16 Comments

We were a big family, one year with spouses and kids and cousins there must have been 20 of us.

My brother decided he would help out by peeling the russets for mashed potatoes, a huge bag of them. He didn't know better than to stuff the peelings down the garbage disposer, which of course immediately clogged making the sink unusable.

My Dad had learned some choice words in the Navy, and he employed most of them before settling down and calling around for a plumber who could come out and fix it.

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Happy Thanksgiving, Lileks family. -- Hank

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Boring fact: apparently host and guest both derive from the same word (one word used simultaneously to describe both sides of the "visit" relationship) from 5000 years ago? And also "ghost"? I'm a ton of fun at Thanksgiving!

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>“anything I can do?”<

"Go help your mother set the table."

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Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, James. And "Hey" to the family. This was a great one. Thank you.

Can't wait for Wednesday's out-takes. :-)

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The women cleaning up on holidays is a sort of femininity display , a woman who failed to pitch in would be looked down upon slightly, as would a man who joined them a man, like a man attending a baby shower.

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Although as an "idler" (as they used to call 'em in the Royal Navy), I volunteered to wash up at least a couple times over the decades. Hey, you play to your strengths.

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Happy Thanksgiving , James and family!

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Guest. Not seeing how this is even a question. Of course, I can't cook, so hosting was never an option. Though if they ever invent microwavable turkey, watch out!

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If you are guesting, you may not end up with leftovers. The next-day sandwich is the ultimate gustatory delight. The turkey and stuffing and mashed taters and gravy all smashed together between two slices of white bread... Cold cranberries (not the canned kind, the real kind you make in a pot with sugar and orange juice) and sweet potatoes (with marshmallows of course) on the side... I am currently salivating waiting for Friday.. Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone!

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Nice emotional stinger on the end of the performance, James. Old dead music dudes with bad hair, who also had emotions, would be proud.

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My wife and I have been having what we used to call orphans Thanksgiving and these last few years Friendsgiving for the past 24 years or so. It really kicked in when we moved to Denver in 2000 and most of the people we worked with had also just moved to Denver for our respective companies. The number of people attending rises and falls but I always cook a turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and stuffing. People can bring sides or desserts or not. I've always preferred hosting to guesting.

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The AI photo of James at the table? I would have included a Norway rat peering at the viewer from behind the glass vase in the background.

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Food? A food story? Alright. My mom told me that she would never forgive my dad for complaining bitterly about the food served at her father's funeral. What? Well, I didn't say it would necessarily be a happy story. Funny? Hey, it might have served as an inspiration for a humorous Eunice skit on the Carol Burnett Show.

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Guest. Now and forever. 'Course, the Lions are fun to watch this year. I claim fanhood because I was born at Grace Hospital in Detroit lo these many moons ago (and was then promptly relocated to Alabama six months later).

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Being Canadian, we already celebrated in October. But it's nice to peek in a window and see our good friends/neighbours enjoying the holiday!

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