By David Futrelle
Happy Thanksgiving, if you’re doing that! Otherwise, enjoy your Thursday! I’m very thankful for everyone who reads and supports this blog, for my friends, for everyone who works to make this rough world a better place, for everyone who voted against the GOP in the election. And for cats, my own two lovely cats and cats in general. Dogs are cool too. And capybaras.
Anyway, an open thread.
Rumors are swirling that Kirstjen Nielsen is about to become the latest victim of Trump White House Musical Chairs.
Is that thankfulness-worthy?
I’m thankful that I didn’t eat more than I did. Oof.
@David Futrelle:
This may be an oddly specific thing, but I’m thankful that something about the encoding or formatting of your blog not only allows me to comment from my clamshell Geezerphone but permits me to reach sites, via links posted here, that would be inaccessible via Google or if entered directly.
More generally, I enjoyed an excellent lunch at my best friend’s house, in the compay of her husband and two sons–all of whom regard women as peers and equals. (Being raised by a Geek Girl and an exemplar of decent manhood has done wonders toward keeping the boys out of the Incredible Shrinking Man-Box. )
@Surplus to Requirements: I don’t even know anymore. I’m afraid my circuits have been overloaded?
I did have a nice Thanksgiving. Since it was just me and Mr. Dormousing, we had oven-fried chicken, scalloped potatoes, broccoli, jalapeno cornbread, and Sam Adams Winter Lager. I’ve always thought turkey was overrated.
Question for Indigenous people, especially Australians.
I recently visited The Pinnacles, in Western Australia (where a series of sandstone spires stick up from bare desert sand). The Aboriginal story of their creation is insanely creepy. It inspired an idea for a horror story with a modern-day setting, where a young man pays the price for being disrespectful to the site.
To write the story, I’d have to include an outline of the Aboriginal creation story. I’m very mindful of cultural appropriation. I’m white. I’d love some thoughts from Indigenous people about whether this could be done in a respectful way. Or from any authors who’ve faced a similar situation, were you able to make it work and how? Many thanks.
I’m thankful because . . .
. . . there is hope that, with aggressive action, we can turn our climate crisis around.
. . . the wildfire in Paradise(!) is now 90 percent contained. (Rain!) My thoughts are with those who remain in tents, who are at risk of flooding (yeah, more rain). Like New Orleans, Paradise will rebuild.
. . . a record number of women, including women of color, were elected to Congress.
. . . we in the USA still have some semblance of a democracy.
. . . the manosphere remains so damned funny! Thx, guys, for all the laughs!
@ tosca
I’m the whitiest whitefella that ever whited; I do though have a passing interest in this. I won’t comment on substantive matters; I hope you can get some input from some qualified people there. One thing I would suggest though, is to use “The Dreaming” rather than “Dreamtime”. They are both used, but there’s a shift towards the Dreaming to recognise it’s an ongoing process, and not something bound to the past.
ETA: (I apologise if I’m teaching you to suck eggs there)
Correction: The heroic efforts of firefighters and volunteers, along with some very timely rain, have helped to contain the fire in Paradise, California.
I’m thankful my stepdad didn’t burn to death while on the firefighting force.
Tosca
There is no one-and-only creation story for all Australian indigenous peoples. Every group has their own version which is strongly rooted in place and time.
The idea of Dreaming is certainly common to all of them, but it’s ext.reme.ly. easy for outsiders to put any number of feet wrong. You’ll need to do a hell of a lot of reading about this particular group – and be aware that it’s possible that such a striking geographic-topographic feature could be part of several groups world structure. It’s entirely possible that a lot of groups might assemble at certain times, or that they or others might visit one by one for various reasons at different times.
My only advice would be … Research. Research. Research.
Friends of my husband who run a restaurant invited us to join them for a Thanksgiving Family Meal. First time in years I haven’t had to cook, both of our sons were there, everything was delicious and I didn’t drink too much. A wonderful break from routine.
I’m thankful for my cat too
Thankful there’s a huge backlash against my state’s Governor since he put his Church above the people’s voices
Thankful I saw the new She Ra (it’s really good if you like animation)
Thankful I’m getting better in the (Sorry if it’s triggering ) suicidal thought department
Thankful my favorite show ever is coming back for a new season this December (I know it’s minor but rejoice)
I’m thankful for ants.
Happy thanksgiving to all American Mammotheers!
Here in the UK it’s…Friday morning. But I figure I might treat myself to my first mince pie of the year in your honour
I’m grateful the husband took the son to a movie and let me get on with cooking. And the pumpkin pie was excellent, and there’s a piece left for breakfast.
Ate; napped. Woke up, had pie. Fell asleep again, woke up, went to bed, put on Alice’s Restaurant. Good day.
I’m thankful for my husband for all sorts of reasons, including accepting that I didn’t want to try the new vegan roast today partly from lack of cooking motivation and partly because I burned my tongue a couple days ago and my sense of taste is fucked (which really ruins the thought of trying new dishes).
I am also thankful the mechanic finally figured out what was making my car stall out (some leaks letting air in the fuel line; it was one of those horrid problems where not only does it happen inconsistently but its symptoms could be any one of a dozen different things).
The world seems like such a shit-show at present that it’s hard to feel positive. But I’m thankful to people who have the spoons to fight back: against brexit, against Trump, against Bolsonaro, against misogyny, against the right in general. I’m thankful for all the people fighting fires, both literally and figuratively. And I’m thankful for cockatoo videos, my current favourite way of cheering up, and the people who work hard to give a decent life to these wonderful creatures who most of us don’t deserve.
Well said, Moggie. Hear, hear! (even though this is also the expression the evil clowns use in the Westminster cockpit (in both senses of the word)).
Thankful for a lot here – even though we don’t have Thanksgiving in the UK: grumbling day might be more our thing.
Thankful to be still a cancer survivor: going into 5 years come January.
Thankful for Mr Bluecat, now 73, and managing with Parkinsons Disease and sight loss, with grace and good humour.
Thankful about 400 of us turned out to laugh and point at about 30 fascists who thought Remembrance Day was best celebrated by demonstrating around our war memorial. Some of them wearing red poppies while making Nazi salutes – I kid you not – aimed apparently at a group of counter-demonstrators from the synagogue. I’m thankful we had the best songs (in many languages) and the best fun, and that there were so few of them, comparatively.
Thankful my lovely stepson turned up on Wednesday to say happy birthday to his Dad – as stepson lives in New York this was pretty exceptional.
Thankful to be in work, possibly more than I can manage. I’ve been conducting a history tour of a secret underground site in my city… interest was plodding along. And then this came out, and we had 700 enquiries in the first 3 hours (and we can’t get more than about 12 people at a time down there).
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/weird-norfolk-diagon-alley-hidden-norwich-1-5770249
And thankful for David’s unimaginably arduous work on this site, and all the great people commenting and making mock. Good to know you all.
I am super thankful for how well my blended family has come together over the past year. I know it has to be rough on the boys – they didn’t choose it, but they recognise that we are a family and even though we’re not perfect we have a good time.
I am thankful for my excellent physical therapist and sports masseur. I have been walking in pain for a couple of years and I’ve just had my first couple of pain free days this week. Which is fabulous.
We are having our Thanksgiving meal tonight as this is when my stepsons are able to join us – plus Thursday is just kind of an any other day here in the UK.
I’m also, and rather ridiculously, thankful for RuPaul’s Drag Race. The past couple of episodes (I’m out of synch and watching on Netflix) have been really therapeutic for me.
And I’m thankful for this site. Thanks David for the work you do.
I’m thankful for this community, and an upcoming weekend. It’s Friday, and very black here in Helsinki.
A partial list of what I’m thankful for:
1)My apartment
2)The Red Sox winning the 2018 World Series
3)Boston’s museums
4)My neighborhood library
5)Coffee
Speaking of “Black Friday”, I just learned that the English phrase (as in marketing gimmick) was actually trademarked by one Finnish retailer in 2011. Apparently, back then the relevant authorities didn’t know the phrase was in common usage abroad.
In the last few years, many other retailers have picked it up, and the trademark holder eventually gave up sending cease & desist letters (or whatever the proper term is). This thing is still relatively small, but escalating fast.
I’m thankful for:
My cat
The drugs which hold my progressive genetic disease at bay (yay medical science)
The guy I am seeing, for being smart, funny and not in any way like the men David features here (just for the interest value, he is around 5’4, two inches shorter than me, and very slimly built. However, one of the things I really like about him is that he does not appear to have got the memo about being an “undateable manlet”, and it certainly doesn’t appear to have interfered with his sex life. It’s always nice to see people in the real world proving this bullshit wrong just by living their lives)
@rugbyyogi
I find that it’s pretty much impossible to be depressed during an episode of Drag Race. Before, yes. After, yes. During? No.
Things which have a similar effect: eating cha siu bao, playing with animals, exercising hard, gaming
FelineFine,
Glad someone else watched and liked She-Ra!
It’s fun, the characters are well developed and most if not all the characters are clearly intended to be queer. The show runner, Noelle Stevenson has stated that all her characters should be assumed gay unless she states otherwise.
It seems destined to be a cult hit and I highly recommend it.
Plus, it’s the latest pop culture thing aggrieved dude bros are tantruming about. It’s ruining their childhoods because it’s too SJW and She-Ra/Adora isn’t sexy enough.
It’s pretty funny. He-man and She-Ra were vehicles to sell merchandise. It can be nostalgic fun to revisit them, but some of these guys are acting like it’s great art being sullied. In reality, the reboot takes a shallow but fun cartoon and gives it some real substance. I’ve rewatched some of the original. The reboot is superior.