Being Thankful

Over the years I've pontificated on Thanksgiving on this forum, discussing my personal history with the American holiday and how we watched the personification of gluttony evolve to where it is today. But yesterday, Thanksgiving 2016, was my son's first Thanksgiving, and we spent most of the day at home. I cooked a feast, but not an unreasonably large amount of food.

I deboned the turkey like you would for Turducken, brined it heavily for a short time, slathered the inside with compound herb butter and rolled it with twine. Roasting three pieces---two small thigh/drumstick combos and the larger double breast roast---with no stuffing or bones, goes so quick. It takes maybe an hour to 75 minutes.

My cousin living in London reached out for some advice: she wanted to throw an American-style Thanksgiving party for about a dozen people, and she wanted there to be too much food. I typed up some ideas and sent them to her. Her dinner is tomorrow--Saturday for anybody reading this too far from now. In England they have their American-Thursday-Special-Holiday on Saturday.

Then I started to think about for what I'm thankful.

My Boy is healthy and growing like a champ, outgrowing his bouncy seat ahead of schedule and into the highchair:

I'm thankful to still be learning. I just learned about the Ruke-man's newest book, a collection of short fiction, due out next May:

I just learned about (and located) the Saturday-morning-cartoons-meets-Michel-Foucault's-philosophy masterpiece "Coyote's Gospel", presented in Animal Man #5, from 1988:

And I just learned about the caracal, a breed of exotic cat. I went down the rabbit hole of research upon finding an article titled "Rare Breeds of Housecats" with the accompanying photo:

THESE ARE HOUSECATS? PETS?!??!! ARE YOU SERIOUS!??!!?

That's what my brain was doing when I saw those kittens. 

Pets? Eh, sure...maybe...depending on where you live...and how much meat you keep on hand...

In the exotic-pet world, narrowing the gaze to cats, the caracals are popular, but not as much as the serval or ocelot, both of which I've heard of. The caracal is a wild cat from northern Africa to the Middle East up to Turkey. It will grow to about 40-50 pounds and eat 1 to 2 pounds of meat a day.

The article made sure to remind you to keep them away from your pet birds.

I'm also thankful the Cubbies won the whole enchilada; thankful I don't hate the Cowboys new QB and RB rookie combo; thankful our neighborhood changed the times that tickets get handed out, thereby alleviating some of the issues with overnight parking.

I'm thankful California voted for decrim.

I'm thankful for books like The Stranger and Leaves of Grass and Gravity's Rainbow, and that at least academics have recognized Narrow Road to the Deep North as the masterpiece it is and awarded its author enough funds that he'll be able to avoid having to find work in the mines.

I'm thankful for author and professor Viet Than Nguyen's essay on how the establishment Democrats need to start listening to the radicals and artists in the constituency after this last election. See what playing it safe can get you?

I'm thankful for Durand Jones and the Indications self-titled album:

I'm thankful my cats can actually peacefully coexist for at least twenty minutes:

And I'm thankful to be married to an awesome lady who does more work than I can imagine. She does right by the kid, runs her own business, grows artistically, and stays as sassy and sexy as ever.

Was this inventory corny enough?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Also, I couldn't resist one of the Black Friday memes:

Also also: here's a link to a celebratory deal originated by AdBusters back in the Dubya era.