Thanksgiving on The Huffington Post

Project Feed Me Brings Thanksgiving To Harlem Locals

2009-12-02T16:47:56Z

On November 24, nearly 200 people were provided hot Thanksgiving meals in Harlem's Frederick Douglass Children's Center by Project Feed Me, a significant meal that was months in the making.

Patrick Alvarez, the founder of Project Feed Me, often dreamed of giving back through service because of his family background. A survivor of domestic abuse and nights spent sleeping on shelter floors, Project Feed Me represents moving past those hardships and was created to provide holiday meals to the needy with the mission, "In order to make changes globally, we must first make changes locally."

"I knew that I wanted to start a nonprofit, but it was people like Isaias Garcia [an early Project Feed Me volunteer] who said I could really do this," shares Alvarez.

"I was going through things like domestic violence in my house, where my dad was overly violent. Then my mom fled to a shelter. Then I started talking to Patrick, and we got a bit closer. Patrick will always be there with me to have conversations with me about opening up our own business," says Garcia.

The two grew up under similar circumstances and shared their dreams of one day 'taking over the world' together. Money from the Children's Aid Society, provided by the Neediest Cases Fund, the two have received money for dorm furnishings and other necessities.

"My mom always told me that she came to this country to provide for her children what she didn't have, and she wants me to be better than what she was. We're going to take over the world," the two declared.

WATCH Project Feed Me in action.

The organization is currently seeking corporate sponsors, volunteers, support from local leaders and media and donations (in-kind and monetary).

Learn more about The New York Times' Neediest Cases Fund, a campaign that officially began in in 1912.

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Meredith Lopez: Welcome To The Tribe, Little Man

2009-12-02T15:17:57Z

My son, the Juban Princeling, recently attended his first bris. I know what you're saying: wasn't his own bris, his first bris? To which I laughingly answer: no, it wasn't. Because he didn't have one. I am a bad Jew.

The Princeling was circumcised in the hospital when he was about 26 hours old. One afternoon when I still could barely get out of bed, the ob/gyn on call came in and wheeled him out. My father said, "Now it's time for you to make your covenant with God, because that's what the men in our culture do." Two hours later an orderly wheeled him back in to our room. My father said, "Welcome to the Tribe, little man," and that was that.

If it makes any difference, that day was Yom Kippur. I like to joke, and will do so for the rest of my son's natural life and in front of all his future girlfriends, that he already atoned for any sin he might commit later on.

Unlike what my parents did with my brother, we didn't have a ceremonial bris for the Princeling. If anyone asks, I've decided that his Hebrew name is Ya'kov (Jacob) because I like that name. Other than that and the menorah my brother bought the Princeling last year for his first Chanukah, that's about it for my son's exposure to Judaism so far.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, though, one of my oldest and dearest friends in the world, Yentl, an Orthodox Jew, had a gorgeous and healthy baby boy. I love Yentl like a sister. She was my maid of honor and even broke kosher for the first time IN HER LIFE in order to partake of my wedding cake. So when she sent me an email with the details of her son's bris, in Long Island at 9 a.m., the Sunday after Thanksgiving, it would take an act of HaShem himself to keep me from going.

But first things first.

My mother extended her Thanksgiving trip up here to keep me company while my husband went away on a last-minute business trip this week. And, I had a cold last week. I called up Yentl early Friday morning before the Sabbath.

No, she didn't care that I had a cold, so long as I didn't use her son's Onesie to blow my nose.

Yes, it was fine that my mother came along. In fact, my mother was a welcome addition to the bris.

Yes, we should arrive early, as she was counting on me, my husband, and now my mom to keep her company and keep her sane before the bris.

No, she and her mother didn't care if my mom and I wore pants, but FYI, we'd be the only women there in pants.

Since my mom wanted to buy Yentl and her son some gifts anyway, we took the Princeling shopping on the Saturday before the bris. We thought we'd buy ourselves some long skirts to wear to the shul so we wouldn't stick out like the sore thumbs/former shiksas/technical half-Jews we are.

Just our luck, then, that Yentl decided to have a baby boy in the ONE SEASON when long skirts aren't in fashion. Target, Old Navy, and Marshall's had zero long skirts to speak of. But we did find some cute matching knit hats to cover our hair with.

The morning of the bris we had to improvise. My mom wore my long, frilly, summer skirt with a bulky sweater and flat shoes, along with her half of our matching hats.

I, however, had to wear - sigh - an old maternity dress. The one I wore to my baby shower. The baby shower that Yentl spent a great deal of time and energy helping my mother plan and execute. Thankfully, without my third-trimester baby belly, the dress came down to below my knees. I paired it with my only pair of non-sneakers closed-toed flats and my half of the matching hats. Jewed-up to within an inch of our lives, off to the bris we went: the former shiksa, the technical half-Jew, the Juban Princeling, and the Cuban-American shaygets.

Of course, Yentl is one of the classiest, most gracious people I've ever met in my entire life. She is the second-best person I know, after my husband. So our efforts to Jew-up for the bris were not lost on her, and she repeatedly expressed her appreciation for our respect for her (our?) traditions.

I always feel like an imposter Jew around Yentl. Suddenly, my Reformed upbringing and eight-week study abroad program in Israel seem puny compared to her full-on, by-the-books, hardcore Orthodox ways. During the bris, Yentl, my mom, and I were separated from the men by a high partition in the synagogue. Some of the men wore teffilin; all wore a tallit. When the baby cried out during his circumcision, Yentl had to pray. When the rabbi came to the part where he gave the baby his official name - which had not yet been uttered except for Yentl and her husband to choose it amongst themselves before he was born - Yentl cried, and I held her hand and rubbed her shoulders. The baby's grandmothers cried. The women all whispered the name amongst themselves. My mother, who has been a Jew for twice as long in her life as she was a Catholic, held back her tears and embraced Yentl like the daughter she considers her to be.

Suddenly, something that was little more than a technicality to me became the first real event in this boy's life, and the first act of Jewish motherhood for this woman I consider a sister to me. I hugged her, told her "mazel tov," and told her how proud of her I was.

And then we all went downstairs to eat bagels and mini-cupcakes.

And with that, the Princeling not only attended his first bris, but went to his first synagogue. Someday when he and Yentl's son are older the Princeling will probably trick him into eating bacon. ("It's soy bacon, I swear!") And even if they have little else in common but a shared heritage, they'll at least have this event - the first time in a synagogue for both boys.

Welcome to the Tribe, little man.

Dan Weiner: The NYGMen Podcast: Week 12 -- The Giants Are Blown Out by the Broncos, 26-6

2009-12-02T13:38:53Z

In this week 12 post-game analysis, an extremely frustrated Greg and Dan are on the verge of giving up on the Giants. To help cope with the dire straits in which the G-Men find themselves (and the fact that Bill Sheridan should be shown the door), Greg and Dan distract one another with talk about Thanksgiving, Tiger Woods, and Mike Francesa's "goody bowl" on "Mike'd Up." They even discuss STEROIDS (ooooh) and how it very well might be the NFL's shameful skeleton in the closet. As always, Greg and Dan pick their top 5 NFL teams after week 12, the hottest team in the NFC and AFC respectively, the scariest team in the NFC and AFC respectively, and week 12's "Beast of the East." And who was awarded The NYGMen Podcast's Week 12 T---n C---m "Breaking" play of the game? All of this and more, as Greg and Dan try to turn your frown UPSIDE DOWN!!!

Listen to The NYGMen Podcast Episode #7 here:

For more, go to www.giantspodcast.com.

Ellie Kemper: I'm Not Exactly Afraid of Really Intense Fashion

2009-12-02T12:50:52Z

One nice thing that I have discovered about Los Angeles is the enthusiasm with which people dress. I moved to LA about four months ago, having lived in New York for the previous six years. Obviously, many New Yorkers also take an interest in how they dress. However, theirs is more of a "what-in-the-f&#$-are-you-looking at?!!-F&%$-YOU-and-F&%$-YOUR-FACE" interest. Most New Yorkers want to look amazing, and they want you to understand that they look amazing, but they also want you to stop staring at them. "Yeah, it's a Yeojin Bae Lydia Sunray Pleat Dress," the brunette's cold eyes seem to say. "Now let me sample the Burnt Sugar Tasti-D and get the hell out of my life."

In Los Angeles, people dress with the deep and earnest hope that people will do nothing but stare at them. This makes everything more exciting. Look, it's a city of discovery and possibility and earthquakes and wildfires; anything can happen, at any moment. Do you really want to be caught in your Veggie-Booty-dust-stained sweatpants and Biore pore nose strip when that happens? "No way, Mister," the baby-voiced blonde's doe eyes seem to say. "I wanna be a star."

Listen up, doe-eyed blonde! Los Angeles survives on that which is unpredictable. The unexpected courses through its very veins. Who knows if the middle-aged man shopping next to you at Ralph's is actually Mr. Harvey Weinstein himself, quietly on the lookout for his next leading lady? Or if the easygoing barista at Coffee Bean is, in fact, Heidi Klum, in town for a last minute fashion scout? Who is to say that you won't accidentally get into a fender bender this afternoon, only to learn that the driver whose fender you bent is none other than Mr. Gerard James Butler -- and that he no longer has a fear of commitment? All of these things are enormous possibilities here, and ones that we face every single day.

Here are some of the energetic fashion choices I have recently seen in LA:

1) A bright green raincoat over fishnet stockings and matching bright green sneaker booties. Please note: not even raining outside. Not even cloudy. Fashion at its most dangerous.

2) An eye patch, like the kind a pirate wears, but worn by someone who wasn't a pirate. I know what you're thinking: maybe that person was blind in that eye, or missing that eye. Look, I wasn't raised in a barn; I considered those possibilities too. Until I saw the man lift the eye patch, scratch his eye, and switch the eye patch to the other eye. Why, hello, inspired fashion choice!

3) A woman dressed in nothing but off-white. Off-white blazer, off-white leggings, off-white peep-toe ankle boots. "Are you an off-angel?" I wanted to ask her. But I didn't.

I am not exactly a fashion icon, but I'm also not exactly afraid of being cutting-edge and revolutionary. It would be an exaggeration to say that my entire sense of style has transformed in the few months that I have lived here. Similarly, it would be naive not to acknowledge that my sense of style has evolved considerably in a very short time. In New York, I was content with t-shirts and jeans. When I was feeling creative, I would add a scarf and a weird ring, or extra ChapStick. Here, I am taking it to the next level.

Take my Thanksgiving dinner outfit, for example: camouflage tank top, navy blue blazer, denim leggings with zippers up the side and boots. "Your underwear is cutting into your butt so that it looks like you have four separate buttocks," my brother observed. "You have four separate buttocks," I shot back. Did the rest of my family make fun of me? Sure. Did people make fun of Benjamin Franklin when he discovered electricity? Of course they did. The point is, nothing amazing is ever accomplished by playing it safe.

I, for one, am very grateful to the city and the people of Los Angeles for providing me with not only the inspiration, but the courage to dress in a way that forces me to think. I'm not saying that all of my choices are going to be gold. After all, fashion is a journey -- not a destination. I will say that finally, for once in my life, I am concerned with issues that are much larger than myself: Is my underwear cutting into my butt? Do I need to consider removing some of the skin from my butt? Is there a different way of standing and walking that does not make it look like I have four separate buttocks? Who even knows if I will succeed! Let's just say that it is better to have tried and failed, than never to have tried at all.

Let's just also say that I have decided to retire the denim leggings.

Big Girls, Small Kitchen: Those Without a Kitchen

2009-12-02T10:33:18Z

For most of my life, I've felt more or less involved in my community. Back in high school and college, I often volunteered by way of class or curriculum at a variety of different organizations in New York City and Providence. It's occurred to me over the course of this past year that since I've left school and have been without an institution that encourages such service, I have been rather selfish with my time. And while feeding 20-somethings on a regular basis could be considered giving back to the community, my pair of capable hands could probably be better put to use at the service of a slightly more needy population.

Earlier this year, my mother began volunteering at a shelter on the Upper West Side. Every Thursday, the organization sponsors a special family meal for those staying under its roof, and for those who have since been placed in long-term, permanent housing but who return for the social services provided by the center. The guest "chef" of the evening is a volunteer who cooks the meal of his or her choosing, so long as it sticks to the semi-strict, and somewhat random Kosher guidelines of the shelter. No matter what is made, the Thursday night dinner is a bright spot in the shelter's meal routine, which during the rest of the week is made up of frozen dinners and canned fruit for dessert.

Since my mother took over the Thursday dinner responsibilities, more members of the greater shelter family seem to be showing up for the meals. Her legendary reign began when she made my Sweet and Savory Moroccan Chicken Stew, which led to several rounds of thirds, and a few of the female volunteers asking to take leftovers home to their boyfriends. Though I believe this was the only recipe of mine that she has tried on the shelter crowd, I've been a frequent adviser the weeks she cooks, since the kitchen, unsurprisingly, is really quite small.

These conversations only fueled my feelings of community negligence. So a few weeks ago, I joined my mother to make twenty servings of Mediterranean pasta with fresh fish, a luxury the shelter folk rarely get to enjoy. The space was small indeed -- you couldn't open the pantry or front door while someone was manning the stove, and since there was only room for one at the stove station anyway, that meant I was chopping onions. The pasta sauce turned out brilliant, and though the residents came back for thirds once again, I was also grateful to be able to take a little of it home for lunch the next day (pictured below).

It's always around the holidays, as I am in meal planning overdrive -- brainstorming how many baking dishes of Semi Sweet Potato Mash will fit in my oven at one time -- that I try to remember those among us without kitchens. I hope some other wonderful mother put aside her own family obligations last Thursday to cook up a Kosher feast at the shelter, as I don't know what we would have done without mine. This time of year is such a busy one in our kitchens, but sometimes it can be even more rewarding to step into someone else's, if only to feed those who are not fortunate to have one at all.

--Phoebe Lapine of Big Girls, Small Kitchen

Mediterranean Catfish Spaghetti
Makes 16-20 servings

Ingredients

4 fennel bulbs, chopped
4 large Vidalia onions, chopped
8 garlic cloves, minced or pushed through a press
4 (28oz) cans of crushed tomatoes
4 tbsp hot red pepper paste (or 1 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes)
5 oz petite capers
1 ½ tbsp salt (plus more to taste)
4lb spaghetti or linguine
6lb cat fish filets or other white fish
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped roughly (for garnish)

In a large (very large) pot or dutch oven, sauté the onions and fennel in a generous glug or two of olive oil over medium-high until translucent, about 10-15 minutes. Add the garlic, tomatoes, red pepper paste or flakes, capers, and salt, and bring to a simmer. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the flavors have combined.

Meanwhile, bring a large (very large) pot of water to boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain, toss with olive oil so the strands don't stick together, and set aside.

10 minutes before service, gently add the fish filets to the sauce and push them down so they are submerged. Allow to gently simmer until the fish is cooked through. Be careful not to stir too much -- you don't want the fish to fall apart. It will easily, so the end result will be chunks of cat fish, but you want there to be sizable pieces to serve.

Top each plate with a helping of spaghetti and a generous ladle full of fish and sauce. Garnish with some fresh chopped parsley, and serve immediately.

Paul Michael Merhige Planned To Shoot Family Members At Thanksgiving, Victim's Father Says

2009-12-01T12:46:42Z

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Paul Merhige sat through three hours of Thanksgiving Day dinner and sing-a-longs around the piano, plotting the moment he would fatally shoot four relatives, his cousin-in-law said Tuesday. After opening fire, Merhige was heard saying he had waited 20 years to kill them.

There were no arguments, warnings or red flags before the rampage, said Merhige's cousin-in-law Jim Sitton, who hosted the dinner and whose 6-year-old daughter was killed. Merhige also shot his 79-year-old aunt to death and killed his twin sisters, one of whom was pregnant, police said.

William Shatner Deep Fries Turkey, Catches Fire (VIDEO)

2009-12-01T11:52:54Z

"Messy" was how William Shatner described his Thanksgiving to Conan O'Brien Monday night. Charged with cooking the family bird, Shatner said, he decided to deep fry it and something went terribly wrong.

"I had forgotten one major rule," he said. "You use peanut oil and you have this fire going under the five-gallon thing of peanut oil and you take the turkey and immerse it in the oil. You're supposed to keep the neck down and the reason for that is that with the neck up, it forms a spout. And boiling oil could come squirting up and catch fire and act like a volcano."

Of course that's exactly what happened, but luckily Shatner's family was on hand to help save him.

"The oil squirted up, and I ran for my life, and I caught fire," he said. "The whole family knew something amusing was going to happen so they all stood around and threw things at me, some of which were fluids. And they put the fire out."

After all that, the turkey was "quite good."

WATCH:

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Kathy Freston: Top 10 (Recent) Developments On Factory Farming And Vegetarianism

2009-12-01T08:11:57Z

On Thanksgiving, I spent some
time taking stock of my life and the world around me and, as we're
supposed to do over the holiday, giving thanks for all the joys -- little
and big -- in my life. One of the larger joys for which I am giving thanks
is all of the recent attention that has been lavished on a topic that
is near and dear to my heart -- the cruelty and environmental harm involved
in raising animals for food.

I struggled to cohesively construct
an article about some of the many recent and important developments
on this topic, but there is just too much. Instead, I decided on a top
10 list (a tip of the hat to David Letterman) -- the 10 most interesting
articles on the farmed animal welfare front.

So without further ado:

World Bank scientists
conclude that eating meat causes more than half of global warming (conservatively).

World Bank agricultural scientists
Robert Goodland, who spent 23 years as the Bank's lead environmental
advisor, and Jeff Anhang, a research officer and environmental specialist
for the Bank, argue
convincingly that more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions are
attributable to our desire to eat chicken, pigs, and other farmed animals. That's right: Add up all the causes
of climate change, and you find that eating meat causes more than everything
else combined.

Honestly, this was the biggest
point for me: How can I possibly take the environment seriously if I'm
still participating in what is -- by far -- the biggest contributor to
warming?

Which might explain:

Prominent Stanford
biochemist pledges to focus all his energy on promoting veganism.

Most of us have heard of Nobel
Peace Prize winner Dr. RK Pachauri from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, and his
lectures all over the world
promoting vegetarianism. Now along comes Dr. Patrick O. Brown who, as reported in (of
all places) Forbes,
will spend the next 18 months focused on "put[ting] an end to animal
farming." Explains Dr. Brown, "There's absolutely no possibility
that 50 years from now this system will be operating as it does now...
I want to approach this as a solvable problem. Solution: 'Eliminate
animal farming on planet Earth.'"

Al Gore is taking
notice.

Although Gore's Global
Warming Survival Handbook noted that "refusing
meat" is the "single most effective thing you can do to reduce your
carbon footprint"
(emphasis in original), Gore had not spoken publically about the issue.
Now he has -- repeatedly. For example, on Larry King recently, Gore explained
that "the impact of meat-intensive diet is a significant factor"
in warming the planet, that "the growing meat intensity of diets around
the world is bad for the planet," and that "the more meals I've
substituted with more fruits and vegetables, the better I feel about
it..." The truth is becoming less inconvenient, thankfully.

Celebrated author
of Everything is Illuminated

and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close publishes Eating Animals
a riveting book based on a three-year investigation of factory farming.

Jonathan Safran Foer has been
widely hailed as one of the greatest novelists of his generation, was
one of Rolling Stone's "People of the Year," and Esquire's "Best
and Brightest" -- and after just two extraordinary works. As Nobel
Prize-winning novelist J.M. Coetzee puts it about Foer's latest
work, "The everyday
horrors of factory farming are evoked so vividly, and the case against
the people who run the system presented so convincingly, that anyone
who, after reading Foer's book, continues to consume the industry's
products must be without a heart, or impervious to reason, or both."

In his interview with Mother
Jones Magazine
(the entire interview is worth reading), Foer points out that Americans
"now eat 150 times as much chicken as we did 80 years ago," and
that it "takes between 6 and 26 calories to make one calorie of meat.
It is an incredibly inefficient protein because we are cycling through
all of these other grains that humans could eat."

Actor Alicia Silverstone
and Chef Tal Ronnen on the New York Times
bestseller list.

For some weeks now, Chef Tal
Ronnen's Conscious Cook
and actress Alicia
Silverstone's Kind Diet
have joined Foer and former model agent Rory
Freedman (whose
book convinced home run slugger Prince
Fielder to adopt a vegan diet)
on the list with books that make the case for vegetarian eating. You
may recall Ronnen from his
appearances on Oprah,
which caused Oprah to exclaim, "Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless
meals could be so satisfying."

Martha Stewart promotes
a vegetarian Thanksgiving.

As my
friends at Ecorazzi put it,
"Martha Stewart has proved once again why she's a pioneer in the
kitchen. Having someone with as much sway as the famous host show people
that the big feast doesn't have to include meat to be successful is
huge. Even better, she took the opportunity to educate her audience
on factory farming industry -- with help from author Jonathan Safran
Foer (of Eating Animals) and filmmaker Robert Kenner (Food,
INC.)."

Egyptian mummy heart
disease in
LA Times

I'm not sure it belongs in
my top 10 list, but I found it extremely interesting that "CT scans
of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500 years old, show evidence
of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which is normally
thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles..." What
on earth could have caused it? I think I know: "The high-status Egyptians
ate a diet high in meat from cattle, ducks and geese, all fatty."
If only the ancient Egyptians had the wisdom of Dr. Caldwell
Esselstyn!

Honesty at the Turkey
Pardoning

First Obama talks about factory farming and animal
rights as a candidate.
Then he puts in a garden at the White House. Now he's adding some
honesty to the annual turkey pardoning -- talking about the fate of other
birds, the fact that it's a fairly new ceremony, etc.

Might he have celebrated a
vegetarian Thanksgiving? The
White House isn't saying,
according to Gail Collins of the New York Times

in her delightful Thanksgiving Day contemplation of the turkey pardoning.
Okay, I'm kidding a bit (could he really get away with having a veggie
Thanksgiving, given the power of Agribusiness -- as documented in this sad piece on
FoodConsumer.org),
as was Collins of course, but the honesty at the event is refreshing,
and we do have the first president who understands the harms of factory
farming and who is taking global warming seriously.

Cargill launches
dairy-free cheese!

The largest privately held
company in the United States (six times the size of McDonald's) has just launched "a 100 percent non-dairy cheese
analogue for pizza and other prepared food applications" that "replicates
the functionality of dairy protein and replaces it fully at an outstanding
cost advantage for the manufacturer." According to Cargill, "its
appearance, taste and texture perfectly match those of processed cheese"
and it "also offers health advantages as it contains reduced calories
(less fat and no saturated fats) and... a unique opportunity for vegans
to enjoy a product that has the characteristics and taste of cheese
but without any animal-derived ingredients." It's also Halal and
Kosher.

Yet another study
is exposing the horrid treatment of workers by the all-powerful meat
industry.

A recent six-part piece in
the Lincoln
Journal-Star
documents the horrid conditions endured by slaughterhouse workers. Sadly,
nothing has changed since Human Rights Watch released their report on
the industry, "Blood,
Sweat, and Fear,"
six years ago. Then and now, researchers have documented "systematic
human rights violations embedded in meat and poultry industry employment."
It's becoming all too obvious that if we care about worker rights,
it makes sense to go vegan.

For information on making the
switch to vegetarianism, please check out my previous post, "A Beginner's Guide
to Conscious Eating."

Patricia Yarberry Allen: Thanksgiving: A Day of Introspection and Gratitude

2009-11-30T22:36:30Z

I did not feel well enough to travel this holiday. Normally, I would have pushed my way through it but my husband gave me this gift of the day, the turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie that I needed for my soul. I needed time to be and not do more than I could do, for just one holiday. I have never been fond of holidays, except for my birthday and July 4th; but I have always given it my best effort at often significant cost.

My family is all happily ensconced in the bosom of extended family experience: my husband and step sons, Garrett and Hunter are with our Michigan family celebrating the first Thanksgiving together since the death of the family matriarch, my beloved mother in law, Natalie McIntyre, who died on Mother's Day, 2008. Jane, the baby of the family, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has been in charge of creating the most delicious Thanksgiving foods in America for almost twenty years now, so this part of the family ritual will be the same. And of course she does it effortlessly. None of the chaos that is found in my Thanksgiving kitchen would be allowed in the kitchen of the yellow house in Orchard Lake. The family is connecting with old and new ways of celebrating this year and I know that each one there will be redefining the family so that it will endure.

My son, Baxter, is spending Thanksgiving with his father and stepmother in Savannah. He enjoys time there where entertaining is such an important part of that city and important to this part of his family. Ashley and his perfect wife, my precious daughter in law, are making their first Thanksgiving Day dinner in their home. They don't know that I have taken a sabbatical from just one holiday or I would have been unable to pull this off.

I most miss being in Kentucky today. Everyone from my family will be home but me. The phone call to my sister was the hard one. But, no one has siblings like mine. We accept and love each other and always believe that what we say to each other is the truth. So, when I said I needed a holiday off the grid, she understood. My brothers and sisters are fabulous cooks and I know what each of them will bring to the table. Mommie will be the center of love and attention, our beloved mother who always selflessly made such a fantastic Thanksgiving meal and taught us by example and inclusion to do the same. Missing my Kentucky family on this Thanksgiving is the sad part for me.

I am spending part of the day here in my office. My work, by my choice, has always been the central part of my life. Some people are just like this. I am most content in patient interactions, giving both the patient and the doctor a quiet time for review of their lives and their health issues. It is a time of focused listening for me. The work continues, of course, after the patient visit is over. The results of tests arrive and the real work of medicine, the creation of a narrative of the patient's life and the organization of symptoms, the integration of the physical findings begins. I am at my best in this detective work, the work of a biographer if you will.

I began to work in a hospital full time 47 years ago, when I was not quite 15 years old. I lied about my age in order to get that job, but I needed independence and that meant that I needed a job. Since the first day as a nurse's aide, I have always been at home in a hospital.

I am thankful today for my relationship with New York Presbyterian Hospital, where I have been at home since 1976. My hospital has been ranked number six in the nation, in overall care, as for several years now. This hard won acknowledgment of good medical care has come from leadership and integration of staff at all levels in patient centered care and constant improvement in all aspects of the patient experience. The physicians at the hospital are exciting to be around because they are at the top of their game and reinforce excellence throughout our hospital community. After my training was completed in the hospital, I moved to my office here at 90th and Madison in New York City. I have been in this cozy office for over a quarter of a century.

This Thanksgiving Day is the one I have chosen for reflection and remembrance of some of the many people and events along my life's long journey that made it possible for me to have this wonderful life. But I want most to remember those who make it possible for me to give the best I have to my patients and to the women over 40 with whom I have an ongoing conversation on line.

I have chosen incredible doctors and therapists who work with me to solve diagnostic problems and create therapeutic plans, who provide efficient and thoughtful care in their offices and surgical suites, and who always teach me something new and encourage me to be the primary care doctor that I love being most. Gynecologists are primary care doctors, of course, but most don't have the luxury of time that is necessary to do this when they are seeing many patients, delivering babies and operating on patients. I have left all that behind, because its season for me has passed. I miss the excitement and joy of delivering babies, I miss the camaraderie on the delivery floor and in the operating room but I knew at each stage of leaving a part of the professional life of an obstetrician gynecologist behind, that it was always the right time for reinvention. I felt on that memorable day in the delivery room, as I gave a baby girl to a beloved patient for the last time, that I had completed a cycle of my life with dedication and joy. My first day in a hospital as a nurses' aide began in the delivery room and that memory was still with me at the time of the last delivery of a baby.

The most unexpected joy in my professional life came from the formation of Women's Voices for Change with Faith Childs and Laura Sillerman, launched on November 21st in 2005. We are the Executive Board now of a growing organization that has created www.womensvoicesforchange.org, as a forum for women over 40 to describe and define who we are in this Second Spring of life we call The New Menopause. Our focus began with the need to change the meaning of just one word, menopause. Menopause has been a word that the media, advertising and the corporate world has shunned or used in demeaning ways. Women themselves have chosen denial, shame, and fear in response to this word.

The growing numbers of contributors, who have joined us, write to create a portrait that is an accurate one, not one based on outdated assumptions. We write to give women not yet physiologically or psychologically quite there, hope that this transition is the best opportunity for self invention that life will offer them. We write to give templates for hope and change to those in the tornado of the transition.

Women in the New Menopause, who choose to be present and fully aware of their life experiences, learn to use the fuel of this sometimes volatile life passage to make choices, and create their own change. We learn what is important, we divest ourselves of the unnecessary, and we focus on ways to make meaningful change in our individual lives, our communities and our country.

I am especially thankful today for the extraordinary and unexpected contribution to Women's Voices for Change from two donors who wish to remain anonymous along with a recent event given for WVFC by the extraordinary jeweler, Verdura. These important gifts will allow us to implement a long dreamed of way to include women across America in the creation of our portrait of women who are unafraid of the word, menopause, and who will encourage those in the media and the advertising and corporate world to recognize us for who we really are.

Women in The New Menopause are visible and we are well positioned to be part of the reinvention of our country as we face a new normal no one wanted and many refused to expect. We are more highly educated. We control more of the economic resources than any other demographic in this country. We are politically active across the spectrum. We decry political inactivity and waste in the government that has so little now. Waste will be noticed and noted again and again.

I am thankful for all the members of the Board of Women's Voices for Change. Each brings wisdom, intelligence, creativity and energy to our mission. Thank you Faith Childs, Laura Sillerman, Elizabeth Hemmerdinger, Catherine Wood, Lisa McCarthy, Leslie Frances, Dr. Elizabeth Poynor and to our newest board member, Coleen Caslin. We are all thankful to our Executive Director, Mary Kelly Selover, and the staff that supports www.womensvoicesforchange.org, directed by our editor, Chris Lombardi. We bring joy and support to each other as we work on our mission to make the New Menopause a life destination that is viewed with optimism.

On this Thanksgiving Day, November 26th, 2009, I am grateful for our readers who are becoming our writers. Our small effort that has grown only with the help of the famous public relation firm, "word of mouth", makes a difference only with your voices that are diverse and memorable. Write your way through The New Menopause with us and give other women who are without support and knowledge of options, your description of the best time of your life. And when there is a rough patch, write through it and know that we are here with you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The First Family's Cutest Holiday Moments (PHOTOS,POLL)

2009-11-30T15:50:52Z

It was the Obamas' first major holiday at the White House, which meant great picture opportunities for America's most photogenic family. See some of their sweeter Thanksgiving weekend moments below, and vote for your favorite.

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Laura Trice: Look Mom, No Hands

2009-11-30T14:54:53Z

Here in Los Angeles we had amazing Thanksgiving Day weather and going out for a bike ride seemed like a great idea. Biking is something I have done since I was a child and have continued throughout adulthood in all types of weather. In fact, biking is so automatic for me that I usually daydream during the ride and most of my best thoughts come to me then.

Out of nowhere, this past Thanksgiving day, I started to bike the long straight stretches without having my hands on the handle bars. Biking with no hands. It brought back my childhood. The stages were: get a tricycle, then a two wheel bike with training wheels, get rid of the training wheels and ride solo then the ultimate was to be able to balance well enough to ride without hands. I felt exhilarated riding with no hands. What surprised me was it took my total focus and used different muscles to balance. I didn't daydream at all.

As I passed other cyclists, I noticed that some of them rode without their hands as well. Biking is one of the times that I feel free. Most people I see on bikes have a smile probably because it brings us back to a basic, playful time.

The final stretch back to my house was a narrow street in Venice that smelled like roasting turkey the entire block long. It felt comforting to picture so many of us enjoying the same meal on the same day. While it may have been in separate homes with different traditions, I felt connected to others and smiled.

Liz Neumark: A Tale Of Turkey, Giving And Thanks

2009-11-30T12:30:52Z

Last week's freshly roasted turkeys are officially past the leftover stage but the feeling of having been a part of a unique Thanksgiving Day experience lingers on.

We did it - served 10,000 turkey dinners on Thursday with a volunteer staff of about 300; backed up by a culinary and operations team of dozens. It took countless planning hours and 5 days of double cooking shifts to prepare.

But the real ingredient was heart. Denise Richardson, of the Salvation Army cooked up this dream months ago and succeeded securing funding the dinner. Preparing and serving it was the easy part.

What follows is a collection of comments from several of the volunteers. Theirs and other's stories can be read in full at GoodWorks@greatperformances.com.

Anna Hammond

Yonkers Salvation Army. November 26.
I'm struck by how efficient the team of volunteers in the kitchen is. Keeping things going at a steady pace, listening to directions from Joanna, Arielle, and Cynthia -- whoever is calling out. Albert making sure the food is the perfect temperature and the serving trays are full. The four students up from NYU school of public health talking about their work in Tanzania as we all work together to figure out the best way to fill a to-go box so there's maximum food but it still looks nice when it gets opened at home. The steady stream of plates going out to the open gym where people come in and sit with their families, a friend, a stranger -- to eat good food together. Good people serving good people on a holiday. As family does.

Cynthia Yang

I was thinking that I might not send anything at all as all my thoughts seemed trite and cliché: it's important to give back; it's a blessing to be able to help people even on just one day; Thanksgiving is only one day of the year but our duties to each other remain constant.
But I am emailing you to share one brief moment of the day. As I was walking down the hallway, I stopped by a guest and her granddaughter holding 2 takeaway boxes. I wished her a happy Thanksgiving and she smiled: "I wasn't going to be able to have Thanksgiving this year because I couldn't afford it, so thank you all." (Continued)

Erik Sorenson

My family and I arrived in Harlem at 9am Thanksgiving morning and left six hours later which several new perspectives. Coming from privileged surroundings, it was terrific to see the joy and appreciation on the faces of the men, women and children who came to the Salvation Army on Martin Luther King Boulevard to enjoy a hot Thanksgiving meal. But just as enlightening was the experience we all had working in the kitchen, where everyone worked hard to keep the food hot. The kids developed a new appreciation for "the kitchen" and now understand the expression: "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." One of the most amazing things in our discovery was to learn that even large quantities of food could be made to be delicious

Karen Wenger

What an amazing day! So many different people and personalities coming together and working so magically as a team. It truly epitomized the spirit of Thanksgiving, and it was obvious that everyone there was finding many things to be thankful for.
So many of the volunteers were eager and excited to help in any way needed - especially the younger ones (I had a few teenagers), and it was wonderful to see the hard working teenagers inspire and put smiles on the adults!
I know some new friendships were started that day, and it was the volunteers who were truly blessed to be a part of such an amazing day.

Mike Warren

4:30am and the alarm goes off and it was time to wake my 3 boys to head off to the Harlem Temple. My youngest son Elliot was very torn between wanting to volunteer and "doing the right thing" and giving up a portion of his Thanksgiving Day, to spend time with his cousins who he rarely gets to see. I was proud that he chose to "do the right thing" and help others less fortunate. In the end, the four of us had a great day feeding people that really needed a good meal. I know we got more out of it than the people we fed. It made our evening with 26 members of our family at our house much more meaningful.

Marc Spooner

Yesterday meant a lot to me personally and professionally. A testament to my crew of cooks and sous chefs that we could all band together and accomplish such an important undertaking. It was inspiring to travel throughout the city to see the thousands of people enjoying the basic needs that we all should have the right to; nourishment for the body and soul.

Chaim Wachsberger

We stood near the wall by the corner of the gym at the Salvation Army facility on 138th and Lenox. A long table at one end held two piles of white plastic plates, then a heavy-duty tin foil container, warmed by two sternos, with string beans; next, a foil with stuffing; next; yams; next, mashed potatoes; then, the heart of the matter--turkey slices in turkey juices. This is where I stood, my colleague on the other side of the table. A plate would work its way down each side of the table, and a server on each side of a foil would ladle his or her responsibility on it. (Continued)

Newton Pryce

Good morning, I want to say, thank you for giving the opportunity to volunteer at the Salvation Army; The experience was socially inspiring and rewarding, not only did I enjoy the staff and other volunteer from G.P and GS, but I feel I made a difference for people who use the pantry to get food on Thanksgiving day.

Dan Obusan

East Harlem
Thanksgiving 2009 was easily the most gratifying Thanksgiving of my Life- yes it was missing family, and yes it was devoid of Football but as I sat down to eat my own Thanksgiving dinner with my friends, I couldn't help but feel a little giddy at what I participated in earlier that morning. I helped feed 1500 people at East Harlem earlier that morning as part of the GP/ GS team over at East Harlem on 125th Street and 3rd Avenue. It started out like any other workday- wake up and get to 125th street at 6:30 AM where the GP drivers were already waiting to get in and unload the 16 proofers filled with turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, mash potato, green beans and of course Gravy. (Continued)

Liz Gerber

Good turn out again this year with a better venue. Goldman employees are great!! Especially Mike age 12[a Goldman son} and Beyonce's brother age 11 [I forgot his name but I think he is also a Goldman son] an aspiring chef who 's favorite person is Gordon Ramsey--he likes the way he yells at his chefs. And Bob Paul is in trouble! I want him as a KA!

This is what my father has done all his life--he still belongs to the American Legion and in fact is being made honorary Commander of New York this coming Feb--he says "he takes care of widows, orphans and the disadvantaged.As for my sister she follows in the family tradition of helping others volunteering at many different venues.

Mary Villamizar

I have to say that I'm not a morning person and to be there early in the morning it was already a challenge for me. When I got into the Flushing Salvation Army I found the GP drivers already unloading the truck and then I thought "well I guess somebody else had woke up earlier than me and is already working harder" that is when I took a deep breath and felt ready to be part of the team, a team that was there ready to help and ready to bring some joy to people than for one reason or another was going to share a Thanksgiving meal with a bunch of strangers that probably won't see again in their lives. (Continued)

Vicky Saldana

As a mother, I enjoyed the company of my kids, and felt very proud seeing them working together. The part that made me laugh is when I dropped the tray of string beans; it felt as if it was my first day working in the kitchen and the funny part is that the first thing I advised my kids was to be careful not to drop anything and it was me who end up making a mess.

Jesse Feldman

I had an amazing time volunteering with GP at the Jamaica Center location. It was great to see the caring, kind-hearted sides of everyone. (Sometimes living in NYC makes you forget people have those sides). And, selfishly, I got so much out of the volunteer experience: I spent the day meeting new people from every walk of life... and after the volunteer day ended, I spent the rest of the holiday hopping around the city with about ten of my brand new friends!

Antulio Villasana

I just want to say that working on Thanksgiving Day was a great experience. To be part of the Great Performances voluntary employees, I was grateful and blessed to feed people that thanked you with a big smile in their face. Thanks for giving me this opportunity and great experience

Anne Hill: Loving An Ecological Disaster

2009-11-30T11:45:35Z

My boyfriend is a walking, talking, ecological disaster. He has many wonderful qualities, but once he moved in with me my energy efficient lifestyle suffered a huge blow. First he replaced my low-wattage lightbulbs with 100 watt bulbs, complaining that he couldn't read in the living room. I soon found that he takes twice as many showers as I do, creates more trash than my teenage daughter, and never waits for a full load to run the washing machine.

Every utility bill in the house shot up by about $30 once he moved in, and that was before the weather got cold and I found out how much he likes to run the furnace. They love him at the grocery store, but our recycling can is filled to the brim each week with plastic bottles from his favorite sparkling water and the two newspapers he reads every day.

Now, I have enough relationship experience to know that there is a difference between annoying traits that can be adjusted and annoying traits that are too ingrained to change. The trick is to figure out which is which, and whether you can live with your partner's ingrained annoying traits. And that gets complicated when we value things like energy efficiency and green living.

Although my boyfriend has made some positive changes in his energy consumption, by mid-November I had come to realize that he was just plain wasteful by my standards, and probably always would be. I began to seriously question whether I could live with all the things he couldn't, or wouldn't, change.

Then came Thanksgiving.

The day started with an argument over lining the bottom of the turkey pan with aluminum foil (his idea), or letting the drippings fall into the perfectly good stainless steel pan, thereby avoiding aluminum poisoning in the gravy (my idea). He was cooking the turkey so I relented and let him do it his way (I don't like gravy anyway).

He made cornbread, mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and gravy, using more butter than I usually go through in a year's time, all the while watching football on his energy-sucking high-definition flatscreen TV. I made a vegetable saute and baked an apple pie.

When our friend arrived to join us my boyfriend set the table and poured the wine, and when we were done he cleared the table and set it again for dessert while we walked the dog. After pie and ice cream, he insisted that we sit down and relax while he cleaned the kitchen.

There he was, leaving the water on full-blast while he stacked the dishwasher. Loading it halfway and putting it on its longest wash cycle, using too much detergent. Not collapsing or rinsing the empty ice cream carton before throwing it in the recycling. Soaking the dirty turkey pan because (as I predicted) the drippings got under the aluminum foil anyway.

Watching all this, it dawned on me: I have never had a boyfriend who likes to cook for me, and to clean up afterwards. I don't even know what it's like to be in a relationship with someone who loves doing nice things for me and wants me to be happy. Could happiness, and a loving, supportive partner, be more important than energy savings?

It's a new idea for me, but I'm willing to consider that choosing efficiency over love might be a foolish move. Relationships don't work without some compromise. The question is, when do our green values become annoying ingrained habits of our own, and do we hang onto them even at the risk of losing something just as precious and life-giving as water?

W. Hunter Roberts: A Family Values Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T11:23:44Z

I was a little out of sorts this Thanksgiving. It was just over a year ago that my beloved died suddenly and tragically. I was far away from family and from my many friends in Northern California. So on Wednesday morning, I packed my car with cranberries from a farm stand in Maine, got a Vermont farm-raised, free-range turkey, and fresh andouille from a rural smokehouse in Western Mass, and drove to Manhattan. After making one last stop for molasses and crème fraiche at Fairway Market on 125th St., I pulled into a miraculously open parking space on upper Riverside Drive. My old friend, Russ, came downstairs with his shopping cart, and we loaded everything up to his top floor apartment to begin the preparations.

Russ and Carol have a gift for hospitality; their large apartment is often filled with guests from somewhere. Carol also has a special gift for maintaining friendships. It's not unusual to find a classmate from junior high, or a grown child of one of her life-long friends, among them. I am one of their fortunate recipients. They even let me cook.

(with homage to Diane DiPrima's "What I Ate Where"; Photo by Zandy Mangold)

Meal planning and cooking is a sort of religious zealotry with me. I believe passionately in the magic of real food, lovingly prepared and consumed slowly, with interesting conversation. Everything should go together so one course leads gracefully to the next. The wine should be chosen to complement each dish. I think more than four side dishes muddy the palate; potlucks are my nemesis.

The people who love me best indulge this obsession and even revel in it. Russ is one of my best partners in crime. We can really go to town in the kitchen, and often do. This year's theme was Southern cooking. We began with that dangerous New Orleans cocktail, the Sazerac, for which Russ found a recipe on the Internet, including rinsing the glass in Absinthe. Then we happily began cutting the butter with knives into our wheat-free piecrusts (yes, it can be done, and still be flaky). While waiting to roll it out, Russ rubbed the turkey with Cajun spices. I grated a tangy relish of fresh cranberries, ginger, oranges, and apples. We dressed it with Russ's homemade mayonnaise mixed with crème fraiche and garnished with lavender salt (it turned out to be the hit of the meal).

After combining Russ's homemade corn bread with chopped onions, celery, New England apples, big golden Turkish raisins, and a pound of andouille for the stuffing, we rolled out the crusts. The recipe on Norah Ephron's Blog for Caribbean Sweet Potato Pudding sounded just about perfect, so we set about making the pudding to fill them. By bedtime, camped out on mattresses with the other houseguests, I drifted off on the smells of warm spices and fall filling the apartment.

In the morning after the Macy's parade, Carol and Jill (another house guest, from Berkeley, and director of Camp It Up! inclusive family camp) set up bridge tables and put out plates and linens for thirteen, while we listened to Broadway show tunes and animatedly sang along.

By the time the rest of the guests arrived for dinner, the pies were cooling on the window sill, the stuffed turkey was roasting and being basted regularly with bourbon and juices, giblets were boiling in a pot for gravy, the Beaujolais Nouveau was chilling, the mashed cauliflower soufflé was baking, and the green beans were slowly cooking, Southern style, with a ham hock and bay leaves. I was caramelizing onions in olive oil with a balsamic glaze, to pour over the spinach and radicchio salad garnished with goat cheese and dried cranberries.

In came Carol's brother, and his wife, with their two smart sons, eleven and fifteen, carrying bags of heavenly cookies available only at the Lakota bakery, outside Boston. Then Aunt Ulla, dynamic and fascinating at eighty-four, arrived with her famous homemade pâté and a hand crafted ceramic olive dish. Zandy, someone's thirty-something distant cousin who stuck, recently returned from photographing a marathon in the Sahara, arrived with homemade killer chocolate cookies, and his camera. There was the tall, beautiful and savvy web designer, June, who made menus on the spot and put them at all our places. Arriving last was the poetry slammer son of an old friend of Carol's, and his college roommate from Santa Cruz. And then we were all sitting around the table, Black, White, and Asian; eleven to eighty-four; gay, straight, and bisexual; Jewish, Christian and agnostic. I took out my grandfather's carving set, while Russ offered a toast. "Every morning we wake up and look in the mirror, and we know all our flaws, all the ways we wish we were better, all the ways we are not worthy of love, and yet we find ourselves at a table like this, where we are loved."

We are. I am. That's what family is. After dinner, Carol pulled out a keyboard and kitchen instruments of graters and wooden spoons. Jill played and we all sang. I cried for my beloved, who would have loved every minute. But also I cried because this is how life can be, and every once in a while, actually is.

Family values at their best prevailed as this diverse bunch assembled and celebrated our good fortune in the ancient manner of feasting. They are the kind of family values Jesus was speaking of when he asked his disciples. "Who are my mother and my brothers?" and answered his own question, looking at the many kinds of people seated in a circle around him "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:31-35). Or, in the words of the Native Americans, "All my relations." We are not all the same, but we are all part of life's richness.

I am well aware that not all people are so fortunate. We toasted them, too, wishing an end to war and policies that cause poverty and pain. But we also feasted, as people have always done, rich or poor, here and everywhere.

It may be this very custom of sharing food that makes us human. People worldwide have traditions of killing the fatted calf, preparing the Sabbath meal, pouring three cups of tea, or breaking bread in communion. We sit down at a table together. We take time. We laugh and tell stories. We serve each other. Call me superstitious, but I don't believe this kind of magic can come from turkey purchased pre-cooked at Safeway, or even at Whole Foods, and gulped down in front of the television.

In the breaking of bread, in the love and attention that go into preparing and sharing food in community, we become related. We truly see one another----in our wholeness and our brokenness. We extend our love beyond just blood ties, and embrace the many ways of being human. We are all family. Maybe that's the real meaning of family values.

Cheryle Jackson: It's Time to Come Home

2009-11-30T10:00:48Z

The Holidays are a time for fellowship and coming home. It's a time where families join together and are reminded of what they have. But for many of the families of our brave men and women, it's a difficult and poignant reminder that they're spending one more holiday away from loved ones.

I am grateful and humbled by the heroism of our military and their families who have sacrificed for our freedom and democracy. Freedom isn't free and there are times when we must use our military in support of American ideals. However, this is no longer one of them. It's time for America to bring our troops and money home. This should be the last holiday season our troops are separated from their families.

The Bush Administration misled the country into a six-year war in Iraq with questionable intelligence, insufficient resources and no strategy to win or for exit. This cost our country more than 4,000 American lives and more than $935 billion for both wars. We have started to move out of Iraq and we should start to move out of Afghanistan -- now.

Soon, President Obama will decide whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan or begin to bring our brave men and women home. So far, Afghanistan has cost over 800 lives and $228 billion. Even the smallest increased deployment being considered would cost another $20 billion. If 40,000 additional troops are placed at risk, the price could double to $40 billion. This is not an easy decision, but choices about war never are.

Here, history can serve as a guide. In the 1960s, America had Vietnam; a guerrilla war, a world away against an enemy defending its homeland for vague American national interests. In the 1980s, the then-Soviet Union engaged in a nine-year war in its own backyard facing the same Afghan nation. The results in both were similar -- many lives and treasure lost with no clear victory. We can learn from history and choose to act differently.

I am concerned that our mission in Afghanistan is unsustainable in light of corruption and instability in the Karzai government and the Taliban's control of much of the country. The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, retired Lieutenant General and former top military commander in Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, said recently that he had deep concerns about sending more troops unless President Karzai commits to ending corruption and mismanagement. I share this view and believe we must get out of this quagmire.

It's time to take care of America again and it's time to bring our troops home. In Illinois, some soldiers are facing their third or fourth deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq. These deployments not only put the lives of our soldiers at risk, but they also create economic hardships on working families. We are in the midst of the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression and our unemployment rate, at almost 10%, is expected to remain so for some time. Until we stop spending hundreds of billions on wars, we will not have the focus or money to solve the challenges we face at home.

The United States should set an aggressive timetable for full withdrawal from Afghanistan to force its government to end corruption and establish military and police security in the country. As an American, I will always support our brave servicemen and women. As a United States senator, I will back military engagement only with clear objectives, carefully considered, and fully explained to the American people. I will always serve as a voice for working families struggling to make ends meet. It is time to focus on America. It is time to come home.

Jennifer Grayson: Eco Etiquette: 6 Tips For (More) Eco-Friendly Flying

2009-11-30T08:20:48Z

I generally try to be eco-conscious, but it always seems like all bets are off when I have to fly somewhere. Obviously, air travel itself is bad for the environment, but it also seems like there's so much waste involved in the whole process of going to the airport, etc. Is there anything I can do to make flying a little greener?

-Kelli

Until Branson perfects his bio jet fuel, "green flying" will forever be an oxymoron. My trip from Los Angeles to Chicago this Thanksgiving will emit 1,022 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere -- nearly as much as driving my car for three months. I'm not proud of this. But what am I supposed to do, never see my family? That's a choice that even the most ardent environmentalist would be loathe to make.

And green going out the window doesn't stop with the plane emissions: There's the giant bottles of Aquafina in the airport shops, the fast-food restaurants flipping factory-farmed burgers, airport toilets that automatically flush three times before you've even finished peeing, the plastic cups that come with every pass of beverage service in the cabin, piles of discarded tabloid glossies...it's enough to make you want to throw up your hands in despair. (Or just throw up.)

But while it may seem like you're at the mercy of the travel gods and their wasteful, polluting ways, there are still eco-friendly choices you can make on your journey that really do make a difference. And who knows? Maybe you'll inspire the fellow fliers you encounter along the way.

1. Take public transit to the airport. If you live in the country or the suburbs, this may not be realistic, but if you live in a city, nix the cab and take public transportation. You'll not only be going green (reducing carbon emissions), you'll also be saving green: It costs only $7 to take the subway/air train from Manhattan to JFK, compared to a $45 taxi fare.

2. Pack light. This reduces emissions by a) making it easier to take public transit to the airport and b) lightening the plane's load. (Less weight = less fuel = less CO2 emissions.) This is basically the concept behind the new "green" plane Southwest is currently testing, which utilizes innovative materials to reduce weight by up to five pounds per seat. Considering the amount of eating most of us will be doing over the holidays, I say pack extra light to make up for that pumpkin pie you'll be wearing on the return flight home.

3. Buy (reputable) carbon offsets. There's been a lot of debate as to whether carbon offsets actually work, but when it comes to reducing the emissions associated with air travel, you really only have two choices: buy carbon offsets, or don't fly at all. Look at it as a donation to a good cause rather than a way to excuse bad behavior. Make sure, however, that you buy them from a trusted seller.

4. Brown bag it. Actually, make that a reusable lunch tote. I've never understood why pre-made airport sandwiches have to come in such giant plastic containers. Avoid the extra packaging -- and the carbon-intensive processed food -- by packing your own healthy meal and snacks to take with you on your flight. Extra carbon credit: Pack a vegetarian lunch.

5. Say no to bottled water. I have this crazy idea that one day, eco-conscious airports will feature filtered water stations by the gates where passengers can fill up reusable bottles before their flights. Oh right, I think something like that used to exist -- they were called water fountains. Unfortunately, these relics have become scarce in most airports; those who don't want to contribute to the more than 60 million plastic water bottles Americans throw away every day are left to fill up their Kleen Kanteens in an airport bathroom (fine at O'Hare, with its top-ranked tap water; pretty gross at LAX). A safe bet is to bring a reusable bottle with a built-in filter, like EcoUsable's Ech20 stainless steel and BPA-free version.

6. Check out your reading material. From the library, that is. The book industry loves virgin paper -- it's estimated that 30 million trees are cut down annually for books sold in the US alone. (Kindle fans will be happy to know that e-readers are somewhat green, though not as guilt-free as a borrowed book.) Can't fathom flying without your fill of Brad and Angelina? Give that US Weekly a second life by sharing it with another passenger when you're done, or at least drop it in an airport recycling bin on the way out.

Stick to these tips, and you'll be on your way to joining the green mile-high club!

Send all your eco-inquiries to Jennifer Grayson at eco.etiquette@gmail.com. Questions may be edited for length and clarity.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Ratings Highest In Years

2009-11-30T00:39:59Z

NBC had a little extra to be thankful for this year: the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade saw its highest ratings in three years.

The parade, broadcast on NBC, drew a 12.7 rating and 27 share in the overnight ratings — meaning 27% of all TVs tuned in on Thanksgiving morning were watching the parade. Those are the highest ratings since 2006, and they represent a 2% increase over last year's ratings.

NBC Research estimates that 45.8 million viewers watched all or some of the three-hour parade.

National ratings, viewer averages and demographics will be available on December 4.

Sarah Palin Quits Turkey Trot 5K Race In Kennewick, Washington

2009-11-28T17:59:50Z

Sarah Palin dropped out of a 5k race on Thanksgiving Day in Kennewick, Wash. The former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Governor quit the race because she wanted to avoid the crowds that were waiting for her at the end, according to The Tri-Cities Herald.

Palin was 1 of about 3,000 participants. The paper reported that her presence drew a "mass of onlookers." Palin announced that she would be running the race on Twitter.

The former Republican vice-presidential candidate visited nearby Richland, Wash., to spend the holiday with relatives. She said it's good to be back in the Tri-Cities to reconnect with "the roots." Her grandparents, Clem and Helen Sheeran, came to Richland in 1943.

Paul Merhige Wanted: Man Accused Of Gunning Down Family, Executing Girl During Thanksgiving Visit

2009-11-28T16:17:07Z

JUPITER, Fla. -- Authorities in Florida were searching Saturday for a man police said opened fire on his family after Thanksgiving dinner and killed four people, including his pregnant sister and a 6-year-old cousin who was sleeping in her bed.

There had been "ongoing resentment" in the family, but investigators weren't sure what specifically prompted the shooting, officials said. Police were looking for Paul Michael Merhige, 35, of Miami. He was believed to be driving a royal blue 2007 Toyota Camry with a rear spoiler and Florida license plate.

Authorities in Michigan, including the Birmingham Police Department, were alerted of the search because Merhige had sought help from a Detroit-area physician in the past year, Jupiter Police Sgt. Scott Pascarella said. He did not know why Merhige had contacted a physician there.

Merhige is also accused of gunning down his pregnant sister's twin and his 79-year-old aunt.

"What led to this incident, we're not quite sure," Pascarella said. "It did not appear there was any altercation prior to this shooting."

Pascarella said Merhige left briefly before returning to the home where 17 relatives had gathered in Jupiter, a small beach town about 90 miles north of Miami. The town is known as a home to celebrities including Michael Jordan and Burt Reynolds.

Pascarella said police first received a 911 call from a neighbor, then another from someone inside the home. The residence, in a well-kept new subdivision with brick-paved driveways, is owned by local TV videojournalist Jim Sitton and his wife. The home was surrounded Friday by yellow crime scene tape and police crime unit vans.

Sitton recounted the shooting to WPTV:

When asked about the alleged gunman Sitton said, "I haven't seen him in like 15 years, he had his issues in the past and when I heard 'Oh Paul's coming,' I thought 'Okay, I haven't heard any bad stuff in 5 or 10 years,' and I thought 'maybe he's getting better,' and a red flag did not go off. He sat two people down from me I talked to him, there were no red flags he wasn't moody, it was just completely out of the blue. The way I understand it he is evil and darkness hates the light and he saw the light from the twins singing Via Dolorosa and we were praising God and thanking God for Thanksgiving and my little girl was preaching."

"I learned yesterday that... Paul told my father-in-law 'I've been waiting 18 years to do this, or 20 years to do this.' He meant he's been waiting 20 years to to kill his family."

Sitton's daughter Makayla had gone to bed before the rampage, police said.

"God packed a lot of sweetness into that little body," Sitton said. "She's just our life. I don't know how we are ever going to recover."

Sitton told local media that his daughter was supposed to perform in a holiday production of "The Nutcracker." The Florida Classical Ballet Theatre had two shows Friday.

"Makayla was part of our family, and as one of the youngest dancers, she was to be one of Mother Ginger's Children," artistic director Colleen Smith said. "She was a beautiful, dear girl. She was a beam."

The other victims were Merhige's twin sisters, Carla Merhige and Lisa Knight, and an aunt, Raymonde Joseph. Merhige's brother-in-law Patrick Knight was in critical but stable condition at a local hospital. Another man, Clifford Gebara, 52, was grazed by a bullet.

Carla Merhige was a real estate agent in Miami.

"She was a wonderful agent," said Joanna Sherman, a manager at Coldwell Banker Residential real estate. "She was very active in the community and in charities. She was just a genuine, beautiful individual. She always had a smile for everybody."

Neighbors in the Palm Beach County community were shocked as police processed the home.

"Our kids walk the streets by themselves," said Nicole Kemp, 67, who did not know any of the victims. "I thought it was the safest place to live. I guess it doesn't matter, if there's a maniac here."

___

Associated Press writers Suzette Laboy, Sarah Larimer and Tamara Lush in Miami contributed to this report.

Watch WPTV's Report:

Black Friday Sales: U.S. Retailers Report Strong Crowds

2009-11-28T09:37:30Z

The nation's shoppers took advantage of deals on toys and TVs with some renewed vigor in stores and online on Black Friday after a year of concentrating their spending on basic necessities.

Though the first numbers won't be available until Saturday, early reports indicated bigger crowds than last year, with people buying more and even throwing in some items for themselves.

Julia Moulden: Banks Giving: Now That's The Holiday Spirit!

2009-11-28T08:37:00Z

Why is "Banks Giving" a headline we never expect to read? And isn't it time we acted in unison to do something about that?

Like you, I've grown increasingly uneasy about the money financial institutions are making. And the obscene bonuses paid to senior people (you can be sure that tellers aren't in line for such excess).

I've been wondering what the average person can do - in addition to sending clear messages to our leaders. An interesting story out of Australia (written by Keith Bradsher of the New York Times) shows the power of activism. After years of complaints by small business (retailers and restaurants), banks and credit card companies reduced merchant fees. The story also shows the limits. As fast as regulators came up with restrictions, banks came up with new fees. It's a vicious (and I do mean vicious) circle.

I started thinking about all of this in New Radical terms. Instead of waiting for someone else to solve the world's problems, New Radicals say, "I can do it!". And they come up with positive, constructive, and hopeful approaches. So, if straightforward activism (viz Australia) has its limits, what else can we do?

Can we get off the financial grid altogether?

I'm not talking about the proverbial mattress or even local trading coupons. I'm looking for ideas that work in our 21st century world. I want to hear about smart, sustainable financial alternatives. Has anyone started a "good" bank - and, if so, why haven't we all heard about it? What other options are out there, or in the works? I've been writing about "good" venture capitalists, including the SOCAP conference last September in San Francisco (which was attended by every major financial institution - they know something's up). What about day-to-day banking? Mortgages? Credit cards?

What are you doing? What have you heard about? How can a new breed of financial institution help bring our ailing world back to full health? How might we encourage the banks of today to start thinking like the banks of tomorrow? How can we help them see that we exist not only for ourselves but also for each other? Because, well, that's what this holiday season is all about.

Please share your thoughts by commenting below. As always, I invite you to email me at JULIA (familiar symbol) wearethenewradicals (symbol) (COM).

Julia Moulden is on tour, talking about the New Radicals. She doesn't leave home without them.

Tara Stiles: Your Holiday Relaxation Rescue Guide (VIDEO)

2009-11-28T08:34:53Z

Wouldn't it be nice to fully relax the body and mind. Reserving some time for ourselves around the holidays seems so far away from the reality of forced spending, emotional exhaustion, and general frustration. What ever happened to peace, love and harmony? There still is hope. No matter how robbed we feel by the state of our country, family, and friends, we can reserve a few moments to remedy our inner peace. Everything begins here.

I think there are two great ways to relax around the holidays. One is to spend a little time taking your mind off your mind. For most of us our usual way of being is all attention on a very active mind, always thinking, planning, and figuring things out. The very idea of letting this go even creates all kinds of defensive arguments, which can run something like "If I stop my thinking, who'll run the show, feed the kids, and keep me from turning into one of those "blissed out" types incapable of navigating this world?" This is a very reasonable question!

We can start by setting our minds at rest, since that's where the question comes from. We're not talking about a permanent shut-down. We all have plenty of practice running the show from our thinking control center, so there's little chance of losing that ability for when we need it. What can help us immeasurably is letting go a little bit, just enough to turn attention to something other than our thoughts. Things like meditation and physical yoga often pick breathing and moving as good starting points. When everything is focused on our thinking, there's very little room to hear or feel anything else. Focus on your breath for a bit, and you start to notice things. Spending a little time to relax your mind and give yourself the chance to feel can have a very calming effect. You may notice that you feel good!

This brings up a second way to relax that is helpful right around now. It's related to the first because it involves letting go just for a bit all the reaching, planning, and figuring out. The best way to get where you want to go is to be right where you are. Everybody knows that, but sometimes a reminder is helpful. Again, for most of us the logical challenges can come right up with a statement like that, running along the lines of "If I don't plan and figure things out, how will anything ever get done around here?"

Our logical minds can definitely have a hard time dealing with paradoxes. The thing is, reality isn't bound by logic. It just is. Science will keep trying to measure and predict, how things are will keep on being how things are, and this will often perplex our ability to predict and control through logic. In this case the truth is, being exactly where we are, with all our senses focused precisely on what's in front of us right now, is a good way to feel calm and happy. And it's also the best way to get anywhere. If we need a rational explanation for that, it may have something to do with being "right here" enough to see things for how they are gives us greater ability to act appropriately. When our minds wander off, we deal less with reality and more with fitting things into what we imagine as a path to some future desire.

However we explain it, being happy to be right where we are is a good idea. Taking a little time off the mind through some breathing and yoga can go a long way to helping us relax and get wherever it is we need to be. Try checking out this video for a start in the right direction.

. . . and if that doesn't work here is a little holiday humor for you!

Jonathan D. Adler: What Is The NFL Feeding Us On Thanksgiving?

2009-11-27T15:57:19Z

Is the NFL taking its Thanksgiving fans for granted? It seems that year after year, the Thanksgiving Day schedule features lousy matchups and even lousier outcomes. This year, America was treated to three supremely boring football games. Detroit was beaten into submission by the Packers, Dallas hammered Oakland, and the only stirring moment in the Broncos win over the Giants was when Josh McDaniels's f-bomb was caught by NFL Network mics.

Is it our imagination, or are we watching inferior football games on Thanksgiving? Looking at the numbers, it's not a turkey-induced error in memory, it's the truth: In the past five seasons, Thanksgiving Day games have been significantly less competitive than other regular season games. If we compare the average margin of victory in a regular season game to that of a Thanksgiving Day game, the difference is remarkable.

Avg. Margin of Victory 05-09: 11.96 points (1196 games, excludes Thanksgiving games)

Avg. Margin of Victory on Thanksgiving 05-09: 20.42 points (14 games)

In the past five seasons, we've sat through significantly worse football games on Thanksgiving. We're seeing games that are two scores apart from the average regular season matchup. Not surprisingly, we've got the Lions' futility to thank for our viewership woes. In the past five seasons, they've lost all of five of their games on Thanksgiving by an average of 21.4 points.

The NFL tried to offer a competitive game this year, with the Broncos v. Giants matchup. But somebody forgot to tell Eli Manning and the Giants offense not to eat a huge Thanksgiving dinner before the game.

If these games get any worse, I might have to spend time with my family.