Showing posts with label Thanksgiving Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving Day. Show all posts

Thursday, November 28, 2013

It's all over at halftime -Angie Harmon wins! THE house in America that I (we) should've gone to today for Thanksgiving is @Angie_Harmon's; @jasonsehorn, PicturesOfAngie, @Madamefigaro, #nfl, #pigskin


Angie Harmon on WhoSay: http://www.whosay.com/angieharmon


                     



@PicturesOfAngie
                                      
So at halftime of the first NFL game of the day this Thanksgiving, Packers at Lions, I think it's perfectly clear that we have a clear-cut winner.

THE house in America that I (we) should've gone to today for some delicious turkey, sweet cranberries, warm and friendly conversation, and some very informed football talk -via @jasonsehorn- for dessert is Casa Angie Harmon@Angie_Harmon, whom as I've written here on the blog so many times, we've always admired and adored for so many good reasons.
We thank the rest of you for participating, but we definitely have our winner!

But for those of you reading these words out in Hawaii, there's still some time for you to chew over these inspired recipes via nos amis @Madamefigaro: On mange bien!






Above, Angie on the cover of the September 2000 issue of Texas Monthly, the very-popular and critically-acclaimed magazine I frequently bought over the years at The News Room on the corner of K St. & Connecticut Avenue in Washington D.C., next to the Farragut North Metro station.
Back when I was living and working up there.

As it happens, I bought this particular copy, though, that sweltering first weekend of September 2000, after flying into DFW from DC for the wedding of my dear and oh-so-talented friend Shannon, in Sulphur Springs, TX, where her parents and sister had then-recently moved to from Hope, Arkansas.
Hope being where Shannon was born and grew-up and where more famously, Bill Clinton was born.
I bought it at the Walmart on the way to "dry" Sulphur Springs, where the cashiers looked like young Lynda Carters
Really :-)!

Shannon's mother knew Bill Clinton as a kid from across the street, of course, and Shannon had a wonderful photo of herself and BC on her desk for years at the Washington bureau of Nippon TV, at the National Press Building, from when she'd been in high school and was in Little Rock for some event while Clinton was governor of Arkansas. (Girls State?)
Shannon was a savvy and resourceful TV producer and sometimes on-air talent, thanks to her fluent Japanese that sometimes had her traveling across the globe following President Clinton or some other important story that Japan & Nippon TV were interested in.

Since I had roughly an hour drive ahead of me once I arrived in north Texas that Thursday afternoon, I stopped off at a Walmart along the way on I-30 so I could grab some soda, junk food and odds & ends for my hotel room, since with temps around and above 105 in the shade -if you could find some shade- I knew I'd need to keep my cold Coca Cola intake high for the duration.

The magazine rack with Angie's "Hey pardner" smile was one of the first things that I saw in the store and into my basket it went, toute-de-suite! 
And I still have it, too.

For those of you who may've forgotten, as well as those of you who are new to the blog, your faithful blogger -Dave- was born in San Antonio, and my mother's side of the family has been living in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas since 1855: Bandera.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

When you live in a city run by turkeys... you recognize them on sight

Above, the candy corn-beaked turkey and Publix Ligram Pair Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers that greeted everyone this morning for breakfast at my sister's home in Pembroke Pines, Thanksgiving Day 2012. 
This candy and cookie-based turkey hybrid was her boss' wife's brilliant idea, and as we all chowed down our breakfast, it sat there quietly on the table, mocking our notions of actually eating healthy this weekend.
But on Monday... with our trip to Sweden approaching, we're going to start eating more healthy -again- in earnest, and get back into the sort of daily exercise regimen that once had been our daily routine up in the Nation's Capital.


sisko923 YouTube Channel video: Publix Thanksgiving "Salt and Pepper" Commercial. Uploaded December 26, 2008. http://youtu.be/BVLOydduvqg

Sunday, November 20, 2011

My prescience is priceless: Americans will soon show their disdain for 'Occupy' by leaving home before 12 a.m. to buy corporate must-haves at Le Mall

Above, the Tom the Turkey balloon in the flower section of the Publix grocery store on Hallandale Beach Boulevard & S.E. 14th Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL. November 24, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My prescience is priceless: In days, Americans will show their overwhelming disdain for Occupy Wall Street by leaving their families at home to get to stores by Midnight to buy Corporate America's must-haves.

Or, put another way, welcome to "A Very Vegan Thanksgiving in Ft. Lauderdale" -with French faux-Turkey recipes collected by Ron Gunzburger, noted Francophile and Vive-le-Jet-Set member!
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=34136590@N02&q=France

How the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel , the business/legal newspapers and all the local Miami-area TV stations have managed to hold off on doing articles, columns or news broadcast about his seeming hypocrisy on this issue, on the one hand, comporting himself every bit the Broward establishment figure from his position as a government attorney for the Broward County Appraiser's office, while at the same time, having been the very picture of the savvy PR flack for the Blame America First branch of the Democratic Party in Broward, that's so universally laudatory about the Occupy Wall Street protesters, is really quite something.
That "something" is called being asleep-at-the-wheel.

Seriously, is there anyone around in South Florida political life who more consistently imbues the average American's (outside of South Florida) mental image of the prototypical liberal, wine-sipping, self-loathing American Bohemian who must escape to France en vacances once in a while to get in touch with himself than Ron Gunzburger?
Mon dieu, non!

(Of course, once he's over there, he can see all over again what real pretentious hipsters are like first-hand by simply looking around, and trying not to be drawn into un-necessary internecine French political arguments over party purity or the merits of a fusion ticket.)

That Ron Gunzburger is well-known, gay and in a position to actually either compliment or scold well-known reporters, columnists and media personalities thru his popular political website, is, of course, only the liberal gravy if you will, speaking of upcoming Thanksgiving.

And yet because of one thing or another, even the thing I don't mention here, the local Miami and Ft. Lauderdale news media haven't even bothered to lift their fingers in an attempt to put him on the spot for a bit and have him try to explain himself, chiefly his seeming bi-polarity of both having his cake and eating it, too.

The local media haven't made any serious attempt to give South Florida residents an idea of why someone who is in many ways the very picture of a govt. bureaucrat -and image-conscious to boot- hasn't seen even a single negative news vibe since the whole Occupy PR machinery went into high gear? Not one.
Really.

Want proof, see for yourself:



The next time you see a professional reporter or columnist or editor hereabouts skulking about at some news event or public meeting take a moment to walk up to him or her and ask them about that supreme and jaw-dropping lack of effort.

And if they actually respond civily, take the opportunity to ask who else is on that Untouchable list of theirs, write it down and let me know.
We'd all like to know, though some are givens, like all the Dem congresspeople from South Florida, who hardly need press secretaries given the job the local media does of playing stenographer.


Broward Clean Sweep video: How Broward reporters cover Broward politicians

For the record, I don't personally dislike Ron Gunzburger, I'm just genuinely mystified how and why in the year 2011, given what is known about him -his political sympathies, his various efforts locally, et al, plus, the ease of technology that makes it easier for the news media to do their job than ever before- that the South Florida news media is SO completely frozen in place that they are unable to see a NEWS STORY when it is staring right in front of their face waving a red cape like a matador.
Frankly, I don't doubt that he has wondered the same thing.

It's media myopia plus dollops of disconnectedness, a very bad combination for newspaper readers and TV news viewers if ever there were any, and that won't be helped any by Tryptophan Thursday, as next weekend's newspaper stories and columns are almost guaranteed to be the worst of the year, as happens every year like clockwork.

In fact, even as we speak, someone's column for next weekend is either being written or edited right now, so that column will on some large 'theme' instead of a particular news story.

Unfortunately, many of those columns will be written by the very same Mainstream Media folks like E.J. Dionne, Leonard Pitts, Jr. or Kathleen Parker -who can't help herself from mentioning Sarah Palin, even when nobody else is- all of whom, so consistently mis-fire and continually draw the wrong conclusions about what is actually happening in our country, good or bad, regardless of what the subject is, and, consequently always seem to prescribe a cure that may well hasten the demise of the system we enjoy, however imperfect and galling at times.

Speaking of income equality, Mickey Kaus is spot-on here: http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/11/ows-to-msm-dynamics-of-closed-loop-systems/

Yes, in the very same newspapers all over the country that have, does have and will have front page stories all week about the confounding trend of holiday consumerism intruding on family time together, and instead heading for Ye Olde Galleria or Target or Best Buy at Midnight, après le third NFL football game du jour is finit, to indulge in some consumer theory first-hand, are the very same people will say that the Occupy forces have really taught us all a valuable lesson.
Aand that their message will linger longer than anything the Tea Party does.

In my opinion, that conclusion, common in the blogosphere among self-styled 'progressives' is not only untrue, but unprovable, but that hardly seems to matter now, despite the fact that these same folks say the intentionally loose amalgam of people supporting the Tea Party's economic and limited government principles are the power within the GOP.
(How can it be both the power and a negligible force that will soon be eclipsed, they never quite explain.)

It's like saying if Don Shula had finally traded for an elite NFL running back, the Dolphins of the 1990's would've won a Super Bowl with Dan Marino at quarterback.

BOBBY KNIGHT OF INDIANA

Bobby Knight of Indiana
A Profile by Frank Deford, January 28, 1981

Like if you gave former IU coach Bobby Knight control of North Carolina's perpetual mother-lode of crazy incoming talent that Dean Smith had all those years, and ask how many MORE NCAA basketball titles he would have won before Coach Smith finally won his first -years after Coach Knight had already won two titles at IU, including my sophomore year in Bloomington?

THE CHAMPS!

The Champs!
Hoosier Hero Isiah Thomas, April 4, 1981


That's speculation of the worst sort because in the end, you only end up chasing your tail.
But I've heard those very questions posed before.
Sometimes, all in the same long drive to South Florida from Bloomington at the holidays or Spring Break.

Imponderables.
Like what if political candidates said out-loud in a prologue before debates, forums and speeches, what particular reporters & columnists they sincerely believed were stupid, biased, incompetent or unethical -and had to give examples; would that be a positive to society to get it all out in the open and have some genuine transparency?

I say yes, but how can that be proven true unless everyone does it?
Aye. there's the rub!

-----
Santa's assault on Thanksgiving

The Washington Post
A defense for Thanksgiving
By Ylan Q. Mui, Published: November 19

Thanksgiving is under assault.

Stores that once closed their doors in deference to the holiday are now touting Turkey Day deals starting as early as 9 p.m. Workers who should be on vacation are answering office e-mails on their smartphones. And those who plan on celebrating with a traditional dinner are finding that the cost of a bird is near its 30-year high, according to government data.

Friday, November 19, 2010

WSJ's Scott McCartney reasonably asks "Will Turkey Day Fliers Cry Foul?"; now taking nominations for Hallandale Beach Blog's "Turkeys of the Year"

Just a reminder, I'm now beginning to take your nominations for the prestigious Hallandale Beach Blog Turkeys of the Year, in which the turkeys in our community get their due recognition.
Drop me a line with the name of the individual(s) and a short description of what they have done this past year to be worthy, at hallandalebeachblog-at-gmail.com.

Above, the turkey balloon at the
Publix grocery store on Hallandale Beach Boulevard and NE 14th Avenue in Hallandale Beach. November 24, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier


How can you not love a turkey with a Pilgrim hat?


------
The Wall Street Journal
The Middle Seat
column

Will Turkey Day Fliers Cry Foul?

By Scott McCartney
November 18, 2010

Full-body scanners, now deployed in 68 airports, and more-thorough pat-downs have some fliers concerned about their privacy and the airlines worried about delays.


Airlines will have extra staff, spare airplanes and plentiful plastic bags for shipping car seats. Airports will have executives working as greeters, gifts in Los Angeles for restless kids in long lines, and people with big yellow clipboards in Boston acting as roving information booths.

Yet even with most elaborate preparations for the crowded Thanksgiving travel rush, which starts this weekend, the lowdown is that the pat-downs could sour some family feasts.

Read the rest of the article at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703688704575620601511628936.html


Speaking of feeling like a turkey at Thanksgiving...

Melrose Place - Thanksgiving Date (1993, second season on FOX-TV)

Billy makes a phone call he'll always regret. (The clip above is how this episode from Season Two ended.)

Billy, trust me, it's never going to work out with you and Allison!

And if you ever meet a very good-looking woman by the name of Brooke Armstrong -RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-JmOoSAKq4

To see this full episode, Cold Turkey, go to: http://www.imdb.com/video/cbs/vi4058777369/



U.S. TV Commercials - November 1986

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDWov3cYKFM