Thanksgiving, Holidays, and Telephones

Past Thanksgiving with Daughter Natasha and son-in-law Jason

Good Morning Folks!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there who recognize this holiday. I am not sure how this one became such a "heavy hitter" as far as holidays go. It is not a religious one per se, although folks who are of that ilk pray their thankfulness at the grand meal of the day. Another interesting fact about this day is that there were no turkeys as the main feasting item at the first of these meals. When did that bird get the dubious recognition of being the guest of honor? In fact, Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be the nations symbolic bird instead of the eagle. Abe Lincoln legally proclaimed this holiday into existence in 1863.

These days Thanksgiving is seen as the prelude to "Black Friday." This follows the gorging of our bodies with food with gorging ourselves with consumer goods under the guise of gift-giving for the next holiday, Christmas. Interestingly enough, this "getting ready for Christmas" use to follow Thanksgiving, hence, "Black Friday" as it has become known. But there is a big "but," that is, Christmas decorations, and even the music, has creeped in before Thanksgiving now. I went to Wal*Mart the day after Halloween and there were Christmas decorations being put up everywhere as well as carols being played on the speaker system throughout the store. When I queried a young man working there about it, he said, "Well it is the day after Halloween." Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Another one of my major curmudgeonly pet peeves that I have meant to discuss in this blog can be transitioned into from the previous discussion, telephones. Remember back (some of you) to those nostalgic times when phones were kind of special thing. You would make that long distance call to family and friends on holidays. I remember calling home from Alaska while stationed there in the Army in 1964. I had to go to a special telephone center where I paid $50 to speak for 10 minutes to my family in southern California. That $50 out of the 78 I was being paid a month at that time. It was a big deal back then.

Your phone was a device for communication and it resided in your home or office.

As with all things change is inevitable. Now we have phones everywhere and people talking on them in their cars, at the gym, in stores and just about everywhere you can think of . . . I am not opposed to the the new availability and modernization of the communication device.

However, I am opposed to where and how they are being used in many cases.

I do not care to listen to your conversations, even if you had anything to say of substance. Why do people on cell phones have to ruin innocent bystanders peace and quiet with their incessant chatter? Have you noticed that most folks on these mobile devices tend to talk louder than normal? I do not want to hear your boisterous telephonic voice while eating in a restaurant, or at the grocery store, or even in the gym. Actually, I do not want to have to listen to them anywhere.

Much like my recent discussion of the lack of courtesy in other areas of life this behavior can be added to the list.

There is another issue with these more mobile forms of communication and that is their dangerous use while driving. I know we all do it. Last year I had to take a driver's safety course. This followed an photo-electronically detected violation I incurred. One of the things I learned was how dangerous driving is while holding cell phone up to your ear. No, not the possible cancer from the radiation, but the use of one hand on the wheel and the lack of full attention to the road.

Many people are being killed and maimed as the result of this behavior. This may be a positive thing from the point of view of population control but I would hate for it to be one of my family or friends. I always use a "blue tooth" device to free up my hands while driving. For most people this is just an inconvenience.

So much for this blog's curmudgeonly rant.

As for films: I would say that this period leading up to the "holiday glut" has not been all that inspiring for me. Recently I went to see J. Edgar starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Naomi Watts and found the acting superb but the film itself rather boring and long. I do not think that I have seen any others since my last blog. Usually there are some movies that come out on Thanksgiving worth seeing but only the children oriented ones have come to Flagstaff. I have looked forward to seeing Descendants, which has had good reviews, but it was only released at one theater in Scottsdale. That was a major disappointment. At any rate, I may go see Hugo, a fantasy (not usually my thing but what can I do) directed by Martin Scorcese (Sp).

For now, I wish you all a safe and happy holiday!

Adios from chilly but not snowy Flagstaff.