Life Among the Americans: A Brief Explanation of the Ritual of Thanksgiving

Few things in the life of the present day American are as predictable as the annual ritual they call Thanksgiving.  It is a day when members of the same tribe gather at the home of their oldest member and pretend to get along while they gorge themselves on food and drink and ignore the pressing concerns of their daily lives.  From my years spent living with the Americans, I will try to relate to you this interesting and quirky practice.

The Official Thanksgiving “Not-To-Do List”

I’m sure most of you have embedded in your thanksgiving rituals a healthy dose of food, family and football. Well, maybe it’s stress, maybe it’s that I might be actually maturing. Maybe it’s because every year I do the same thing and nothing gets resolved, nothing gets better. And worse — nothing changes.

So while I do look forward to this Thanksgiving’s ritual of eating too much, saying too much and watching too much football, there’s another, new tradition I am starting this year and it’s my New, Official, Thanksgiving “Not-To-Do List.

U.S. Football and Thanksgiving

Frank Deford had a wonderful commentary the other day on U.S. football’s brutal beginnings.  He spoke about how some games even ended in death for several players, the college rivalries that existed, the blood soaked linemen.
If you look at the game now, it’s still violent, physical.  But the broadcast of it is very much polished, slick, marketed like hell, and still such a boring damn game in concept.