Ah, Thanksgiving. A day in which we give thanks to all things American: overeating, football, and family feuds. My family's Thanksgivings are usually pretty pedestrian since we don't celebrate the holidays with our extended family very often. My sister's home from college, so we'll sit around and talk about that, eat, watch football, eat some more, nap and eventually go bowling. It's really almost the perfect day.But in all honesty, please try and remember those less fortunate than you on this day of excess.
Thanksgiving dinner is served to the homeless at a local church in Tacoma, Washington, in November 2004. This year, charities across the nation will be serving Thanksgiving dinner to community members who are in need.
There's probably a hundred articles out there today giving thanks to one thing or another, and any of them would be great to highlight on this day. But given the week that was, one stands out in my mind a little more:
Thankful on a bittersweet Thanksgiving
by Mark McCarter for the Huntsville Times
Monday's tragedy makes us all Lee Generals fans
The whole notion of giving thanks on this Thanksgiving has become a bit skewed this week. The catastrophe of the Lee High School bus accident has changed things for us all.
Forever, we'll drive past that I-565 ramp and it will jolt our memories, the way we look at spaces around the Thanksgiving table once occupied by family members since-departed or removed by geography. Much the same way, albeit on a smaller scale, we look at that hole in the sky in Manhattan.
For the next few weeks, months, maybe years, we'll not hear the wailing of sirens and see the flashing of emergency lights without thinking about this past Monday morning.
We'll be reminded how the first-responders from the city of Huntsville and surrounding communities gathered on a bitterly cold morning on a barren chunk of land under a freeway overpass to begin their good work in the worst of times. Truly a group for which we should be thankful.
The tragic event brought us all a little closer in this community, black and white, student and parent, native and newcomer. We shared in the concern, in the mourning, in the prayers.
Those close to the scene tell us that it was a little less horrible than it could have been. There were indeed some children fortunate to have been injured less severely. For that, we can be thankful and celebrate, even as our hearts break over Christine Collier, Nicole Ford, Tanesha Hill and Crystal McCrary.
In times like these, in our silly little corner of the world in sports, we lean heavily on the "this really puts it in perspective" clich.
Indeed, it shouldn't take such tragedy to remind us of that.
We anguish over mediocre coaching, missed free throws, blown calls and anemic batting averages as if that were life and death. But life and death isn't on the playing fields.
It's in the capricious nature of fate that steals away young people in inexplicable accidents. It's on the battlefields, where too many soldiers have died, where too many are away from home, feasting on K-ration turkey as their places sit empty at dining room tables back home.
On Tuesday night, Lee High was going to play a basketball game. Mike Easterling and I drove over that afternoon only to be greeted by empty parking lot. The game had been canceled.
No way the show could go on right then.
By same token, the games will go on. They should go on.
Sports have a way of healing, of returning a security blanket of normalcy in troubled times.
Remember the boost a World Series in New York provided after 9/11. Remember how the Saints marched home this September for a game at the Superdome, a building that once brought us some of Katrina's most horrific images and stories.
On this bittersweet Thanksgiving, I'm so thankful today for family. For a daughter who flew home Wednesday for a long-awaited reunion. For two cool stepsons. For parents around whose table we'll gather today.
For my wife Patricia, who has reported on this tragedy for our newspaper all week with such elegance and tenderness.
I couldn't, wouldn't trade jobs with her. Ugly as sports may be, ugly as chat rooms and talk shows and spoiled fans and pampered athletes can make it, even in my cynical dotage, I still find comfort in the beautiful sides of sports, and I'm thankful I still can.
I'm thankful that sports will eventually bring comfort to Lee High. And then all of us in this community, black and white, student and parent, native and newcomer, will in our broken hearts be Lee Generals fans.
Contact Mark McCarter at markcolumn@aol.com
Thanksgiving News
Turkey Farmers Build a Better Bird
Demand for heritage, organic, and free-range turkeys has grown recently due to health-conscious consumers who trust small, family farms
With annual sales of 1.4 billion pounds of turkey totaling $1.5 billion, Carolina Turkeys' Butterball, the best selling turkey brand in the U.S. for more than 40 years, won't be losing its spot on most American tables any time soon. Still, it's worth noting the underserved market for alternatives to mass-produced turkeys.
Farmers like Mary Pitman of Mary's Free-Range Turkey and other independent farms across the country say they are struggling to keep up with the demand for heritage, organic, and free-range turkeys that they and their customers believe are healthier than the birds available at most supermarkets.
A spokesperson for the American Livestock Breeds Conservatory estimates heritage turkeys account for about 5% of today's total turkey market and that the number of heritage turkeys kept alive for breeding increased by 220% between 1997 and 2003. The Organic Trade Assn. estimates that the organic poultry market was worth $161 million in 2005, up 53% from 2004...[READ MORE]
The Turkey Diaries: A personal account from the owner of a turkey-frying business shows just how crazy the days leading up to Thanksgiving can be.
SPORTS/IDEAS
Patriots vs. Redskins
By Kevin Hassett
Who has it right, and who has it wrong? KEVIN HASSETT on the economics of managing an NFL football team.
Economists optimistically dub their field a social “science” because they hope that immutable fundamental laws of the economy like Isaac Newton’s laws of physics lurk underneath it all. But economics depends on human behavior, and Newton was never tempted to study man. “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies,” he wrote, “but not the madness of people.” Good decision. People are different from particles, and there is mounting evidence that, thanks to the vagaries of humans, a lasting, unified economic law book is beyond our grasp. Consider the National Football League.
PatriotsFootball teams have a relatively simple economic problem to solve. They have to fill their rosters with players, and have to pay the entire collection of players an amount fixed by the league. They can add players in two main ways: sign veterans as free agents or hire new players out of college in a league-wide draft. Veteran free agents get a salary set in the free market. Most draftees receive a relatively lower salary set by collective bargaining. What they are paid depends on the round in which they are drafted.Economics has a very clear prediction for optimal team behavior. Firms should load up on draft picks, especially from the inexpensive late rounds. Every team has the same cumulative salary to pay, so, to outperform the other teams, you must receive higher value relative to salary from your players than your opponents receive from theirs. If, for example, you select a Pro Bowl (all-star) receiver in the fifth round of the draft, that player may well receive a salary one-tenth that of a veteran Pro Bowl receiver of roughly equal talent who has had his salary set on the market. So your team gets a huge surplus.
It is nearly impossible to derive surplus from the veteran free-agent market, since you are paying market wages. While injuries and emergencies might require some veteran signing, the draft is the only place to build a winning team...[READ MORE]
MUSIC
When I six and seven years old we used to go down to the Salmon-a-Rama in Racine, WI to see all the fish that were caught and watch some bands. It was always a weird time, with on one hand the smell of fresh caught fish laying around or getting cleaned, and on the other, people smoking, drinking, and eating fried cheese curds. If ever Wisconsin had it's own picturesque moment, that was it, sadly.
My favorite reason for going, outside of the cheese curds, was to see one of the bands who had this female lead singer that I had a huge crush on. I know I was only a little kid, but that didn't mean I couldn't already fall in love with a rock star...even is she was only a Lake Michigan area rock star. She had really long blonde hair, smoked, drank, and wore leather. And like most female rockers, she was captivating in that sexy yet powerful way...much like artists featured in the following bands.
Featured Artist: Niki Kwik
With their unique brand of heavy rock and unstoppable live performances, Niki Kwik never fails to entertain. Declared to be, "Hands down, the best female-fronted rock band in Arizona," by Monsoon Radio, and nominated for Best Female Artist and Listener's Choice in the 2005 Arizona Infusion of Music Awards, Niki Kwik is one of the most exciting bands from the Phoenix area in a long time [Myspace].
Niki Kwik - "Movie of My Life"
Niki Kwik at Myspace
Featured Artist: Sierra Swan
The lovely chanteuse, Sierra Swan, has been wowing audiences, whether sharing a stage with James Blunt nationally or at local Los Angeles hot spots. The songstress has been working around the clock supporting her intoxicating debut album, Ladyland (on Interscope/Custard Records). Swan's presentation of her lyrically-charged songs is both intense and vulnerable, showcasing an artist who is plainly, human. From the piano-driven opener, "Copper Red," to the confessional balladry of "Mother," there's one outstanding component: Swan's captivating voice.
"With its lyrical subterfuge and musical subtleties, the 27-year old's debut puts her in rarefied company."
— Los Angeles Times
Stream some Sierra Swan tracks at her website
Sierra Swan at Myspace
Featured Track: Cinema, Cinema "Four Alarm"
Download "Four Alarm" (mp3)
from "Viva!! EP"
by Cinema, Cinema
Digitone Records
Bloc Party - "Banquet"
TV on the Radio - "Province"
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