Brilliant Post-Thanksgiving Idea

For the day after Thanksgiving, someone should sell leftovers!

If you are someone's guest at Thanksgiving dinner, and your hosts are not relatives, you are very likely to leave sans leftovers. This has happened to me on more than one bittersweet occasion. The solution, I realize now, is for someone to offer a meal for the day after, complete with turkey, gravy, potatoes and/or stuffing,and maybe some green bean casserole. Not the family-feeding production the supermarkets sell; you rarely eat as big a meal the day after a feast. Maybe a lunch size. But a little post-Thanksgiving turkey would really do the trick.

Random but interesting

-I wish I knew whether I should start speaking to my cat like an adult. She is 14 now; maybe she no longer appreciates the high excited voice I use to make conversation.

-Not flattering: Recently I had a revelation about myself. It's not reading books I am hooked on - it's reading book titles. I can rummage through hundreds of them at book sales, but when I get them home, I don't care whether or not I read them.

-Tattoos used to brand you as unusual and interesting. Now they just make you one of the pack. I guess if you want to identify as a chef or musician, they're required.

What's the opposite of infamy?

Today was somewhat monumental. I filled my tank, and for the first time in a year, my car didn't need more gas than I had cash. It's a good day!

Best line I've heard this week

It's from the sitcom, "The Middle," starring Patricia Heaton. Her rather dimwitted teenage son hits on his cute, smart history tutor, who responds quite negatively. After she's done telling him off, he says, "If you're trying to insult me, you'll have to use smaller words."

Yay!

Happy Halloween!

What a relief to be on the west coast and unaffected by the candy-collecting crimp caused by Hurricane Sandy.

I'm not proud of this, but I confess I keep enough candy on hand to feed trick-or-treaters any day of the year. If I answered my doorbell, that is.

Happy Halloween!

At least the candidates can speak

No matter who you're rooting for at the presidential debate, be glad there'll be no ninnies or numbnuts at the podium. Romney is definitely capable of putting together a cogent sententence. If he actually gets into specifics this time, he could generate some real momentum.

President Obama is a pretty skilled orator, at least with prepared speeches. But he did something really smart that I almost didn't notice. At first, I thought he was just being modest when, talking about their debating skills, Obama said Romney was very good and that he was just so-so.

Then it was pointed out to me what was really going on: The president was raising the bar by lowering expectations for himself and lifting them for his opponent.

Smart! Sly, but smart.

Question about the 4th Estate

It is a common complaint that media in general and reporters in particular tend to be biased to the left. Whether that comes through in their reporting or not, that has been my overall experience as well.

My question is, why?

Arguably, the people who cover the news are among the most informed among Americans, right? So how is it that the majority of those who do a lot of research, follow news stories the most closely, and actually talk to the people involved skew in one direction?

I don't have an answer, but it makes one think.