I'll chime in with Smijer on wishes for a happy Thanksgiving. Here are a few entertaining stories in the news about this holiday.

From CNN: In New York City, Sonya Thomas won the world turkey-eating title on Wednesday by putting down a 10-pound turkey in 12 minutes. She is 37 years old and weighs 105 pounds. Her nickname, in competitive eating circles, is The Black Widow.

From the AP: Some holiday diners emphasize frugality. A group of people who call themselves freegans don't buy food; instead they only eat food that's been discarded. This is not quite as unpleasant as it sounds. The folks profiled in this story live in New York City and seem to be able to find reasonably packaged, non-expired food discarded by places like gourmet food markets. As long as they get there before the fish is thrown on top of it all.

From a wedding planning site: This isn't targeted at Thanksgiving, but I was taken with one suggestion for women who would like to propose to their intended in a creative way:

Make his favorite dish for Thanksgiving dinner and hide his ring (or other engagement symbol) in his dinner. (Don't hide it too well, or he will choke on it!)

And finally, from Underwriters Laboratory: What could improve on centuries-old traditional ways of preparing a turkey? Adopting a more modern technique: deep-frying. UL has a number of safety tips, along with some nice dramatic pictures of turkey fryers catching on fire.

On a more personal note, as I've been typing this entry, a helicopter from the Los Angeles Police Department has been circling over our heads. It's been up there for the past half-hour or so, making largely incomprehensible announcements over a loudspeaker: "People on the beach or the bike path, please [unintelligible] building [unintelligible] south." So much for a peaceful, pastoral holiday in Venice, CA. It does make me want to walk a block down toward the beach to see what's going on, though obviously this is the last thing that the police would want me to do.

Update: Around lunchtime my wife and I wandered down our street (a so-called walk-street) to the end, which was cordoned off with police tape. The officer standing guard told us that in an apartment building about half a block from where we live, neighbors had reported gunfire. We'd heard one very loud bang a short time ago but thought nothing of it. The man the police were trying to get to in the building has reportedly been depressed for some time and has threatened to commit suicide several times in the past. The police were keeping people away from the general area to ensure that no one was hit by any possible gunfire. A couple of hours later, all is quiet, with no police presence. It's sad. I hope that the man has come through this unharmed, and I wish that the holidays could be happy for everyone.