Thanksgiving around the world

We had our Thanksgiving celebration a few days early, and I hope your family has as terrific a time as we did. After a classic dinner (the turkey was delicious despite some early issues with the cook-convection oven interface) with some always-festive Veuve Clicquot, we watched football. Because of the repeated complaints that the penalty-laden Dallas game was "awful" ("overpaid" and "incompetent" were other adjectives used), I suggested brightly that instead we should all watch "Pride and Prejudice" (the Colin Firth version). My motion was soundly denied; predictably, the vote was on strictly gender lines.

I was also introduced to The Young Relative's new favorite app, an especially cold-hearted one called Plague. In this gruesome game you create and name a plague ("Zombie"), define its symptoms (abscesses, pneumonia, anemia, paranoia are just a few of the choices), set its mutation and resistance levels, decide on a starting place and then let 'er rip. Day by day the infection rate mounts as planes and boats carry it from country to country. Relevant headlines pop up occasionally about nations that are investing in medical research ("Oh no! Indonesia is already working on a cure!") or less fortunate ones that have had to declare a public emergency ("YES! Cold resistance! I got to Greenland!").
"Who comes up with this stuff?!" exclaimed my mother in disbelief.
At one point, just as the virus had reached the UK, I received a text from my friend George, who lives on the south coast of England. "Tell him to stay indoors," cautioned my brother.
Despite the goriness, though, I have to say that it provides some pretty good lessons in geography, medicine, pharmacogenomics, and epidemiology. I certainly didn't know the words "zoonosis" and "bioaerosol" in the sixth grade.