Thanksgiving

This guy was first in line at the Walmart. He reports he got there at 2 a.m. to make sure he got an Xbox and some games. Also some oranges and grapes, he joked. Bathroom breaks? Around the corner, at least until the line extended back there.

Not refugees. Walmart customers.

I wrote this love letter to Boston and, since I lack my own blog these days, I'm thankful for this platform to share it with a wider audience. Thanks, Adam!

In thinking about what I'm most thankful for this year, aside from the usual family, friends, health, and good fortune (not to diminish the importance of those), I was overwhelmed remembering all the people and experiences that helped shape 2012 into one of the best years of my life, when it could easily have been counted among the worst. I could sit for hours talking about each one and still not get them all. Then I realized it all keeps coming back to one thing: this city.

Boston, I am thankful for you living up to every expectation and ideal I had of you from when I was a little girl and dreamed of living in you when I grew up. I am thankful for your varied neighborhoods, your suburbs, your parks, your streets, your rollercoaster weather patterns, your tourist traps, your hidden gems, and your breathtaking scenery. I'm thankful for your weird laws and character of a mayor and even your maddening transit system. I'm thankful for your "freedom trail" (read: bars). The TV doesn't lie. Everyone really DOES know your name sometimes.

Bostonography presents seasonal maps of the region.

Leslie Jones photographed some pre-Thanksgiving turkey shopping at Threser & Kelly, Quincy Market, in 1933.

Also see some of the 12,000 turkeys at Pine Hill Turkey Farm, 2938 Mass. Ave., Lexington.

Photo from the BPL's Leslie Jones collection. Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Suffolk University Professor Bob Allison as a Pilgrim on approaching winter.

I've hesitated about posting here concerning my annual Quixotic quest to see Thanksgiving given respect. Most of you have heard it before. You know my feelings. And it hasn't really been news, so I've fought the temptation to annoy you.

Now, it has become news.

While big-box stores postponed their Black Friday openings until 1 a.m. due to the state's enduring Blue Laws, an educated consumer noted the Payless store on Meridian Street in East Boston was boldly saying screw that, the public demands shoes on Thanksgiving (the sign says "We're open on Thanksgiving").

First in line at the Dedham Best Buy.

Chris and Mihala, a young couple from Newton, got to the Best Buy in Dedham at 1 a.m. today to await its opening at 1 a.m. on Friday. It was partly so they could pick up a 42-inch TV marked down several hundred dollars and a computer, but also just so they could say they did something like wait outside a store for 24 hours - they'd never done something like that, they'd never even waited in line for concert tickets.

Food? There was takeout. Bathroom breaks? Port-a-Potties around the corner.

Greg Cameron and his wife, from Roslindale, were next to show up - at 8 a.m., followed by Kristina Milonas and her mother, from Norwood. They're more experienced line waiters - they do it every year, deciding which store to wait outside based on the sales. One year it was Target, another year, Wal-Mart, and this year, Best Buy, because of that marked-down TV.

Nathanael Hevelone discovers the one day of the year when it's acceptable to run through Davis Square dressed like a turkey.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Around 11:40 a.m., Jim Lokay posted a photo of the backed up traffic on the turnpike westbound between Framingham and 495.

Around the same time, Dave reported a major jam on 128 north by Rte. 20 in Waltham caused by a multi-vehicle crash that closed three lanes. Sarah Nelson reported a similar situation involving another multi-car crash on 495 south between exits 26 and 27.

Channel 4 reports a turkey flew into a Bellingham man's living-room window. It died, but he buried it instead of saving it for Thanksgiving.

At 9:30, Bari Walsh tweeted:

Traffic just stopped on 9 west in Newton as 10 or so wild turkeys crossed the road. I swear.

The Boston Foodie spent Monday helping to bake pies at Harvard Square's Rialto for Thanksgiving delivery by Community Servings. You can buy some of their work until 4 p.m. at the Park Plaza castle.

I have a new "game" I'm playing at work. Each day when I go out to buy lunch at the local Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, I'm buying one extra item.

My office building, like many others, is participating in a food drive for Thanksgiving in support of the East End House effort to hand out turkeys with all of the fixings this holiday season to people in need.

If I made my own lunch, I could probably rustle up something each day extra to put in my bag. But since I don't bring lunch, then those days when I get something at the store (instead of a take-out joint), I'm picking up a box of stuffing, or some instant potatoes, or maybe some powdered milk. It's only a few bucks each lunch that I'm less likely to notice and goes to a good cause.

Like the lottery says, "you have to play to win". Of course, the odds in my game are better. Every player's a winner.

Jim Sullivan opens his annual, Sisyphean campaign to remind retailers about this thing called "a calendar."

Noternie reports that by Sunday, the turkey was running low, so his wife went out and bought a 15-pound turkey so they could continue to feast on turkey and stuffing. As of this afternoon, he's downed 14 turkey sandwiches, 2 turkey dinners and a turkey pie. Guess what's for dinner tonight?

Scooterdude reports a bizarre sight on Carson Beach this afternoon:

... I first spied a lump of orange-red on the beach and as I came closer it was discovered to be an entire turkey, cooked and all, on the sand. And then, as I walked further around, I realized the whole area was littered with fruits, unopened cans, some fresh corn on the cob, and even some chips and appetizers....!

If you're looking at this Sunday afternoon/evening, you're probably not stuck at it.

Business Insider reports on the controversy when FDR pushed Thanksgiving back a week to give Depresssion-era merchants an extra week to move product:

... The selectmen of Plymouth, Massachusetts, informed the President, "It is a religious holiday and [you] have no right to change it for commercial reasons." Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks to the Almighty, harrumphed Governor Leverett Salstonstall of Massachusetts, "and not for the inauguration of Christmas shopping." ...

Via Jay Fitzgerald.

Matthew I. reports he happened to have his camera with him on the way to Starbucks this morning when he spotted this man on Mass. Ave. in the Back Bay:

Gave this guy a couple bucks. Took his photo from across the street on the way back.

Copyright Matthew I. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Adams apparently was convinced the reason he couldn't get re-elected was becaue he declared a national day of thanksgiving on behalf of, gasp, Presbyterians. J.L. Bell recounts the whole story.

Legendary "Love Potato" found during Thanksgiving preparations in Westwood. Finder immediately gets guilty and lists on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230404558154

Eeka compiles a list of stations and times.

OK, the turkey's in the oven, the Thanksgiving Day parade is on TV and now I can sit down and be thankful: For the meal we're going to eat, of course, but more important, for family and friends. And all the folks who sent me words of encouragement - and even work - after I was laid off (I really had no idea, thank you all!). And everybody who visits Universal Hub.

What local bloggers are thinking about today follows. But what about you?

Ashley lists several things she's thankful for, including:

A Grandma who, at 95, is in complete control of her mind and getting spunkier every year.

That Kind of Girl's list includes being single and unemployed, yellow latex dish-washing gloves and PG Wodehouse.

Merge: I-84 at the turnpike in Sturbridge, around 3 p.m.

From a MassDOT camera. Updated every 20 seconds or so.

Channel 5 reports a 45-mile backup on the turnpike - from Sturbridge to Weston.