Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We started the day with our annual Turley Turkey Bowl — running over 50 years of unbroken tradition. We returned to prepare our big family feast. We do traditional fare with a turkey, stuffing, cranberry, Waldorf salad, pumpkin pies and all the rest. We should be in a food coma in time to watch the NFL games.
Our Turkey Bowl always features the Bears against Washington. I will, of course, proudly coach the Bears. The game ended in a tie of 7-7. There were the usual allegations against the Bears coach of fixing draft selections, misrepresenting down counts, and other infractions. While my past requests for a flyover from the Pentagon have gone again unanswered, we proceeded to have a potluck feast on the field with donuts, muffins, hot chocolate, coffee, and other morning fare.
Today we are not smoking a turkey because my grill is broken and I could not get the new burners in time for the repair. However, we have a huge bird stuffed with my an apple and corn bread stuffing.
We have all of the kids with us despite three in college and one in medical school. We now have dozens of regulars from the neighborhood with many having attended since they were small kids.
The Turkey Bowl is now an occasion for all of these kids to see each other on break from their various jobs and schools. It is an amazing moment to see them all together, having watched them grow up. I am so happy that the Turkey Bowl has become part of their return home each year. They all turned out pretty darn good despite our best efforts.
For most of us, this holiday remains a day of family and friendship — a moment of needed pause from the divisions and strife around us on a daily basis. That is why it is my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving is about maintaining the connections that have shaped our lives and perhaps making some new ones.
I am also thankful for our extended family on this blog, which has continued to grow at a record pace. Many of our readers are in countries that do not celebrate Thanksgiving, but we are indeed thankful that you continue to join us and share your views on the blog.
So best wishes for a wonderful holiday from my family to you and your family. So Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
“Traditional fare like Waldorf salad?” Maybe in the beltway. Happy Thanksgiving.
Also shows up in the Midwest per my farming grandma. 🙂
My other grandma favored Jello salads.
“FOUR DIED TRYING”
“A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY SERIES”
“Four Died Trying explores the extraordinary lives and calamitous deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy.”
https://www.fourdiedtrying.com/
“Filmed primarily from the vantage point of their children, close associates, and witnesses to their assassinations, the series considers the “turning” each of these men were making in the last year or so of their lives. Were they embracing ever-broader conceptions of the struggle for peace, social change and economic justice, and what forces may have stirred in opposition? What lessons do their lives and deaths hold for us today, as the world once again trembles on the cliff of an uncertain future?
“Six years in the making, with nearly a hundred interviews and counting, Four Died Trying is scheduled for release in November 2023, to help commemorate the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination.”
https://www.fourdiedtrying.com/watch
“Four Died Trying”
Official Trailer
Trailer/”Sneak Peak”
https://www.fourdiedtrying.com/sneak-peek
Correction:
Sneak Peek
Some Americans, particularly immigrants who fled totalitarianism, are grateful for the Founding Fathers of America like George Washington. President Washington had the integrity, wisdom and courage to elevate Americans in calling for obedience to natural law and the divine truths as set forth by God our Creator. This undoubtedly makes many Americans uncomfortable. Their discomfort is why our nation has taken a turn for the worse, for forgetting the Source of all things true, just and authentic freedom – freedom from darkness.
May God have mercy on America and those leaders, both elected and legal “experts”, who have facilitated our present trajectory.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions– to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually–to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed–to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord–To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us–and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington
https://www.mountvernon.org/education/primary-source-collections/primary-source-collections/article/thanksgiving-proclamation-of-1789/
Professor Turley, I’m thankfully for your voice of reason in a time of insanity. Each day you remind me that there are good people in the world. God bless you and yours on this day of Thanks.
Hear, hear!
Absolutely! I give thanks for Prof. Turley and the team for standing for civility and decency!
“RFK Jr.’s Thanksgiving Thoughts On Gratitude”
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL
Win, eat and be merry. The best of Thanks giving to you & yours Thank YOU so much for all you do. A tribute to our country.
Jonathan: On this Thanksgiving Day my family, yours and those on this blog will gather together to celebrate. Sadly, there will be no thoughts about the Palestinians in Gaza who have nothing to celebrate. Over 13, 000 innocent Palestinians have been killed by the IDF–a large number women and children. The IDF is bombing Gaza into oblivion–a form of “ethnic cleansing” not seen since the Nazi regime. So now there is temporary cease fire. Hamas will release 50 hostages and Israel will 150 of it’s “hostages”–many women and children. After the cease fire ends Israel will go back to its bombing campaign.
And what about the IDF siege of the Al Shifa hospital? The IDF claims the hospital was used by Hamas as a “command and control center”. What has Israel offered as proof? A reporter was taken to the basement and shown a single chair the IDF spokesperson claimed was proof Hamas was holding hostages there. A single chair doesn’t prove anything. The IDF now says the tunnels it discovered under the hospital are added proof of its claim the hospital was a Hamas command center. Only one little problem. Ehud Barak, former Israeli PM, says the tunnels and rooms underneath the hospital were built by Israel engineers when the hospital was built in the 1980s–at a time when Israel was in full control of Gaza.
In the fog of war truth is the first casualty. Reeling from international criticism of its genocidal campaign in Gaza, Israel is desperately trying to justify its slaughter of innocent Palestinians and siege of the Al Shifa hospital–the only large hospital that has been treating the injured–and, yes, premature babies who had to be evacuated when the siege began. Where are those innocent babies now? Who knows. Under the laws of war and international humanitarian law you don’t lay siege to hospitals!
And now the IDF has just arrested and detained the director of Al Shifa, along with several doctors, who were helping to evacuate the injured after the IDF forced the evacuation of the hospital. The IDF claims they were complicit in allowing Hamas to use the hospital as a “command center”. All along the hospital administration has denied the IDF claims.
So today, around the Thanksgiving table, few will be thinking of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. I will!
Of all things for which I am grateful, the best is that I am nothing like this pathetic clown.
Dennis McIntyre, even on Thanksgiving you just can’t help yourself. An obsession at your level is nothing less of a mental illness. You should be thankfully that you remain a free man.
You are 100% incorrect. All of the Hamas apologists (aka anti semites) have the Gazans in their thoughts. You know who is not thinking about the Gazans? Hamas.
Ethnic cleansing? Google what Assad did to his people in Syria. Where was your outrage and for that matter, anyone else’s?
One other detail you leave out. What date did Israel start their war against Hamas? The answer is October 8th. Do you recall what happened on October 7th?
“Sadly, there will be . . .”
DM and the rest of the grotesquely inappropriate Left —
At a wedding: Speaking of toasts. Did you notice that DT is toast . . . [followed by a 20-minute rant].
At a funeral: Speaking of dust to dust. Did you see how the bloodthirsty Israelis are reducing the peace-loving Gazans to dust . . . [until the rest of the attendees wished that they, too, were dead].
Marianne says many thanks to you, Professor Turley, for your thought provoking blog and for your kind words on this Thanksgiving Day. You are a breath of fresh air in this stressful world. God bless.
Blessings & happy times to you & yours, Dr. Turley. Your readers continue to be grateful for your well-reasoned & respectful commentary!
Happy Thanksgiving Thinking about when the kids were little. Our church had the high school and college group having breakfast at the church and then big flag football geme. Latter we took over a roller skating rink. The fathers and younger kids got out of Mom’s hair. We ran the music.
Happy Thanksgiving Jonathan Turley. I give thanks for the sanity and insight you bring to us, especially treasured during these tumultuous times. Have a blessed day, from a grateful reader in Pleasanton CA.
Hope that you are your family have a GREAT Turkey Bowl and enjoy some well-deserved time off. Thanks from New Mexico.
Happy Thanksgiving professor!
I love the idea of the Turley Turkey Bowl tradition, the doughnuts, hot chocolate and coffee. People getting together who have not seen each other for a year, or people that grew up with each other.
Then the big sit down feast!
Very Norman Rockwell!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving! We do have so much to be thankful for living in this land of the free and home of the brave. This year I will be teaching some people not from America how to make our family recipes. It really is fun to celebrate with new family and friends who just want to soak it all in. Wishing you all a blessed day!
God bless you and your family Prof. Turley. Thank you for reasoned, critically evaluated pieces over the years. You reassure me that sanity is still present in Washington DC.
Sadly, President Biden has little to be thankful for:
https://www.theonion.com/biden-spends-birthday-depressed-over-not-accomplishing-1851036405
Happy Thanksgiving!
Well said, Professor Turley! Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Family, friends, giving thanks for our blessings–a beautiful way to spend a day.
Yes, Professor, a Happy Thanksgiving for all. Even the far-Left trolls on this blog. We are all thankful for YOU!
Yes, let us give thanks to the Leftists. Without Leftists, there would be less hate, less barbarism. less crime, less filth, less degeneracy, and more prosperity. joy, and accomplishments. Small wonder the media is run by Leftist Presstitutes. There wouldn’t be enough bad news without Leftists. And think how boring and meaningless life would be without the horrible news created every day by Leftists.