Seriously: for a minute there I thought it said she took a pig on a plane

Woman kicked off flight after hiding pet pig in a duffle bag | New York Post

"The woman had brought the curly-tailed pet aboard as an ‘emotional support animal,’ the company rep said."

Oh.

Here it is, just two days after Thanksgiving, and already I'm dreaming about a peanut butter sandwich. But wait!

Peanut Butter And Jelly Racist? Portland School Principal Ties Sandwich To White Privilege

"‘What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?’ Gutierrez said, according to the Tribune. ‘Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.’"

We heart everything, here in our happy valley

Power outage brings gift of family time | The Recorder

"‘We spent Thanksgiving night playing rummy by the fireplace,’ he said."

(OK, Shelburne Falls isn’t exactly in the valley but it’s way close enough.)

At his age, it's a wonder he plays at all

No. 10 Maryland women beat James Madison 80-64

Definitely needs a new battery

Antikythera Mechanism, World's First Computer, Is Older Than Previously Believed

Whoa, this sounds like fun

13 Republicans most likely to win the White House in 2016

"Republicans say their long list of 2016 hopefuls is among the deepest, most diverse group in recent history without a clear frontrunner."

Can't wait to see the others

Los Angeles freeway sign unveiled with typo

"A subcontractor had misspelled Olympic Boulevard with an 'I'' in place of the 'Y.’…

"The sign was one of many improvements underway on the freeway as part of a pavement rehabilitation project."

Is this a serious fetish or what?

Unboxing videos online chronicle the big reveal

"My favorite is when they're doing the tablet reviews and they peel off the layer of plastic film on the glass."

It's not the Ebola that'll do you in, it's the bottom line

U.S. hospitals wary of caring for Ebola patients because of cost and stigma

"‘Why would I get in line for that if I were a private-sector business?’"

It's just the inconvenience of it all

Winter, I mean. Here it is, a perfectly pleasant day—it’s in the low 30’s but the sun is out and there’s no wind (not that we believe in wind chill) and it’s just fine to walk around in—except the neighbors’ electricity just got restored, which means the street got re-opened, which means the plow came by and shoved big piles of wet, sloppy (albeit still sort of white) gunk all over the nicely cleared sidewalks and blocked all the driveways again. Call out the shovel brigade one more time.
Fortunately, there’s turkey for lunch.

Yeah, but it's more fun to yell

America’s Oldest Political Insult - Rob Goodman - POLITICO Magazine

"If Obama were the first president to be painted as a king, we’d have good reason to reach for the nearest pitchfork; but when presidents of all parties have been ‘kings’ for more than two centuries, it’s a sign that something deeper is at work. The permanent fight over the presidency’s limits is as much a fixture of our constitutional order as biannual elections or freedom of speech."

YA reason not to buy an all-electric car

Thanksgiving Storm Leaves 344K in Darkness From West Virginia to Vermont - NBC News.com

"More than 344,000 homes and businesses were without electricity — including 181,000 customers in New Hampshire, 69,900 in Maine and 21,200 in Massachusetts — at 3 p.m. ET. Central Maine Power said it was bringing in crews from Canada to help the recovery effort."

It all depends on who you call a turkey, doesn't it?

Map: Turkey density in the United States - Vox

Personally, I think DC is seriously undercounted.

Snow job

Well, actually, it's pretty rulish

Chicago Bears’ Season On the Line vs. Detroit Lions On Thanksgiving | RantSports

"This is a chance for a statement game from the Bears…a win against Detroit would prove that the embarrassing losses against the Patriots and Green Bay Packers were the exceptions, not the rule."

Hitting the turkey a little early, are we?

Nor'easter Nightmare: Thanksgiving Travel is Chaos for East Coast - NBC News.com

"And although the worst of the wintry weather was set to be over in time for New York's City Macy's parade, much of the west coast is braced for a heavy rain and possible snow through the weekend."

East. East.

(Emphasis mine.)

Beat "Black Friday chaos"; join in on Thanksgiving Thursday chaos instead

Black Friday will start earlier on Thanksgiving - NY Daily News

"Macy’s and Target stores across [New York City] will swing their doors open at 6 p.m. — two hours earlier than last year — and stay open nonstop for 28 to 30 eye-watering hours.

"Best Buy and JCPenney will open even earlier at 5 p.m., with Kmart continuing its tradition of a 6 a.m. start, hoping to entice consumers out of bed for a predawn shopping spree ahead of the family feast."

The nice thing about early snow…

…is that it's wet and sticks to stuff and sometimes looks sort of cool. The bad thing about early snow is that it's wet and sticks to stuff, like the branch of a tree next to the neighbors' house, and the branch falls off the tree and knocks down their power line and leaves then electricless on the evening before Thanksgiving, and they have houseguests. If this hasn't happened to you you may not know the electric company won't reconnect the line unless you first hire an electrician to make sure everything on the house end of the line is OK, which, tomorrow being (as we mentioned) Thanksgiving, will cost them a bundle, plus they wind up just like that mean, evil Walmart, making somebody work on a holiday and all. Or they can just sit around in the dark and the cold and eat canned beans.

How fair is that?

Abbott & Costello avoiding work

Eww, you're telling me now? Right before Thanksgiving?

Drugged marshmallow fluff keeps raccoons from spreading disease - The Washington Post

Marshmallow Fluff (it’s a trade name, although it may no longer be protected) is New England’s answer to SPAM.

Marshmallow creme - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"'Fluff' continues as a regional tradition in the Northeastern United States. One popular use is in the Marshmallow Fluff and peanut butter sandwich (Fluffernutter).

"Since at least 2006, the city of Somerville has celebrated Query's original creation of Fluff with an annual festival in Union Square titled What the Fluff?. Typical activities at the festival have included a science fair, gallery show, cooking contests, and carnival games such as a bean-bag toss, all themed around Marshmallow Fluff. In 2011, actress Susan Olsen, most famous for portraying Cindy Brady on the Brady Bunch attended the festival, where she sold her marshmallow fluff-inspired art."

Maybe next year, a display of dead raccoons?

Fortunately…

…I carry a miniature Swiss Army knife on my keychain, which is just enough to get a stubborn wrapping off a chocolate bar in an emergency. Without it, I may not have made it home from the drugstore this morning in time to settle and watch the blizzard blow in. 

The entire Eastern Seaboard, you will see on your weather map, is buried under some shade of greenish glop. Green means rain. But up on the end where I am, the green is starting to turn blue. Blue means white (you gotta just trust me here).

I’ve been flitting around from weather site to weather site trying to find one with a more sunny forecast but nope, they all agree. We’re not Buffalo, but we’re gonna get snowed on anyway. Some. Maybe half a foot or so. If you’re going somewhere for Thanksgiving, bundle up and pack a sandwich. I’m not. Ha ha.

I’m just gonna sit and watch this happen, and maybe it will all melt some day.

Getting on toward winter in Duluth

Duluth Harbor Cam

Here's a sentiment that's been bouncing around the web recently…

…submitted by Some Guy…

…which is pretty cute but, it seems to us, somewhat flawed, because what happened next is the undocumented aliens from Europe proceeded to eat the Americans' lunch in more ways than one, and elect Republicans to Congress. The Americans would have been better off building a high fence and patrolling it with drones, at least until they had invented hotels and needed somebody to change the sheets.

Still, that the idea Americans might be welcoming to "aliens" is funny, is sad. And funny. And I don't know what else it means than that.

But hey, it's a holiday, Thursday is, and in the spirit of kicking back and eating too much we propose this musical accompaniment.

Get back to me when you have something to say

The Secret to Resisting Temptation - WSJ

"People Who Excel at Resisting Temptation Deliberately Avoid Tempting Situations, Says a Study"

It's all in the picture

The Difference 30 Years Makes: iMac with Retina 5K display vs. the Original Apple Macintosh • Things of Interest

"That tiny black-and-white rectangle crammed into the bottom-left corner was cutting-edge technology three decades ago."

(Worth a look.)

An Idaho sunset

–Contributed by our special correspondent from the land of famous potatoes.

No kidding, some breathtakingly ugly stuff here

NFL Ugly Sweaters for Sale - Best NFL Sweaters - Esquire

But Fox Noise will spare us

The Rude Pundit: Republicans Can't Give Up the Benghazi Lust

"The report [by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] prompted the Senate's prettiest debutante, Lindsey Graham, to go full Scarlett on CNN yesterday. Calling the report 'full of crap' and 'garbage' and 'a lousy job' by the House committee, he said that everyone is being lied to by the CIA, that people were told to stand down, and that Susan Rice and those talking points are the gravest threat to the nation since the Great Taffeta Shortage of 1985."

YA patch in DC

Lawfare › A Charlie Brown Congress

"We saw some valiant workers from the Architect of the Capitol working on the tree and stopped to chat with a couple of Capitol Hill police officers to ask them what the workers were doing.  Turns out they were ‘fixing’ the tree by adding more branches to it.  In order to make it work, they were stapling branches on with nail guns and using wire mesh to hold the extra branches in place.  When (if?) they successfully complete their work we will have a perfectly wonderful facsimile of a real Christmas tree on the Capitol grounds."

Opening up a whole new universe of blabber

Media Goes Wild Over Hagel Firing But Not Obama's Secret Afghanistan Reversal | Mother Jones

"This is a quasi-BFD…"

Really? Quasi-BFD?

Today's not Wednesday…

…so there's still a chance this will all go away. But…

 [NOAA]

…I'm oiling up my boots.

And what if life on other planets is just like us? How freaking disappointing would that be?

XKCD

Don't bother us with details, Dude

This tone-deaf cartoonist forgets that Thanksgiving is about immigration - Vox

"Remember, the classic Thanksgiving story is about Pilgrims — a.k.a. immigrants — who showed up on American shores uninvited, and in precarious economic circumstances. Thanksgiving is a celebration of the fact that the native-born Americans who lived in the area welcomed these newcomers, shared their food with them, and helped them make the transition to their new home."

Anyway those native-born Americans pretty much got screwed in the end, which…errr…wait…

Ouch, that's gotta sting

Obama: Americans Will Want 'New Car Smell' in Next President | The Weekly Standard

"You know…they want to drive something off the lot that, that doesn’t have as much mileage as me."

Ain't nothing sacred any more?

Sunday morning used to be the perfect time for laundry. I’d have the place to myself, or pretty near. No muss, no fuss. no bother.

But for the last two weeks it’s been packed on Sunday morning. The laundry place. How did they all find out at once?

I wonder if I can wear these socks until Wednesday.

Tweeting in the tunnel

This is how you make phones work 100 feet underground | The Verge

It’s “leaky coax” in a place where “leak” is a word you don’t want to hear.

I don't quite understand the physics of this but maybe that's because txting has r…oops, ran out of characters there

‘Text neck’ is becoming an ‘epidemic’ and could wreck your spine - The Washington Post

"The human head weighs about a dozen pounds. But as the neck bends forward and down, the weight on the cervical spine begins to increase. At a 15-degree angle, this weight is about 27 pounds, at 30 degrees it’s 40 pounds, at 45 degrees it’s 49 pounds, and at 60 degrees it’s 60 pounds."

Seems like a minor detail, really

Naked man assaults 84-year-old at Boston Logan Airport - Chicago Tribune

"Police did not say if drugs or alcohol might have played a role in the incident."