Talkin' turkey

I hope you had as glorious a Thanksgiving as the Tally-hos did. Random reports:
1. A high-school pal who is on a round-the-world amble with his wife and teenage daughter celebrated the holiday in Istanbul. "We didn't plan on the Thanksgiving/Turkey connection, but it worked out well! We're having dinner with about 35 American travelers and expats this evening at Molly's Cafe. Should be fun. Today also marks six months on the road. Our travels have made us even more thankful for what we have (and take for granted) as Americans."
2. At a friend's dinner in North Wilmington, each of the 18 guests expressed something they were grateful for. One guy said he was glad he'd been born in North Carolina, and then proceeded to recite the state motto. 
3. A very cool young friend who was home from school (Temple) spotted me at the gas station the day after Thanksgiving and gave me a big hug and an update on his family: older brother in medical school in Philly, younger brother at Temple as well, sister a high-school freshman. How time flies!
4. Why did downtown Kennett smell like burnt toast the afternoon of "Black Friday"?
5. I texted my British friend George: "U guys need to start celebrating Thanksgiving!" The reply? "We will when you all see sense and join the British commonwealth. Then U can scrap the dollar and use pounds instead!"
6. Who knew that cranberry sauce was so controversial? Apparently there are purists who disdain the canned jellied stuff and will eat only the fresh, home-made, chunky variety. Hey, I'll eat either one.

Jean genies

I just got an e-mail offering free shipping on J Brand jeans.
It quickly went into the delete file. I NEVER pay shipping for my J Brand jeans: I get them at Chantilly Blue, the wonderful locally owned clothing shop at 120 West State Street in Kennett. They have the same or better prices than online, but the real difference is the amazing service. The women in there know their denim, and that's very important when you're spending a lot of money on "good" jeans (as opposed to work jeans from Tractor Supply; I have those, too).
The folks at Chantilly Blue know what fits, they know what's suited to your body and your life ("These would be perfect for dinner at the Half-Moon!"), they know what looks good. I truly love everything I've bought from them and I wear it all the time (right now, as a matter of fact).
And no shipping!

Good-bye, City Life!

For the next month, until it gets gift-wrapped and put under the Christmas tree, I have in my possession a simply amazing newspaper "for the week ending Saturday, July 11, 1863" (a date that should mean something to history buffs). In addition to the riveting dispatches from Gettysburg during that history-changing week, it contains all kinds of useful house and farm advice, including a recipe for ginger snaps that's a lot like mine, and a testimonial for Mercurial Ointment as a cure for bed-bugs: "Some plead expense. I say if too stingy to purchase one shilling's worth of what will not fail, if properly used, they ought to be tormented now and ever."
I especially liked this (perhaps just slightly idealized) view of country life:
"No employment or profession is more fitted to give strength, elasticity and power to the body; none more adapted to expand and furnish more varied and healthful nourishment to the intellect, and to refine and ennoble the affections, and to render men and women more true and just to themselves, to their fellow-beings, and to their God, than that of Agriculture or Farming. ...
Children born of parents who work in the open air as farmers and who, up to years of manhood or womanhood work on the land, as men and women, take precedence of all others in the great drama of human life simply because, as a general rule, they are more perfect, and of course more powerful, physically, intellectually, socially and morally . . .
Ignorance, coarseness, vulgarity and general debasement of nature and character belong less to farming than to any other occupation or profession by which men and women subsist."

Storm event

The "No Winter Maintenance" signs are up! Whoo-hoo!

What this means is that when we get big snow and ice storms, our township road guys have to make the paved roads their first priority before turning to the less-traveled gravel ones.
It occurred to me only belatedly that this yearly ritual would probably not produce joyous anticipation in many neighborhoods other than mine. And yes, you have my permission to remind me of this in a couple of months, when we're snowbound and I can't get out to the gym, the coffee shop or a lunch date!

A holy estate

This afternoon I took a break from errands to get a Skinny Peppermint Mocha and a blueberry muffin (irony? what irony?) at Starbucks and settled into one of the comfy chairs with the newspaper. I noticed that the cheerful-looking middle-aged man next to me was reading something on his iPad and was laughing quietly to himself, which I found charming.
As he was getting ready to go, he offered to throw away the little bag my muffin had come in.
"Thank you!" I said. "That is so kind!"
"I'm well trained," he said, stuffing my wrapper in his empty coffee cup. He raised his left hand and pointed to his wide gold wedding band with a beaming smile overflowing with pride and love: "17 years."

"Invasive vine of a tax measure"

Uh-oh, yet another angry unsigned missive about township politics has reached my desk, this one about the earned income tax that the West Marlborough supervisors are thinking about enacting so they can take over from the state the maintenance and policing responsibility for more of our roads.
"This is a BAD TAX," says the writer. "The misguided township managers want to tax the people's income for unnecessary intrusions on the township's character. Rt 82 is like the Blue Ridge Parkway just 2000 feet lower in elevation. Don't let greedy political foes invade your finances."
Yes, that's a verbatim quote. Yes, I too have a few questions for the writer.
However, he or she is not the only one out there expressing opposition to the proposed tax. I also received this comment from a reader:
"How can they even think about taking over more roads? I believe in local control, but... Just look at Rokeby Road. It has been closed, (yet open), since 2003. The road is falling into the Buck Run Creek. We also have roads with "No Winter Maintenance" done on them. Where does the current money for our roads go?
Why pursue an earned income tax? How about an amusement tax on all the equine events held in West Marlborough Township. Let all the outsiders who come into the township, for these events, pay for the current roads we have. No new taxes on the backs of property owners!!"

Just a shot (or two) away

Ads for flu shots and pneumonia shots are appearing all over the place, but it really never occurred to me to get them; after all, the last time I had flu or pneumonia was in the 1970s. But yesterday my doctor mentioned that statistically speaking, many of the same germs that the vaccines defend against can also cause sinus infections, those miserable, hard-to-eradicate ailments that make you utterly wretched and wreck your sense of taste and smell for weeks.
I was immediately sold. A few minutes later the nurse brought the needles in and jabbed one in each bicep. (I realized later it was the first shot I'd gotten in 20 years; the previous one involved a tetanus booster after a dog bite.)
So sure, my arms are feeling a tad bruised this morning, and (sadly) I've had to sidestep a few hugs, but it's much, much preferable to a sinus infection.
UPDATE: At the gym I informed my teacher about my sore arms, expecting to be excused from some of her more challenging upper-body exercises. Hah! I should've known better.
"Well," she said, eyes gleaming with delight, "if they're already sore, now's the perfect time to use these 10-lb weights instead of those lame 5-lb ones!"  

ChuckIt

This past Monday morning, a dreary one even by November standards, I drove over to a friend's farm to discuss the 2012 budget for the nonprofit whose board we serve on. I was carrying a file folder full of bound audits, spreadsheets and financial statements.
As always, a group of friendly dogs greeted me, and I picked up a tennis ball and tossed it to them a couple of times.
But then my hostess took down from a nail on the wall a sort of catapult called a ChuckIt. It's a slightly flexible blue plastic stick, about 18 inches long, with a claw at the end. You pick up the slimy, slobber-covered tennis ball with the claw, do a slight low backswing (she demonstrated) and then -- whammo! -- you launch the ball and watch it go soaring a phenomenal distance out over the field, with the dogs racing after it at perilous speed.
It's hilarious and exhilarating. A couple of my shots almost went into the lake and one nearly beaned a swan. We went inside in a happy frame of mind and got the budget hammered out in under two hours.
Perhaps the congressional super-committee should have tried playing ChuckIt out on the Mall before their ultimately unproductive meetings.
Check out the ChuckIt website for their products and lots of photos of dogs and humans at play.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that you have a joyous Thanksgiving with family and friends. Thanks for reading my column. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!

In other words

This coming Sunday is not only the first Sunday in Advent, it's also when an updated liturgy will be officially introduced into services at Roman Catholic churches.
Over lunch on Sunday, a member of St. Patrick's Church in Kennett told me that the changes to the Roman Missal reflect a more accurate translation of the original Latin.
"They're somewhat subtle," he said, "but they give a richness to the liturgy."
For instance, when the priest says, "The Lord be with you," instead of answering "And also with you," the congregation is now supposed to say, "And with your spirit."
And in the Nicene Creed, instead of "We believe in one god," it's now "I believe in one god"; instead of "seen and unseen," it's now "visible and invisible."
And he said "a really big word" is being added to the Nicene Creed: instead of "Begotten, not made, One in being with the Father," it's now "Begotten, not made, Consubstantial with the Father."

My friend said the congregation members are getting used to the changes, which have been gradually rolled out, although there are still occasional glitches even by those conducting the services.