Go Veg!

Thank you, "Various writers" for your takes on Thanksgiving.

It's kind of sad to read how little of a true Thanksgiving feast originates in San Diego County. But I guess that's the point. We're all celebrating a feast based on New England foodstuffs. San Diego food SHOULD be different. Still, you'd think we could get bread from locally-grown grain. Then again, it hasn't rained here in eight months -- not ideal grain growing conditions.

John Brizzolara, your piece was touching. We all really need to start with gratitude for the most basic things: shelter, clothing, the ability to draw breath. It's hard to feel sorry for yourself when you're feeling grateful.

While I'm partial to Brizzolara's style, I enjoyed the comparative nature of the different narratives. Grimm's conventionality, Lickona's slant on obedience, Barb's rebellious nature, and so on. A few weeks back, you guys took a couple of consecutive issues printing out a combination of stringer stories and blog entries/comments. If you could have focused that like you focused this, it would have been a smash hit.

I have a suggestion, based on all of this, but you'll have to act fast. Invite your bloggers and commentors and stringers to submit, say, three hundred words about Christmas, along with the staff. Pay any of the contributors, say, 30 or 40 dollars so it comes out similar to what you pay for a cover story. If you can put it together right, it would make for a wonderful read in the differences and similarites in how or why we celebrate Christmas.

Don Bauder is funny...but the kind of funny that makes you grit your teeth.

Gringo's idea is interesting. Though it sounds like a lot of work for the editor.

Altus, only if you believe in rain dances would you think growing grain in San Diego is a good idea...oh wait, you're a Creationist so you probably do believe in divine intervention upon request to change the weather.

Silly me. Never mind...

Fred, I think the key is in simply accepting the right stories. They should, for the most part, be different. A bunch of people are probably going to write in with, "We get up and open our presents and then mom cooks the Christmas ham and then we say grace...".

You take one or at the most two of those, and then throw in the, "First, at midnight, we all get naked and dance on the roof, shouting out the names of the reindeer while waving torches at the moon...".

Buffer that with some of the other neat and crazy stuff. I have absolutely no doubt that Christmas celebrations are so much more different than traditional Thanksgiving one's. My own habits have changed very much, I combine my mother's traditional Christmas Eve with my wife's traditional Mexican Christmas, and I cook a HUGE meal for Christmas evening and invite people without family to participate.

I would love to read about what other people do.

GringroRefrito...we have been accused elsewhere of using a translation engine to write in tongues.

Can you prove them wrong? Jak je tradični vanoční večeře? Ktera jidlo? A od chud je mama tvuj - jestě žije? Omlouvam že čestina psani je uplne hovno, ale jsem blb, Amik že vubec nemluvil ani slovo před je mi byl 23 let.