My Blog Week: November 24 to November 30

A Word on the Week

Nostalgia Can’t Save Us

This week, Conan the hero dog got to meet the president.

To judge from video of the ceremony, Conan’s personal concern was the lack of head-pats, a few being absentmindedly provided by the vice president, other attendees ignoring her or his frequent invitations. The well-intendedness of the meeting, so far as it went, was sent weirdly askew by the pointless raising of controversy over Conan’s sex. Clever practitioners of political machinations obscure the truth; this group, if their madness has method, trivialize it. However, since the bungling looks organic, we’ll have to assume it’s a best effort. 

Leaders of states don’t have to participate in cute photo-ops with animals, of course, if their dignity or the harshness of the times forbids it.

The actual “pardon” of the Thanksgiving turkey is a Reagan-era inspiration; the table bird being formally presented to the president dates to the time of Harry Truman. Modern Americans have some issues with the colonial implications of Thanksgiving itself, with the way poultry is raised on factory farms, and with eating creatures at all, while the planet is failing. In simpler days, Americans of farming roots were used to raising “friend” animals, then serving them at dinner. But, if tradition has any power to make us all feel celebratory and united, the players have to perform their roles without cynicism, with decent respect for the audience, and with what looks on camera as a willingness to believe and wholeheartedly participate.

This year’s turkey event featured the surrealism of the first lady’s grim-faced distance (relaxed towards the end), the president behaving as though beauty pageant-esque soundbite appearances are the one thing about the office he relates to, while otherwise a mechanical man as to body-control and issuing of stock phrases.

The Empty Place Inside

Black Friday sales have surged online; shoppers abandoning the camp-outs, as the serious ones are drawn to Thanksgiving Day evening hours. Black Friday brick-and-mortar sales this year declined by a reported 6.2%. (Though I’ve always had a suspicion those legendary first-through-the-door customers were syndicating and buying in quantity for resale.)

Black Friday is reported now as a worldwide phenomenon, for better or worse.

Well, it would be nice if people still believed in presents. Where I come from, there’s a lot of fatalistic mumbling about how Christmas is only for kids. And then, the idea that someone’s going to buy you something and you’ll have to like it, not count it an unfair spending of your entitlement, always seems to lead to a lot of carping and grudge-holding. (Yes, me too…I’m a product of my environment, but I work to improve.)

Anyway, Readers, happy between-holiday marathoning…spend good money on food you could have made at home, buy someone a sweater, and put up lights!