DATELINE: DALLAS Where the Foliage Is As Vibrant As an LED Experiment, Texas (Nov. 26, PetPowellPress) -- I found a place online that says November 26 is National Shopping Reminder Day -- like anyone in North Texas would need to be reminded.
But it is the day before Thanksgiving and there are lots of people who are going to be sharing the holiday with their dogs and cats and kids and relatives and loved ones (loved ones and relatives not always being the same thing!)...
You’re probably leaving town or in a hurry as the holiday approaches. That is Inky, the Cocker Laureate of the State of Texas and our Readlarrypowell.com Staff Impersonator, giving us his impression of a grateful American rushing into the “Big Turkey Big Bucks Big Bill Lounge” at the AT&T Stadium on Thanksgiving Day and spotting a big steaming platter of Mom’s Ground Game Meatloaf with a side dish of First Place Potatoes and When You Beat Philadelphia It’s All Gravy. Dessert? Can’t eat another thing, but maybe some of that pecan pie and some ice cream on that pumpkin pie and ... Also thankful for my assorted doctors and their skillful doctoring!
I’ll just mention a few of the favorite things that Inky and I love to do.
Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade -- My pal Andy Fisher the Wordsmith of New Jersey says the folks up there who have been around a while refer to it as the Macy’s Day Parade. I once wrote a novel about a guy who’s goal in life was to get to New York and hold a rope on one of the big balloons. He made it. The journey was the key part of the story. It may have been a novel before its time, after its time or a novel for whom a time would never come. Been so long since I re-read it or tried to re-edit it that that statute of limitations for bad literature may have expired.
Eat cranberry sauce -- not the kind with the berries, but the kind that you slice and it lays on your plate in a big round hoop. I find the cranberry to be an interesting fruit. Anyone else remember the “Great Cranberry Scare of ’59”? I wrote a column about it for the big paper downtown about 20 years ago, maybe. I’d been reminded of the “Scare” by my afternoon coffee break buddy Joe Simnacher, whose byline remains familiar to big paper readers. He pinpointed it and recalled the terror of the bad cranberry. To see an entertaining youtube report on the Cranberry Scare, click HERE. You can learn the song and entertaining your relatives who won’t leave by performing “The Cranberry Blues.”
Watch football -- Inky loves the pro game -- big fan of linebackers who spot the ball on the ground and go after it nose-first. He calls them the “Spaniels of the Gridiron.” This Thanksgiving there will be the Dallas Cowboys/Philadelphia Eagles game, but also there will be the Texas Longhorns/TCU Horned Frogs game which makes a real fan of tradition wince because the tradition is that Texas and Texas A&M should be playing on Thanksgiving, just as God intended even if He is a fan of Baylor. That’s what I heard from my friends who believe that good ol’ Baylor line.
Finally, the thing Inky and I and our favorite funspouse Martha and assorted free dogs and cats do on Thanksgiving is wish all of you animal lovers and people who ought to be animal lovers and people who will be animal lovers a Happy Thanksgiving.
Remember, you can work off your calories by being an active companion for a new dog or cat or a used dog or cat or any animal that thinks a human’s movement is interesting. They’ll get up and follow you around, whispering to other dogs or cats, “Do you believe this guy?” or “Wow, she is really sincere about this Pilates thing!”
Yes, they are companions. Pick a shelter, find a companion.
And have a Happy Thanksgiving.
I’ll start you list of things for which to be grateful, not in any particular order: Cornbread, biscuits, Cary Grant movies, good Texas Rangers pitching, ice cream of nearly any flavor except BlueBelle’s chocolate malt variety which surprises you with a frozen malted milk ball that chews like a musket ball;
Tacos; rellenos; shredded lettuce; basil; Basil Fawlty; my friend Poh who hates beets and loves comedy; my kids, my grandkids, the fun and zany daughter-in-law Erinn; Mom and her new porch ramp; animal rescuers;
Animal shelters with enlightened attitudes about saving the animals -- Irving, Carrollton, The Colony, Fort Worth, rebounding Garland, Dallas Animal Services; the great spay/neuter organization out at the lake Friends of the Animals at Cedar Creek Lake; the individuals who send me tips on animals stories and you all know who you are on that long, long list of resolute rescuers!
Cellphones; cameras on cellphones; technology that lets me watch almost any movie at any time so that we don’t have to wait for years for it to show up butchered on TV;
Vegetarianism, which has given me a happier life because no critter has to die so I can have indigestion and put on 10 pounds on a single Thursday in November.
Make your own list. I’ll think of more stuff -- I’ve got an unending list of things for which to be thankful. Readers, especially.
Thank ALL of you who visit Readlarrypowell.com. You help animals by reading their stories, by forwarding their stories or telling other people about their stories. Eventually we’ll fix it so that no critter has to worry about the ticking clock.
Feel free to click below and add things for which we all ought to be thankful.
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