HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

In retrospect, yesterday was fairly terrifying day. From dawn till long after dusk, the coming celebration was a major topic of conversation, and people happily divulged their plans. Many of which involved food and company.
I didn't have the heart to rain on their parade.

Every conversation and social exchange ended with the cheery wish that the other person should have a good holiday.

"Have a great thanksgiving!"

[Unstated and purely internal: "No thank you, I have no intention of doing that. It hasn't happened in many years, it's far too late to even think of it. During the holiday season I would rather be solitary and nocturnal, instead of having to hear about everybody else's wonderful lives."]

I am a Thanksgiving grinch.
Just not very cruel.

Their little faces would have totally crumpled up if I started sternly lecturing them on the tragedy of the day, the millions of dead Indians and syphilitic Africans worldwide as a direct result of all this imperialistic celebratory hoohah, how penguins are dying in Madagascar to make room for big useless American birds and starving war-refugees in the Middle-East saw their children's last precious toys taken from them while we were selfishly whooping it up. Will someone please think of the penguins!
Remember the great Thanksgiving day massacre?
You should; it shaped our modern world.
An entire nation suffered.
And wept.

Evil Americans!
You are heartless and bourgeois!


Nah, couldn't harangue them. Much as I wanted to. Thanksgiving is not my thing. In a different version of my life it could have been, but things haven't quite worked out that way. If I were a better person, and more energetically socialized, perhaps......

This morning my apartment mate spent from early dawn till just before lunchtime in the kitchen, inconveniencing everyone else in the apartment (that being me and the stuffed animals hiding out in my room) with complex preparations for a feast involving relatives elsewhere.

Over at one of her sibling's houses.

It is their thing.


Thanksgiving is only for people who are in relationships, or have kinfolk living nearby. Not something for bachelors in far-off places. It's a family event, not a stubborn old coot event. I do not consider myself aged or antique, but today I shall celebrate my adult cootness, if anything. Please do not inconvenience me with tales of wonderful times.
Or happy little children gaily chittering.
Those pies were so lovely!
And gravy!


Maybe it's like giddy insects devouring a cadaver.
Don't wanna know. Not my thing. Go away.
I'm not very social right now.


In a very short while I shall head into Chinatown for a pastry and a cup of hot milk-tea. After that I shall light up a pipe and try not to bother too many people with my smoking in public. There are alleyways which will be nearly empty, and some of the businesses will be closed early. I don't expect that there will be as many people around as usual -- Chinese are big on both eating and family stuff -- though down at the square the number of card-playing old folks will be scarcely any less.

At dusk I will return home. My apartment mate will be off celebrating with her kin, the house will be quiet. Vegetables with fatty pork over rice, hot sauce, a bit of an Indian pickle for excitement. Then a walk around the neighborhood with a pipe.

Many badgers are solitary and nocturnal, though not all of them.
Badgers and turkeys are not a very good match.
Nor are badgers and large groups.

We're just not socially inspired.


Have a great holiday, you all.
Try to keep it down.



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