the Indians thought that the Pilgrims were about as much fun as teenage circumcision. The Pilgrims were so grateful that at the end of their first year in America they invited the Indians over for a Thanksgiving meal. The Indians, having had some experience with Pilgrim cuisine during the year, took the precaution of taking along one dish of their own. They brought a dish that their ancestors had learned from none other than Christopher Columbus, who was known to the Indians as "the big Italian fellow." The dish was spaghetti carbonara--made with pancetta bacon and fontina and the best imported prosciutto. The Pilgrims hated it. They said it was "heretically tasty" and "the work of the devil" and "the sort of thing foreigners eat." The Indians were so disgusted that on the way back to their village after dinner one of them made a remark about the Pilgrims that was repeated down through the years and unfortunately caused confusion among historians about the first Thanksgiving meal. He said,
"What a bunch of turkeys!"
http://www.rlrubens.com/Thanksgiving.html
Calvin Trillin's Campaign to Make Spaghetti Carbonara the National Dish for Thanksgiving –the real story of the first Thanksgiving
[The following has been shamelessly excerpted from "Third Helpings," by Calvin Trillin. (These passages are quoted from Trillin, C. "The Tummy Trilogy," Farrar, Strauss and Giroux: New York, 1994, pp. 259-67.)]:
I have been campaigning to have the national Thanksgiving dish changed from turkey to spaghetti carbonara.
It does not take much historical research to uncover the fact that nobody knows if the Pilgrims really ate turkey at the first Thanksgiving dinner. The only thing we know for sure about what the Pilgrims ate is that it couldn't have tasted very good. Even today, well brought-up English girls are taught by their mothers to boil all veggies for at least a month and a half, just in case one of the dinner guests turns up without his teeth... (It is certainly unfair to say that the English lack both a cuisine and a sense of humor: their cooking is a joke in itself.)
It would also not require much digging to discover that Christopher Columbus, the man who may have brought linguine with clam sauce to this continent, was from Genoa, and obviously would have sooner acknowledged that the world was shaped like an isosceles triangle than to have eaten the sort of things that the English Puritans ate. Righting an ancient wrong against Columbus, a great man who certainly did not come all this way only to have a city in Ohio named after him, would be a serious historical contribution. Also, I happen to love spaghetti carbonara.
[In our family]...Thanksgiving has often been celebrated away from home. It was at other people's Thanksgiving tables that I first began to articulate my spaghetti carbonara campaign--although, since we were usually served turkey, I naturally did not mention that the campaign had been inspired partly by my belief that turkey is basically something college dormitories use to punish students for hanging around on Sunday... I reminded everyone how refreshing it would be to hear sports announcers call some annual tussle the Spaghetti Carbonara Day Classic.
I even had a ready answer to the occasional turkey fancier at those meals who insist that spaghetti carbonara was almost certainly not what our forebears ate at the first Thanksgiving dinner. As it happens, one of the things I give thanks for every year is that those people in the Plymouth Colony were not my forebears. Who wants forebears who put people in the stocks for playing the harpsichord on the Sabbath or having an innocent little game of pinch and giggle?
Finally there came a year when nobody invited us to Thanksgiving dinner. Alice's theory was that the word had got around town that I always made a pest out of myself berating the hostess for serving turkey instead of spaghetti carbonara...
However it came about, I was delighted at the opportunity we had been given to practice what I had been preaching--to sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner of spaghetti carbonara.
Naturally, the entire family went over to Rafetto's pasta store on Houston Street to see the spaghetti cut. I got the cheese at Joe's dairy, on Sullivan, a place that would have made Columbus feel right at home--there are plenty of Genoese on Sullivan; no Pilgrims--and then headed for the pork store on Carmine Street for the bacon and ham. Alice made the spaghetti carbonara. It was perfection. I love spaghetti carbonara. Then I began to tell the children the story of the first Thanksgiving:
In England, along time ago, there were people called Pilgrims who were very strict about making everyone observe the Sabbath and cooked food without any flavor and that sort of thing, and they decided to go to America, where they could enjoy Freedom to Nag. The other people in England said, "Glad to see the back of them." In America, the Pilgrims tried farming, but they couldn't get much done because they were always putting their best farmers in the stocks for crimes like Suspicion of Cheerfulness. The Indians took pity on the Pilgrims and helped them with their farming, even though the Indians thought that the Pilgrims were about as much fun as teenage circumcision. The Pilgrims were so grateful that at the end of their first year in America they invited the Indians over for a Thanksgiving meal. The Indians, having had some experience with Pilgrim cuisine during the year, took the precaution of taking along one dish of their own. They brought a dish that their ancestors had learned from none other than Christopher Columbus, who was known to the Indians as "the big Italian fellow." The dish was spaghetti carbonara--made with pancetta bacon and fontina and the best imported prosciutto. The Pilgrims hated it. They said it was "heretically tasty" and "the work of the devil" and "the sort of thing foreigners eat." The Indians were so disgusted that on the way back to their village after dinner one of them made a remark about the Pilgrims that was repeated down through the years and unfortunately caused confusion among historians about the first Thanksgiving meal. He said,
"What a bunch of turkeys!"
http://www.rlrubens.com/Thanksgiving.html
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OscarGuy
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I'm thankful for all those of you who have supported me even when I've been an ass. Sometimes, coming here and seeing appreciation for the site is the only thing that keeps me going.
It's been a hard year and I doubt 2011 will be much better. A couple of things would take the pressure off, but I have to cling to what little joy I can get.
Sadly, I don't post a lot here anymore. I could claim that it was being busy, which I am...extremely, but it's also a little bit that I don't have a lot to say that would seem to carry much value. I'm at odds with a number of people regarding possibilities this year and don't feel like generating conflict since that's just going to add to my current stress levels, which I don't want to do (though, I find it rather amusing that I picked True Grit for lots of nominations long before most did and even when people suggested it would falter, I stuck to them, so it's amazing things with the Coens have come full circle for me).
Anyway, I am thankful for the praise and I'm more thankful to Wes, Tripp and especially Peter for all their hard work and participation on my website. I think you guys have added a great amount of prestige to my site and I am lucky to have you guys. I know I can be pushy and demanding, but you guys haven't complained and I appreciate that.
So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Here's hoping we can get some extra happiness from the least commercialized holidays out there.
It's been a hard year and I doubt 2011 will be much better. A couple of things would take the pressure off, but I have to cling to what little joy I can get.
Sadly, I don't post a lot here anymore. I could claim that it was being busy, which I am...extremely, but it's also a little bit that I don't have a lot to say that would seem to carry much value. I'm at odds with a number of people regarding possibilities this year and don't feel like generating conflict since that's just going to add to my current stress levels, which I don't want to do (though, I find it rather amusing that I picked True Grit for lots of nominations long before most did and even when people suggested it would falter, I stuck to them, so it's amazing things with the Coens have come full circle for me).
Anyway, I am thankful for the praise and I'm more thankful to Wes, Tripp and especially Peter for all their hard work and participation on my website. I think you guys have added a great amount of prestige to my site and I am lucky to have you guys. I know I can be pushy and demanding, but you guys haven't complained and I appreciate that.
So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Here's hoping we can get some extra happiness from the least commercialized holidays out there.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
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FilmFan720
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I will extend a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here too. Whether you celebrate the holiday or not, I hope everyone gets to spend time with family and friends this weekend.
I am off to my in-laws in a few minutes to help get everything ready. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with lung cancer this fall, has a round of chemo today, and still insists on having Thanksgiving at her house. EVERYONE is coming this year, which amounts to almost 40 people, all of whom are bringing a piece of the mean...now I just have to go get the 3 turkeys ready to go!
I am off to my in-laws in a few minutes to help get everything ready. My mother-in-law was diagnosed with lung cancer this fall, has a round of chemo today, and still insists on having Thanksgiving at her house. EVERYONE is coming this year, which amounts to almost 40 people, all of whom are bringing a piece of the mean...now I just have to go get the 3 turkeys ready to go!
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."
- Minor Myers, Jr.
- Minor Myers, Jr.
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Big Magilla
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I know that, despite the hardships, we all have reasons to be thankful, and I know that first and foremost on everyone's mind is gratitude and praise that the Giants won the World Series 
So thankful to this board, which is so clearly the most intelligent and stimulating place of its kind on the Internet.
By the way, Wes, I read somewhere that both FedEx and ATT are hiring rIght now, maybe something to persue.
Tee, are you going to be in New Milford? I'm there now, back to Manhattan Wednesday and back here to Connecticut on THanksgiving.
Edited By Damien on 1290580251
So thankful to this board, which is so clearly the most intelligent and stimulating place of its kind on the Internet.
By the way, Wes, I read somewhere that both FedEx and ATT are hiring rIght now, maybe something to persue.
Tee, are you going to be in New Milford? I'm there now, back to Manhattan Wednesday and back here to Connecticut on THanksgiving.
Edited By Damien on 1290580251
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Sonic Youth
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I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving... stress-free, radiation-free and patdown-free.
I see it's been a difficult year for a few people here. To you especially, I hope that you have a wonderful Thankgiving weekend, a much needed break from real life.
And a hearty appetite to all!
I see it's been a difficult year for a few people here. To you especially, I hope that you have a wonderful Thankgiving weekend, a much needed break from real life.
And a hearty appetite to all!
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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Mister Tee
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I'll be hitting the road for Connecticut tomorrow, and don't expect much online time between now and then. So...
I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to Wes for offering this board and to all (really: all) who participate. As you might have gathered, this year hasn't given me a whole lot for which to be thankful. But at least I know that, any time, day or night, I can stop by here and be assured of reading some opinion that's going to engage or enrage me. Many's the day it provides the only laugh or true intellectual stimulation I get.
So, a salute to you all, and a happy holiday.
I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to Wes for offering this board and to all (really: all) who participate. As you might have gathered, this year hasn't given me a whole lot for which to be thankful. But at least I know that, any time, day or night, I can stop by here and be assured of reading some opinion that's going to engage or enrage me. Many's the day it provides the only laugh or true intellectual stimulation I get.
So, a salute to you all, and a happy holiday.