Some treats for Thanksgiving 2016

Before I take some time with The Better Half and our daughter for Turkey Day (a.k.a. Thanksgiving Day), allow me a moment to wish all four of my readers a happy and safe holiday. If you are traveling, please be careful and safe; put the cellphone down while you drive, and for the love of  your deity of choice, please drive sober. Given that this year has been a tense one, including the 2016 elections in the United States, I am including some articles on how to cope and survive in case politics decide to rear out its head.

Here are then a few links to articles and posts with some trivia and information I hope you find interesting and/or useful with some comments from me. As always comments from you are always welcomed within reason.

• I usually start posts like this with  the fun stuff. As I mentioned though, things could get ugly during the family gathering. This has been a seriously tense year, and a lot of people feel hurt, afraid, angry, so on. As much as possible, you want  to avoid an emotional explosion during the dinner. This is a big reason why I am glad we are not traveling anywhere nor having anyone over for the holiday. I appreciate having some peace and quiet. However, I have noticed that quite a few articles on how to survive the dinner are making the rounds in the press. I have selected some examples. If you have to be with  family, I hope you find them useful if you need to use the advice: 
•  The Christian Science Monitor asks "Will families divided by politics be able to come together for Thanksgiving?" Article is short, mostly some accounts of people's concerns and fears. 
• The Washington Post asks "Can family trump Trump?" Yes, they went for an obvious play on words. There is a good bit of advice here for coping. 
• Even The Guardian across the pond got in on this with  "Family feud, election edition." 
•  Did you know there are 7 "places and townships in the United States named Cranberry, a popular side dish at Thanksgiving"? You can find neat trivia about the holiday and more in the 2016 Fact for Features piece for Thanksgiving from the U.S. Census Bureau.
• A little humor from Bad Postcards. If you do not want to cook, going out for the meal could be an option as there are places that open for you to have a meal. On a side note, many moons ago when I was a waiter, I did in fact have to work at a hotel that served a Thanksgiving buffet. 
• Are you cooking a turkey? If you bought it frozen, you probably should be thawing it out by now to have it done in time. Anyhow, here are some tips on how to cook the turkey so you do not give your guests food poisoning. Via USA Today. 
• On a positive note, the overall cost of the typical Thanksgiving dinner seems to have gone down a little bit. This is based on a meal for 10 people. Story via The Rural Blog. 
• However, a lower cost can still mean that people may overspend or make other money mistakes during their holiday shopping. Via Wise Bread, here are "10 Things You'll Waste Money on this Thanksgiving." Hopefully you read this beforehand so you can avoid the mistakes. I can certainly agree on  the tip about serving food no one really likes. For the love of cripe, can you all stop serving the same mediocre green bean casserole or whatever other hideous side no one wants to eat? Maybe it is time to break it to Aunt Bertha who keeps bringing it that no one eats it, and it ends up in the trash after the dinner.
• Apparently mistakes to avoid is a theme in the press this year for Thanksgiving. Via BuzzFeed, here are "17 Thanksgiving Mistakes Everybody Makes." Actually, make that almost everybody else. In our house, we really minimize or avoid these altogether. For example, we do not eat a turkey in our house, the issues with  turkeys are happily avoided. The article does include some information links to avoid the mistakes. 
• Mental Floss has a nice infographic on "7 Common Thanksgiving Hazards and How to Avoid Them."
• One of the things I find pretty dreadful about Thanksgiving are the leftovers. Why the heck people see a need to cook a ton of food they are not able to finish in a sitting, then end up eating (or attempting to eat) the leftovers for the next month  or so is beyond me. Especially so when if you are still stuck with  Aunt Bertha's hideous side casserole (see link above) a couple of weeks later. So here are "Seven tips for a waste-free Thanksgiving." Story via The Christian Science Monitor. 
• Are you one of those people who has an eternal guilt trip because, oh holy shit, you ate a second piece  of pie during the Turkey Day dinner? Dude or dudette, just chill and "eat your damn pie." As long as you take care of yourself the rest of the year, a little indulgence is fine, and you will feel better. Story via Vox. 
• But if you must serve healthy food at the dinner, well, here are some recipe ideas for "25 Healthyish Thanksgiving Dishes You'll Actually Want to Eat" from BuzzFeed.
• Or you can go the opposite direction away from healthy and for fun have an all-candy Thanksgiving dinner that includes a gummy turkey. See story at Foodiggity. 

 Bonus Black Friday links: Once you all have slept off the turkey induced coma and maybe had a good night's sleep, some of you might be going out for Black Friday.

•  Just for fun, here are some vintage Black Friday ads, from the Library of Congress. You thought the aggressive early shopping advertising was just a problem now?  Check it out back in 1918. 
• And as you head out for Black Friday, here are "8 Frugal Skills You Need to Survive Black Friday" via Wise Bread. Good luck out there. If you do Black Friday, have fun, but try to keep the stress low and not to spend too much.