From the History channel web page:
The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes from Edward Winslow from A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1621:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
A Modern American Thanksgiving
Scott Simon writes a heartwarming essay for the Wall Street Journal, "How to Say Thanksgiving in Mandarin"
A snippet:
When my parents—a Jewish man and an Irish woman—married in the 1950s, they were warned, as transracial adoption families often are, that their children would face bigotry and hostility. But today, our 6-year-old niece Juliette, a California blond, slips her arm around the shoulders of our daughters and says, "We're cousins for life, right?"
Our Chinese children sit at the Passover table and scrounge for Easter eggs. They wear "South Side Irish" green scarves around their necks on St. Patrick's Day. It's all in the family.
My wife came home one day from our daughters' Chinese culture class to announce there would be no class next week. "Because of the Jewish holidays," she explained, straight-faced. Only in America. Our girls speak French, like their mother. My wife and I join our girls to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in Mandarin. We've learned that families mixed by marriage or adoption don't shrink or starve a heritage. They nourish it with newcomers.
A snippet:
When my parents—a Jewish man and an Irish woman—married in the 1950s, they were warned, as transracial adoption families often are, that their children would face bigotry and hostility. But today, our 6-year-old niece Juliette, a California blond, slips her arm around the shoulders of our daughters and says, "We're cousins for life, right?"
Our Chinese children sit at the Passover table and scrounge for Easter eggs. They wear "South Side Irish" green scarves around their necks on St. Patrick's Day. It's all in the family.
My wife came home one day from our daughters' Chinese culture class to announce there would be no class next week. "Because of the Jewish holidays," she explained, straight-faced. Only in America. Our girls speak French, like their mother. My wife and I join our girls to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in Mandarin. We've learned that families mixed by marriage or adoption don't shrink or starve a heritage. They nourish it with newcomers.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Save the Medieval Warm Period
Jonathan Overpeck and scientists of his ilk are embarrassed by that medieval warm period, because it undercuts the preferred (and, for Al Gore and his Church of Warmery, lucrative) narrative about how industrialization is to blame for fluctuations in planetary temperature.
But the cat's out of the bag, the damaging emails are making their rounds, and the polar bears are using ice floes as diving platforms. As James Taranto and others have said, "what's this about 'settled science'?"
UPDATE: James Taranto has more.
But the cat's out of the bag, the damaging emails are making their rounds, and the polar bears are using ice floes as diving platforms. As James Taranto and others have said, "what's this about 'settled science'?"
UPDATE: James Taranto has more.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Russ with the book review
Fair and balanced.
Russ doesn't write for the Washington Post, the New York Times, or any wire service. But that's a point in his favor. Remember the old slogan about how we should "question authority"?
Russ doesn't write for the Washington Post, the New York Times, or any wire service. But that's a point in his favor. Remember the old slogan about how we should "question authority"?
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Electric guitar, Hammond B-3 organ, and depression
It's a great Hank Williams song. My favorite version is by the Notting Hillbillies, but that's because Mark Knopfler was in the Notting Hillbillies. He plays here with Tom Jones on the vocal, and that pairing works wonderfully, too.
Papist snake handling Jeebus phreak?
Oh, she makes me laugh. I take that description as a badge of honor.
As for "knee deep in guilt by association" -- it's a fair point.
As for "knee deep in guilt by association" -- it's a fair point.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Defending logic and improving word choice
Hey, Andrew Sullivan: Even if your dubious premise about the value of sniping at Sarah Palin's memoir is correct, it would be a "civic responsibility," not a "civil responsibility." You and your flunkies aren't the least bit "civil" when declaiming (17 times in one day!) about all things Palin. And you'd best avoid getting into a war of words with people who can craft sparkling throwaway phrases like "This isn't a Freudian slip-- this is the whole damn Freudian marina." Duck the haymaker from Ace, and you'd still have to face Cassandra and Dan, both of them also black belts in wordsmithery.
Geoffrey Dunn: Your essay on "The First Ten Lies from Going Rogue" says Palin is lying about having lived "an American life" because she's spent most of her time in Alaska (!) So because another writer once observed that there are many unique things about the 49th state, suddenly people who live there are not American? Just what have you been smoking?
Dunn, again: You say Palin "lies" by describing John McCain's staffers as having had "a jaded aura." That's an entirely defensible opinion, not a lie. If they "bent over backwards to protect her" (as you say but Palin does not), it has no bearing on whether they were jaded. They might well have been jaded, working as they were for an irascible senator who often sounds jaded himself (anybody remember the McCain-Feingold bill or the way McCain was flummoxed by economic implosion?).
Maureen Dowd: "Bass-ackwards" is not "a Palin coinage;" it's just an expression you haven't heard before. And I don't believe you ever worried that Palin's book would make you feel even a smidgen less American. Guess what? Her book is not about you.
Matt Maher: I know you mean to inspire by writing Christian "praise music," but in spite of what you sing in "Love Has Come," God is not going to lead us beyond "earthen" tears, because we're not ceramics. The word you wanted was "earthly."
President Obama: The way you switch from "I" in positive usage to "We" in negative usage has drawn notice.
Geoffrey Dunn: Your essay on "The First Ten Lies from Going Rogue" says Palin is lying about having lived "an American life" because she's spent most of her time in Alaska (!) So because another writer once observed that there are many unique things about the 49th state, suddenly people who live there are not American? Just what have you been smoking?
Dunn, again: You say Palin "lies" by describing John McCain's staffers as having had "a jaded aura." That's an entirely defensible opinion, not a lie. If they "bent over backwards to protect her" (as you say but Palin does not), it has no bearing on whether they were jaded. They might well have been jaded, working as they were for an irascible senator who often sounds jaded himself (anybody remember the McCain-Feingold bill or the way McCain was flummoxed by economic implosion?).
Maureen Dowd: "Bass-ackwards" is not "a Palin coinage;" it's just an expression you haven't heard before. And I don't believe you ever worried that Palin's book would make you feel even a smidgen less American. Guess what? Her book is not about you.
Matt Maher: I know you mean to inspire by writing Christian "praise music," but in spite of what you sing in "Love Has Come," God is not going to lead us beyond "earthen" tears, because we're not ceramics. The word you wanted was "earthly."
President Obama: The way you switch from "I" in positive usage to "We" in negative usage has drawn notice.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
They're asking questions, too
James Pethokoukis at Reuters looks at the economic questions that the Chinese are asking President Obama while he travels there:
"[Chinese] Government officials are using his Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions. Detailed questions.
Boilerplate assurances that America won’t default on its debt or inflate the shortfall away are apparently not cutting it. Nor should they, when one owns nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the currency of a country about to double its national debt over the next decade.
Nothing happening in Washington today should give Beijing any comfort or confidence about what may happen tomorrow. Healthcare reform was originally promoted as a way to “bend the curve” on escalating entitlement costs, the major part of which is financing Medicare and Medicaid. That is looking more and more like an overpromised deliverable.
For instance, a new study from the U.S. government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finds that the healthcare reform bill recently passed in the House of Representatives would increase healthcare spending to 21.3 percent of GDP by 2019 compared with 20.8 percent under current law."
Darleen Click and some other bloggers have economic context for this. The specter of fraud looms ever larger.
If you like the musical "Big River" and you're thinking Huck Finn's no-account "Pap" had a point in that song about the "Dadgum gub'mint (you sorry so-and-sos!)," then you're thinkin' what I'm thinkin'.
"[Chinese] Government officials are using his Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions. Detailed questions.
Boilerplate assurances that America won’t default on its debt or inflate the shortfall away are apparently not cutting it. Nor should they, when one owns nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the currency of a country about to double its national debt over the next decade.
Nothing happening in Washington today should give Beijing any comfort or confidence about what may happen tomorrow. Healthcare reform was originally promoted as a way to “bend the curve” on escalating entitlement costs, the major part of which is financing Medicare and Medicaid. That is looking more and more like an overpromised deliverable.
For instance, a new study from the U.S. government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finds that the healthcare reform bill recently passed in the House of Representatives would increase healthcare spending to 21.3 percent of GDP by 2019 compared with 20.8 percent under current law."
Darleen Click and some other bloggers have economic context for this. The specter of fraud looms ever larger.
If you like the musical "Big River" and you're thinking Huck Finn's no-account "Pap" had a point in that song about the "Dadgum gub'mint (you sorry so-and-sos!)," then you're thinkin' what I'm thinkin'.
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