On Thanksgiving, a few of my favorite things

Randi Kreiss

Robert Frost said that nothing gold can stay. This week, for the first time in 40 years of preparing the Thanksgiving meal, my husband and I will sit down at my son and daughter-in-law’s table, and not all of us will be there.

My daughter and her family are living thousands of miles away; their Thanksgiving will be in a different time zone, with a different family. We did an “early” Thanksgiving two weeks ago here at home, where we usually gather, but I can’t say it was the same. We missed the gestalt experience of Thanksgiving — the updates on impossible air traffic, the parade down a freezing Fifth Avenue, the feeling of communion with millions of Americans, celebrating the day together followed by football, leftovers and postprandial sleepiness.

Still, I count my blessings. We have one another, although separated by time and space. And we have — let me speak for myself — so much else for which to be thankful.

Let me begin with Glenn Beck. You heard me. He, Ann Coulter, Rush, O’Reilly and, of course, the woman from Wasilla strengthen one’s resolve to call out ignorance, racism and fear- mongering where we see it. One could become complacent or intellectually lazy without a target like Beck, who mines the basest instincts among his viewers. He would be a silly man, a clown, if not for the fact that the lies and distortions he spews are toxic and contagious. He’s the H1N1 of TV.

If not for him and his counterparts, we might still have Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but they couldn’t possibly be as brilliant and funny. They are the yin to Beck’s yang.

Moving on, I am so thankful for Google. I truly believe there isn’t anything you can’t learn, any problem you can’t solve, on Google. Last week, my grandson got hold of some Wite-Out and painted my beautiful cherry wood office furniture with the stuff. I Googled, “How to remove whiteout from wood furniture” and learned that I should use WD-40. Who would have thought of such a thing? Just brilliant.