Merry Thanksgiving...

[Damocles]

Taking a break from the heat of the kitchen, I'm now on my regular computer.

For us US folk, this is a pretty big holiday. Not so much for the Brits.

The Canadians went and decided to have their Thanksgiving early, I guess they think it is kind of like a Primary, the earlier the better....

 

[Annie]

Taking a break from the heat of the kitchen, I'm now on my regular computer.

For us US folk, this is a pretty big holiday. Not so much for the Brits.

The Canadians went and decided to have their Thanksgiving early, I guess they think it is kind of like a Primary, the earlier the better....

I've got the overhead vent and fan going. Oven is at 400, so it's toasty in here. Leaving with my potatoes in a little over an hour. Hope everyone's day is great!

 

[charver]

I'm not really sure what you people get up to at these Thanksgiving things. Oh, i know about the eating part but i'm thoroughly baffled by this turkey pardoning nonsense.

Anyway, i wish you all good feasting and whatever else it is that you are doing today on this day of giving thanks and that.

 

[Annie]

I'm not really sure what you people get up to at these Thanksgiving things. Oh, i know about the eating part but i'm thoroughly baffled by this turkey pardoning nonsense.

Anyway, i wish you all good feasting and whatever else it is that you are doing today on this day of giving thanks and that.

It's about Thanks, Puritans, revolution, civil war, etc:


http://www.plimoth.org/

Today's events
~ "Flight Path: Plymouth Beach"
4:30 PM ~ Movie at Plimoth Cinema
~ Flight Path: Plymouth Beach May 3 - November 30
~ Thanksgiving Week at Plimoth Plantation

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122765806822958269.html

'A Day of Thanksgiving'
The national holiday actually began at a dark hour during our war for independence. Here's the story.

By IRA STOLL
When was the first Thanksgiving? Most of us think of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621. But if the question is about the first national Thanksgiving holiday, the answer is that the tradition began at a lesser-known moment in 1777 in York, Pa.

In July 1776, the American colonists declared independence from Britain. The months that followed were so bleak that there was not much to give thanks for. The Journals of the Continental Congress record no Thanksgiving in that year, only two days of "solemn fasting" and prayer.

For much of 1777, the situation was not much better. British troops controlled New York City. The Americans lost the strategic stronghold of Fort Ticonderoga, in upstate New York, to the British in July. In Delaware, on Sept. 11, troops led by Gen. George Washington lost the Battle of Brandywine, in which 200 Americans were killed, 500 wounded and 400 captured. In Pennsylvania, early in the morning of Sept. 21, another 300 American soldiers were killed or wounded and 100 captured in a British surprise attack that became known as the Paoli Massacre.

Philadelphia, America's largest city, fell on Sept. 26. Congress, which had been meeting there, fled briefly to Lancaster, Pa., and then to York, a hundred miles west of Philadelphia. One delegate to Congress, John Adams of Massachusetts, wrote in his diary, "The prospect is chilling, on every Side: Gloomy, dark, melancholy, and dispiriting."

His cousin, Samuel Adams, gave the other delegates -- their number had dwindled to a mere 20 from the 56 who had signed the Declaration of Independence -- a talk of encouragement. He predicted, "Good tidings will soon arrive. We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection."

He turned out to have been correct, at least about the good tidings. On Oct. 31, a messenger arrived with news of the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga. The American general, Horatio Gates, had accepted the surrender of 5,800 British soldiers, and with them 27 pieces of artillery and thousands of pieces of small arms and ammunition.

Saratoga turned the tide of the war -- news of the victory was decisive in bringing France into a full alliance with America. Congress responded to the event by appointing a committee of three that included Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia and Daniel Roberdeau of Pennsylvania, to draft a report and resolution. The report, adopted Nov. 1, declared Thursday, Dec. 18, as "a day of Thanksgiving" to God, so that "with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor."...

http://www.civilwarhome.com/thanksgiving.htm

Thanksgiving In The Civil War

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.

We've always been a more religious and thankful country than many. Oh yea, we do have much to be thankful for.

 

[charver]

Yes, yes, that's all very well but does it tell me why you pardon turkeys? No, it doesn't.

(I admit i may be a little hung up on the turkey pardoning thing)

 

[Annie]

Yes, yes, that's all very well but does it tell me why you pardon turkeys? No, it doesn't.

(I admit i may be a little hung up on the turkey pardoning thing)

LOL! Can't say I get that part either or the fuss over Palin's pardon and turkey slaughter. Don't people know that all the meat or fish they eat were once alive? Heck, once those poor veggies are harvested, they too begin to die.

 

[Minister of Truth]

Admittedly, Charver, I think the turkey-pardoning is retarded. If I were president, I would refuse to do it all 4-8 years in hopes of killing the tradition. After all, when Jefferson refused to give his State of the Union Address to Congress in 1802 (he was a horrible public speaker and incredibly frightened by crowds), he broke the precedent begun by Washington in 1790, and his new tradition carried on until Woodrow Wilson delivered a SOTU address in 1914.