Giving Thanks for all
The wingnuts you wonderful
Folks deflect daily
It's horribly boorish of me, I know, but I have this tradition, regardless of how New-York-jaded my hosts any given year may be, of asking everyone at Thanksgiving dinner to mention one thing they're actually thankful for. My, my, my, the looks I get. Most folks will mutter some half-considered idea or kick me under the table for introducing such a Norman Rockwell moment into their otherwise Calvin Klein gathering, but sometimes I find someone who was really happy I asked. Hope springs eternal.
Anyway, this is an open thread and haiku invitational (in honor of Moe, who with his financee, we hope is having a wonderful Thanksgiving showing off the bling bling).
I've tried to come out
twice already: can you hear:
British. Lesbian.
JeSurgisLac
Posted by: Jesurgislac | November 24, 2004 at 10:16 AM
Far from home in Mass
Spending T-day with my Prof.
Its gonna be wierd
But good times, no doubt
I'm bringing a derby pie
Recipe is here
I'm thankful for the
Much-needed holiday break
Must finish papers!
Have a good time all
With family, friends, or profs
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by: mc_masterchef | November 24, 2004 at 10:35 AM
You oh pun the red
It hasn't always been good
to be red than dead.
Posted by: blogbudsman | November 24, 2004 at 10:36 AM
Jes!
You are so-o-o-o-o-o right about assumptions. I was totally convinced you were straight, male, and American.
Glad to know ya better!
What prompted the self-outing?
Posted by: Edward | November 24, 2004 at 10:46 AM
What prompted the self-outing?
I wrote about it on my livejournal (linked to from the haiku). I'd been thinking about it for some time, because it was beginning to bug me: though it still bugs me, in a way, that I should have to.
The short version, though, is: You inspired me. ;-)
Posted by: Jesurgislac | November 24, 2004 at 11:03 AM
but first i'd have to
cede responsibility
before i gave thanks
Posted by: cleek | November 24, 2004 at 11:05 AM
Nice Thanksgiving Day story:
Mom Trucks Thanksgiving Meal to GI Son
Posted by: Edward | November 24, 2004 at 11:28 AM
While many return
Without their appendages
Thanks for mine, repaired
While some dine apart
Without their beloved partners
Thanks for mine, returned
While many sleep out
Without a roof above them
Thanks for mine, re-fied
While many are shushed
Without an outlet for talk
Thanks for Oh-Dub, Love
Crionna
Posted by: crionna | November 24, 2004 at 11:54 AM
I'm blue cause I'm blue
Now the Blue Meanies are red
Scales from eyes are shed
Posted by: John Thullen | November 24, 2004 at 12:02 PM
Glad to have a job
Though there's no health benefits
It still beats Medicaid
Posted by: Tad Sketchy | November 24, 2004 at 12:09 PM
For jesurgislac:
don't you realize
the only choice we have is
murrican male?
Posted by: liberal japonicus | November 24, 2004 at 12:17 PM
Two other things I'm thankful for, before I head out.
First is what I think is meant to be a dubious honor bestowed upon me by the Politburo Diktat:
I aim to please.
Secondly is a topic that deserves a full post, but I'm a bit short on time, so I'll just link to this and say Thank God for the ACLU. The anger they sometimes raise in their work dully noted, this organizations remains one of the reason I trust the US will be just fine, no matter how dark the horizon may look at times:
Thank you ACLU. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!!!
Happy Turkey Day all!
Posted by: Edward | November 24, 2004 at 12:36 PM
Jes, I'm a middle
aged midwest American
relegated to
Near eunuch status
substituting sex with a
Harley Davidson
Hoping you find your
way to peace and comfort with
life as you know it
I trust you will still
remain diligent and alert
with tough arguments.
Posted by: blogbudsman | November 24, 2004 at 01:10 PM
I am at a loss
to understand why the blogs
-budsman thinks I will change
become less tough and
less dilligent: less alert:
because he now knows more
than he did yes'day.
It's his world that changes now
(a small bit): not mine.
But thanks for your good wishes, Blogs.
Posted by: Jesurgislac | November 24, 2004 at 01:17 PM
On the internets
No-one knows if you're British
Unless you tell them. :)
Posted by: Anarch | November 24, 2004 at 01:38 PM
Arizona monk
Chose lifelong celibacy
Still got screwed by Bush
Posted by: Mad AZ Monk | November 24, 2004 at 01:45 PM
Four kinds of pie, friends:
Concord grape, cherry, pecan,
And kabocha squash...
Posted by: theophylact | November 24, 2004 at 01:47 PM
I was never very good at haiku's.
I am thanful to live in a country where I can disagree with the leadership and be very vocal about it. Also thankful for the people who disagree with my views. It takes all kinds.
Red states, blue states...in the end we're all Americans and I know if I really needed help I'd get it, and who I voted for would be the last thing on their mind.
Posted by: Bill | November 24, 2004 at 02:15 PM
oh no - the haiku thread --
now you all get to find out just how much of a Heretic I am. The only Haiku I have ever written:
Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus in space
Hippopotamus
Posted by: Bender | November 24, 2004 at 02:21 PM
and of course - im thankful that my 7th grade English teacher didnt fail me on the spot for that stunt.
Posted by: Bender | November 24, 2004 at 02:21 PM
I'm going to quote John Cooper Clarke:
Writing a poem
In seventeen syllables
Is very diffic
Or (from the Onion):
First five syllables
then seven, then five again
blah blah fucking blah
Or from Hass' translation of Basho:
Writing crap
About snow
isn't Haiku
Or:
Misty morning
Can't see Fuji
Interesting.
Posted by: Urinated State of America (aka Tom) | November 24, 2004 at 02:25 PM
Thankfull for this place
which succeeds in opposing
black and white glasses
(ah.... my very first haiku ;-))
Posted by: dutchmarbel | November 24, 2004 at 02:35 PM
"Blogs"
Two dogs on a bed
45 in West Dallas
My crowded comfort.
Bernie Taupin saw
Mona Lisas,Mad Hatters:
Song remains the same.
"People I have found"
A strangely social distance
People there like you.
Thinking about New York
There are large holes in your sky.
Lights and shadows gone.
Hope you are not cold
Thinking about New Yorkers
And sharing my bed
With German shepherds
Its a small bed but big web
For crowded comfort.
Posted by: bob mcmanus | November 24, 2004 at 03:30 PM
Lessee,
1. A wife who loves me.
2. Pretty good health.
3. An interesting job.
4. A growing circle of interesting acquaintances.
5. Living in this country at this time.
6. Two great dogs, one of which is a bed hog and the other snores.
7. Parents and inlaws who don't actually drive me certifiably crazy ('though they seem to be working on it).
Cheers everybody! Have a great holiday. I'll be back on Monday.
Francis
Posted by: fdl | November 24, 2004 at 03:35 PM
quiet amazement
when yellow roses blossom
my but they smell good
I've lived a goodly chunk of my life with some very harsh weather indeed, so California (four years into my second time living here) still freaks me out sometimes. Mirabile Dictu my favorite rosebush is blooming, outside, at the tail end of November... Heh.
and for Jes:
a lesbian, sure
but a British lesbian?
who would have guessed it
The world's a funny place. I was just thinking the other day about how much more interesting and heterogenous the internet has become compared to the olden days, and how at some point, without really noticing, I stopped reflexively assigning meatspace parameters to fellow netizens. I can't say I'm surprised to find out you're female (I guess I wouldn't have wanted to speculate about your preference or ethnicity either), but if asked I would have said american for sure...
Posted by: radish | November 24, 2004 at 03:40 PM
So much gratitude,
But Thanksgiving was last month,
Silly yankee ninnies.
And congrats, Jesurgislac. That shook up my mental image of you quite a bit. For example, you probably don't have a moustache.
Posted by: double-plus-ungood | November 24, 2004 at 03:55 PM
Late to the party
Am I, yet unsurprised
re: Jesurgislac
My first haiku! Yes, I know. It sucks.
Jesurgislac, I had no image of you at all. Hence my total lack of surprise. As for nationality, I'm mildly shocked that you're not Canadian.
Posted by: Slartibartfast | November 24, 2004 at 04:22 PM
Nieces, inlaws, dog,
Turkey stupor lies ahead
Comment threads must wait
Happy Thanksgiving to ObWi posters and commenters, and Moe too.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov | November 24, 2004 at 04:57 PM
and of course - im thankful that my 7th grade English teacher didnt fail me on the spot for that stunt.
Mine was dismayed to find that Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books were indeed written "pre-war".
Posted by: crionna | November 24, 2004 at 05:13 PM
Each year better, now
Hope for a better future
Can't we get along?
Posted by: Sebastian Holsclaw | November 24, 2004 at 05:36 PM
No talent with haiku, limerick or clerihew, so..
at Thanksgiving I'm glad to be at the top of the food chain.
Posted by: ej | November 24, 2004 at 06:19 PM
My friends, my two cats,
The best family ever,
And a job I love;
Fruit trees and orchids,
An acre of land to plant,
And deer and foxes:
A pipe exploded
Keeping me from driving to
Vermont, where all my
Family has come
Including the new unborn
niece or nephew, and
All no doubt eating
Pie, not thinking about pipes:
Still I'm grateful.
Posted by: hilzoy | November 24, 2004 at 08:06 PM
Hilzoy: liberal blogger, or syllable-counting automoton?
That was impressive, H. I still screwed up the number of syllables in my last line. Kudos. And I too have two cats.
My sympathies about the pipe and the unvisited family. Next year, eh?
Posted by: double-plus-ungood | November 24, 2004 at 11:00 PM
hilzoy,
Is it always fa-mi-ly and never fam-ly?
Also, do you have a 5th syllable in the very last line?
Posted by: liberal japonicus | November 24, 2004 at 11:24 PM
Yowza! Harold McGee's revision of his 1984 book _On food and Cooking_ has just been published. Check this NYT article out.
Posted by: liberal japonicus | November 24, 2004 at 11:28 PM
Sox win the Series
Losing streak is 86'd
During my lifetime
Posted by: EdSez | November 24, 2004 at 11:38 PM
1.
So brave, I think, that
Jesurgislac can admit
to being a Brit.
2.
Turkey Day, Japan.
Things don't quite fit together.
Let's call it Squid Day.
3.
Obsidian Wings!
I owe you this life lesson:
No drunken comments.
Happy barded turkey, light beer, chex mix, and football to all of you! (And happy bangers, Guinness, chips, and footie to Jesurgislac her nation of mysteriously pale island people.)
Posted by: nagoya ryan | November 25, 2004 at 01:06 AM
lj: to me, it's fa-mi-ly (unless I'm singing country music, in which case all bets are off.)Also po-tay-to and ih-rahk and nu-cle-ar :) And you're right about the last line. Oops.
d+u: See last comment. Clearly an automaton with a glitch.
Posted by: hilzoy | November 25, 2004 at 01:07 AM
Yowza! Harold McGee's revision of his 1984 book _On food and Cooking_ has just been published. Check this NYT article out.
What I'd give to watch Harold McGee duke it out with Alton Brown...
Posted by: Anarch | November 25, 2004 at 01:46 AM
Wish it were Duck Day,
but I am newly engaged,
and her tribe is nice.
Posted by: rilkefan | November 25, 2004 at 02:24 AM
My plumbing is fixed
And the rain has subsided
But I am still here
Not in Vermont, where
Relatives are phoning me,
Wondering why I
Don't try to fly in
Sometime late this evening, and
Rent a car, and drive.
(I miss them too.) But
I checked, and this will not work.
But one more blessing:
No web in Vermont
So no way to say: Congrats
To you, rilkefan!
Posted by: hilzoy | November 25, 2004 at 10:51 AM
Rilkefan! Congratulations!
Posted by: Edward | November 25, 2004 at 11:01 AM
Those who passed this year
The privilege of knowing them
A gift that endures
Posted by: Yermum | November 25, 2004 at 11:06 AM
Thanks for the congrats.
Dreamt last night that she and I
had a little girl
who as an infant
who likes (like her crazy dad)
to drink Tobasco.
To those south and east,
watch out for that weird snow stuff.
Best regards to all.
Posted by: rilkefan | November 25, 2004 at 12:20 PM
Thank you for the food.
Many riches in my life
Friends and family.
Posted by: Michal Peri | November 25, 2004 at 01:22 PM
dang - who as an infant/just loves (like ...). I give thanks this will never be seen by whoever assembles my collected poems...
Posted by: rilkefan | November 25, 2004 at 02:12 PM
Rilkefan, congratulations! Though I recommend keeping the tobasco out of reach ;-)
marjolein
Posted by: dutchmarbel | November 26, 2004 at 04:55 AM